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[Guide] How to: Insulate your Motherboard

29K views 39 replies 17 participants last post by  yomama9388 
#1 ·
So you have decided to go subzero, good for you. The most important thing to having a successful subzero run is to insulate your gear properly.

Well to begin you will need a roll of Frostking (silver roll), shop towels, your cooling of choice (phase, ln2 pot etc.), neoprene sheets, and some armaflex for your pot. In the picture I have some conformal coating, it is optional but I have never needed it on a bench run.



Next, you need to take your motherboard, take off all cpu cooling and clean the processor.



After you have cleaned the cpu, you need to insulate the back of the motherboard. I like to make a little piece for the back using two pieces of frostking stuck together. Then I put my neoprene backplate on above the frostking.





After that I put the pot's backplate on the board, holding the insulation to the back of the board.





After I have my backplate on I start insulating the socket area with Frostking. I usually like to use two layers of Frostking and then a neoprene gasket on top. The frostking should turn out something like this:



Then apply the neoprene gasket which should look something like this:





If you are benching with lots of humidity, then I recommend applying shop towels to your socket area to stop any condensation that forms.



Now that you have your motherboard insulated, it's time to apply your cooling of choice. For thermal paste use Arctic Ceranique or another WHITE thermal paste. Other thermal pastes will freeze.



And my cooling of choice,



For the pot insulation I use armaflex pipe insulation



After putting the pot on the board with the bottom piece of insulation tightly secure the pot.



Then you can put on the top piece of insulation to finish!



After that just put your system back together and get ready to bench




Hope this helps some people give subzero a try, I have never killed anything due to condensation using this insulation method. Any tips on improving this guide is much appreciated.
 
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#3 ·
Doubt many people will ever go subzero on this forum... but excellent job nonetheless. Be sure to add that dielectric grease or vaseline should be used in the socket for a more permanent setup (phase change). I also like to coat the top and bottom of my motherboard with nail polish.
 
#5 ·
I have always wondered how much prep actually goes into this, so I thank you for the guide. +


I was also wondering what the run down of the price for all the equipment is? I need something new to play around with
Water-Cooling is so passe lol
 
#6 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by mega_option101 View Post
I have always wondered how much prep actually goes into this, so I thank you for the guide. +


I was also wondering what the run down of the price for all the equipment is? I need something new to play around with
Water-Cooling is so passe lol
Hmm, well pricing really varies a lot. For all of the insulation I have, I spent around $50 although a lot of it is used for insulating other things. For pot prices, it really depends on what you are looking for. A good aluminum pot can be had for around $100 and a copper pot will cost a lot more than that.

You should definitely give it a shot though, dice is really fun and isn't to expensive.
 
#7 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by yomama9388 View Post
Hmm, well pricing really varies a lot. For all of the insulation I have, I spent around $50 although a lot of it is used for insulating other things. For pot prices, it really depends on what you are looking for. A good aluminum pot can be had for around $100 and a copper pot will cost a lot more than that.

You should definitely give it a shot though, dice is really fun and isn't to expensive.
I'll definitely have to give it a shot
Now if only I wasn't broke due to University
Looks like I'll be starving myself to save up for this
Now I just need to make myself a tech bench
 
#9 ·
Yeah for phase just remember to use dielectric grease in the socket and perhaps conformal coating on the board depending on how humid it is where you are.
 
#11 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Arter View Post
Great guide thinking of going DICE soon and this really helped out on how to insulate the board.
Glad I could help
I'll probably be updating this sometime soon with some new tips on insulating
 
#13 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by mega_option101 View Post
Once I get some money I will be buying myself an alu/copper pot


Need to save up for ~165USD
Great! I'm guessing a Duniek pot?
 
#15 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by mega_option101 View Post
You got it

You will be very happy with that pot, he makes great products. Includes lots of nice goodies with it too
 
#16 ·
Nice proofing guide.
 
#17 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by ira-k View Post
Nice proofing guide.

Thanks
once I get the single stage back I will probably be updating this guide, it needs some work.
 
#18 ·
Jesus, i am to scared i'll screw something up. You, sir, have nads.
 
#19 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by yomama9388 View Post
Thanks
once I get the single stage back I will probably be updating this guide, it needs some work.
Its fine for DI but for 24/7 its needs a little more.
.TEC's are the worst for condensation, the temp's are just up and down all the time. I'll idle at -20C or so and load at 6-8C.
 
#20 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by ira-k View Post
Its fine for DI but for 24/7 its needs a little more.
.TEC's are the worst for condensation, the temp's are just up and down all the time. I'll idle at -20C or so and load at 6-8C.
Yup, thats exactly what I intend to fix. I'll update it with how I've done my 24/7 insulation, muuuuch better job than that quick insulation job I did for this guide.
 
#21 ·
Sounds like a plan, yeah 24/7 is a whole different game. I over kill on mine, I try not to, but I kind of like doing it..
 
#23 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by yomama9388 View Post
Well now that this thread is stickied I'll be updating it when I get my phase back, should be pretty soon.


Sounds Great!! I thought that I might as well sticky this one and make the gallery thread official at the same time.
 
#25 ·
I got my shop towels and Frostking at homedepot but here's a link to Frostking online.

You can substitute shop towels for paper towels (not as good) or you can insulate with kneaded eraser instead.
 
#26 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by yomama9388 View Post
I got my shop towels and Frostking at homedepot but here's a link to Frostking online.

You can substitute shop towels for paper towels (not as good) or you can insulate with kneaded eraser instead.
Thanks yomama; ill look at homedepot to see if I can just get it locally...
 
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