Cooling Danger Den Maze4-1 GPU Tec Kit Guide

Part 1


This is basically a walk through for fitting a Danger Den Maze4 – 1 Tec Block Kit but with a bit of common sense could be adapted in most instances where the Neoprene foam is to be cut free hand for most other GPU tec blocks.

OK, lets first take a look at what’s included in a Danger Den Maze4 – 1 Tec Block Kit and get together one or two other items that will be needed for the installation.

Included in the Maze4 –1 Tec Block kit are:-
1x Maze4 –1 Tec GPU block and copper cold base plate
1x 80watt Potted Pelt
1x GPU Hold Down Kit & Allen Key
1x Pre-cut 1/8” thick Neoprene Foam Gasket
1x Pre-cut 3/8” thick Neoprene Foam Gasket
1x Sachet of Dielectric Silicon Grease
1x Lucite Hold Down Brace



Other items that will be required are:-
Thermal compound (I’ll be using Artic Silver 5 and Artic Silver Ceramique)
Sharp scissors or craft knife
Male or female Molex connector and a couple of pins for connecting the pelt up.
…..ohh a steady hand and a little bit of patience is always good.

As you can see I will be using a Hercules 9800XT and a custom polished Maze4 –1 block.
Firstly start off by carefully dismantling the stock card cooler and heat sink from the reverse side of the card (so there’s the Warranty gone eeeek) and place it on the bench, core side facing up.



Take the thinner 1/8” thick Neoprene foam gasket but don’t peel of the protective backing paper just yet as you’ll need to do a bit of trimming to it first, and lay it sticky side down on the card over the GPU core.



You will probably find, depending on which GFX card you are using that resistors etc will be stopping the gasket making good contact with the pcb board so a bit of trimming is needed here using either a craft knife or scissors.
Take your time here and try to get a good neat fit and once your satisfied with your handy work and the gasket is able to lie on the card making good contact you can peel of the protective backing paper and stick it firmly to the card pushing down firmly to remove any air pockets from under the foam.



It’s now time to assemble the GPU block itself and mount the pelt in between the block and cold plate.
Start by undoing the 4 Allen bolts that are holding the cold plate to the base of GPU and remove the cold plate all together.



Its now very important you find out which side of the pelt is hot and which is cold and to do this you will need to hold the pelt between your finger and thumb while touching the red wire and the black wire to 12v power for a split second.
While holding the black wire of the pelt to a black line on a powered Molex connector, literally brush the red wire of the pelt against the yellow line on the Molex connector. This will be enough to determine which side of the pelt heats up and which side gets cold. Once you have determined this mark either an H on the hot side or C on the cold side with a pencil for future reference.

I found it easier to jam the Black wire into the Black line on the Molex connector with a match stick leaving 2 hands free to literally brush the Red pelt wire against the Yellow line on the live Molex a couple of times.....this will be enough to establish which side is heating up and which is getting cold!





Note: only brush the red wire against the yellow powered Molex line for a split second as permanent damage could be done to the pelt if this is done for prolonged period without adequate cooling

Now lay your GPU block on its back and apply a thin layer of Artic Silver 5 to the hot side of the pelt.....



......and a thin layer of Artic Silver Ceramique to the cold side and lay the pelt onto the GPU block so the hot side of the pelt is in contact with the GPU block and the cold side of the pelt is facing up, making sure to have the red and black wires of the pelt are oriented for the easiest hook up to power later.



You can now lay the copper cold plate on top sandwiching the pelt in between the block and cold plate and tighten down with the 4 Allen bolts in a diagonal/corner to corner motion, not too tight but sufficient to hold the pelt firmly in place and you can also screw in the 2 threaded posts from the hold down kit into the appropriate mounting holes for your type of card on the GPU block.


Follow on to Part 2 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

Part 2

Part 2

I took this opportunity to cable braid the red and black pelt wires, which isn’t necessarily essential, and also to add a male Molex connector for hooking the GPU block to the PSU once the card is installed into you system.



OK, you may wish to add a thin layer of Arctic Silver to the GPU core at this point.........



..... followed by packing around the core with Dielectric Grease taking care to fill all other holes around the edge of the GPU core shim and any other holes or cutting mistakes in the Neoprene gasket that may not be in use.




Now you need to take the thicker 3/8” neoprene gasket and match it up to the first and trim down accordingly for protruding resistors etc similar as you did with the first gasket.

Another tip is to cut 2 grooves into the neoprene with your craft knife for the wires from the pelt to lie in which can also be packed with a little splodge of Dielectric Grease.



Once your happy you can peel off the protective backing paper and stick it on top of the thinner gasket making sure to press down firmly again getting rid off all air pockets.

When your satisfied the thicker layer is stuck firmly on top of the thinner layer you can smear a liberal amount of Dielectric Grease to the inner edge of the pre-cut hole and offer up the GPU Block so that it is sitting on top of the GPU core correctly and then pack up any gaps between the gasket and the cold plate with more liberal amounts of grease so no air is able to come into contact with the copper cold plate or pelt.



At this point installation may now differ from card to card so if you don’t plan on using any heat sink on the reverse of the card you can flip the card over and stick the last piece of 3/8” pre-cut Neoprene onto the back of the GPU core so basically both sides of the card are completely covered and sealed.



Another good safe practice is to run a bead of Dielectric Grease around the entire outer edge of the Neoprene Gasket with your finger where it meets up with the PCB board on both front and back sides of the card.

Your now ready to start adding the rest of the mounting hardware and hold down device to the 2 threaded posts sticking through the card from the GPU block .

First slide on 1 of the T shaped nylon washers followed by a spring followed by another T washer and repeat on the other threaded post.



Now you can slide on the Lucite brace followed by a normal nylon washer on each post and finally the brass thumb screws and tighten down equally so that the block is firmly secure but not over tight.



So there you go.................your Danger Den Maze4-1 Tec block should now look something like this and ready to plumb up to your system and plug in to you PSU, after which you will need to monitor very closely for any signs of moister that could build up as the block goes below ambient temperature





Enjoy and good luck for a trouble free installation!

 

Very nice guide, how much are these going for? Can't seem to find them on your site oa am i being blind. Also what temps are you getting?

'doc

 

just a quick recommendation.

I don't know what the Maze 4 GPU TEC kit is rated at, but I would personally use Ceramique over AS5 on the GPU core. Certainly when phase changing, AS5 turns to concrete (pretty much), and I've seen many a person actually remove their evap head with the CPU attached to the bottom, even allowing for the warming up period of around 1-2Hrs of the machine turned off.

Some great pictures and a nice guide

edit: out of interest, what camera do you have?

 

Cheers for that bigZ - i did speak to Danger Den before fitting and they did suggest using AS 5 on the core but i'll let you know if i run into any problems with it.

believe it or not the Camera is a Canon Digital IXUS i on a 6 inch tripod.

The whole thing is tiny (way smaller than a pack of cigs) but its macro function is fantastic and cheap also

 

Sorry for the OTness:

that's a pretty nice lil camera. Do you have a studio of some sort set up for taking pictures? (extra lighting etc?). For such a small camera, you're getting some very effective shots. They always say that a picture is only as good as it's taker, no matter how good the camera is - I'm still learning to use my P&S macro lens

 

?????


'doc

 

£59.99 it would appear
http://www.coolercases.co.uk/water_blocks_dangerden.htm

edit: really nice guide - that block looks excellent.....

you really ought to sell those shiney blocks

 

cheers Paul.........was just about to post!

Still dont have any firm temps as i'm still looking for the best software to measure them............can anyone suggest one that gives pretty acurate readings???

Everything seems to be working fine though i doubt if i'll be leaving it on all night and i might end up linking a switch into it so I can switch on/off when needed!

 

thanks im an uber tard! I didn't scroll down, i clicked on the link then and was a bit confused...then i scrolled, im prob gonna be adding W/C to my NB and GFX next month so i may be looking at this

'doc

 

Sorry for the bump

Just thought it was worth mentioning the whole guide is now in a printable .pdf format which makes it a lot easier to follow

and you can get it here Maze4-1 GPU Tec Guide which only weighs in at 284kb

 

You old glory hound you well done.

 

lol.......bright lights big city

Cheers Conrad