Here's what I'm looking to do. I picked up some months back, a ThermalTake Tower 112cu CPU heatsink. This thing is a beast, solid copper, probably weighs in at close to 1Kg. My two questions are as follows: 1. I am planning to modify the mounting of the HS, rather than allowing the MB to support the full weight, I want to use longer bolts, and some spacers, to transfer the load to the motherboard tray. I am intending to drill holes for the bolts to pass through, and use one "H" bracket behind the motherboard tray, one behind the MB itself, and the final one is for holding the HS down. Below is a rough sketch of what I have in mind: The springs and thunb-nuts are part of a waterblock mounting kit, the springs are relatively heavy (1mm diameter metal), and should do well to keep the HS down firmly on the CPU die. Bear in mind, my case is a tower case, and does occasionally travel to LAN parties in my car. I generally put it down on its side on the back seat, so during long-distance travel, the HS would be pushing down on the motherboard, rather than sticking out horizontally from the MB (which is where it will be during normal operation) 2. Thermaltake doesn't say, and I am concerned I may not get sufficient cooling from this for a Core2 Duo CPU. They do state it should be OK to use up to a P4 478 3.6GHz, and socket 775, and IIRC, the P4 478 was quite the toaster, significantly hotter than my lowly Core2 Duo. Should it be OK? Why am I asking this? Mainly because I don't want to go to the hassle of pulling everything out of my case, drilling holes, and mounting this brute, only to find it cools worse than the stock cooler, or have it rip free and smash my video card....
I can not comment on the cooling abillities, but I dont see why it should not work from a mechanical perspective. This design would lessen the force bending the MB outwards, wich I presume is your goal. A slight modification would also lessen the force on the MB in the vertical direction. My suggestion: how about shortening the nylon spacers and putting a nut between the spacers and the MB tray. Screwing the nuts tight would make the screws less prone to tilt downwards should the weight of the cooler, and any vibration caused while transporting the computer, cause the cooler to (try to) slide downwards. Whipped upp a simple illustration of what I mean.. I noticed that I left out the nylon spacers and the H plate behind the MB tray, but I think the idea is clear enough anyway <=) (the red horizontal line is there to better show the displacement of the cooler): Depending on how thick the screw is and how big the holes in the MB and the H/mounting plates, the screws might not touch the edge of the holes in the MB should the cooler slide down a bit. But, why not try to minimize the risk anyway, especially when it's so easy and cheap (4x nuts)? =) That was my $0.02, use it or trash it. =)
Nope, Like the idea, and it makes sense. Might also make it some easier to get the MB back in the case, as I won't have to worry about the bolts slipping back out, and sending the behind the MB parts skittering through the case...
cool =) True, didn't think about that. ^_^ [edit] Hmm, now that I think about it there might be a problem with this... in my experience I usually have to tilt the MB some to get it into the rear connectors plate properly.. and long screws sticking out too far might be in the way. Possible sollution: when mounting the MB, you might want to place the computer on it's MB-side (MB component side up) on two a piles of books or something (so it's raised from the table/floor) and then only have the screws in far enough to screw on the nuts and put the nylon spacers on and then having like 1-2mm of the screw sticking up above the nylon spacers. Doing it like this should help with keeping the nylon spacers in place good enough while mounting the MB. =) [/edit] [edit2] Hmm.. you could perhaps glue the nylon spacers to the nuts. That way they dont go nowhere. Alternatively, you could make your own nylon spacers that fith tighly arround the screws and thus dont fall off easily. [/edit2]
Yeah, was thinking about simply boring the end of the spacer out a bit, so they would fit over the nuts. As for tilting the board to get it in, I was thinking of possibly taking the back plate off, where the I/O ports are, and putting it in with the MB, as typically, that's where the need to tilt the board shows up in the first place....
