big heavy heatsink...leaning

[Zenobia]

Many of the after market heatsinks are huge and heavy, and after being attached to the motherboard and the computer placed upright, the heatsink will always being leaning, putting lots of pressure on the motherboard. Is this ever a concern, even with many heatsinks bolted on to the motherboard? I'd almost rather have my computer on its side and the heatsink upright, just to sleep better... (not that i sleep in front of my computer...) Thanks!

Moved to Cases & Cooling

n7
Memory/Storage Mod

 

[Rifter]

I have also considered this, I wish there was a Good mid size case that sat on its side and would take a full ATX mobo and big vid card, if there is lemme know

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: Rifterut
I wish there was a Good mid size case that sat on its side and would take a full ATX mobo and big vid card, if there is lemme know

Are you talking about an ATX Desktop style case?

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: Rifterut
I have also considered this, I wish there was a Good mid size case that sat on its side and would take a full ATX mobo and big vid card, if there is lemme know

Look for ATX desktop cases as blain pointed out, or set your current case on its side

 

[Rifter]

I dont think my Antec 300 would cool as well on its side but i am going to look into desktop cased for my next build.

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: Rifterut
I dont think my Antec 300 would cool as well on its side but i am going to look into desktop cased for my next build.

I don't think it'd really make a difference. I ran my 300 on the side for a day to check out if the cpu temps changed (from the HS applying pressure more equally) and didn't notice any temp change

 

[Zenobia]

The Antec 300 is what I'm planning on, with a regular size Gigabyte board (12" x 9.5"). I didn't think they made desktop case anymore. That was my first one, 50 years ago.

 

[PCTC2]

I've had a Thermalright Ultra 120 w/ 2 fans on my motherboard for 2 years now and no problems, and I even took a risk and shipped it with it on, and I was lucky. But it's been in a tower case.

 

[WoodButcher]

Support it! a small bit of tie wire or zip tie from the top of the sink to the chassis.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

i've had a tuniq tower putting pressure on my mb for a long time, it never went lose, or bent my mb to a point where it broke. the MB backplates do a great job in evening out the pressure from the weight.

 

[Zenobia]

I like the wire support idea, not hard to do, then I can sleep well in front of my computer, the fans hummm softly, life is good........
thanks woodbutcher, everybody!

 

[TidusZ]

Gigabyte started putting more copper into their pcbs, making it sturdier and whatnot (and supposedly increasing overclocking potential). I imagine it will catch on. I have a feeling that you and your computer are gonna be just fine though.

 

[Zenobia]

Thanks, I'm gonna use a bungee cord.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

useless imo. if your temps are fine and you're correctly mounted the heatsink with the supplied backplate, there is enough support for the heaviest of heatsinks. including the true and tuniq.

 

[WoodButcher]

Your welcome, don't use elastic though, It will dry, stretch and break.
@ Louissss, I don't recall where but in one of Intel's published "white pages" I read a weight limit for the heatsinks and the tower sinks are way over, I've had boards warp over time and I'll bet that ain't good,,,, I know for a fact that I feel better with a zip tie on the TRUE in my son's PC.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

i'm not sure of the weight difference but i've had a tuniq of a gigabyte mb for over a year and there wasn't any problems that way. i've also seen many MANY TRUE's +1 fan, +2 fans without any type of bungee cords or additional strings attached to it to assist it in mounting. They all worked well in cooling the cpus

 

[WoodButcher]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
They all worked well in cooling the cpus

Yes, agreed, work they will but the heating / cooling cycles (expansion /contraction) will cause wear and tear on the traces and contacts. Most PC for enthusiasts are upgraded before their life is over but those that keep their machines may find problems not to mention the folks that move the PC frequently like going to lan parties.

 

[AstroGuardian]

WoodButcher is right in any way! If it wasn't for you i would write the same

Cheers

 

[Syzygies]

Didn't see this thread as I posted a solution in a different thread. I'm with WoodButcher.

My new Megahalems had more lean than I liked, so I supported it with 22 gauge hookup wire and a cable tie. The hookup wire won't stretch, and the cable tie ratchets nicely to dial in just the right amount of lift.

My previous motherboard died for reasons unknown, could have been the weight of the TRUE.

Anyhow, here's the picture:

wire harness for heavy cooler

 

[AstroGuardian]

Originally posted by: Syzygies
Didn't see this thread as I posted a solution in a different thread. I'm with WoodButcher.

My new Megahalems had more lean than I liked, so I supported it with 22 gauge hookup wire and a cable tie. The hookup wire won't stretch, and the cable tie ratchets nicely to dial in just the right amount of lift.

My previous motherboard died for reasons unknown, could have been the weight of the TRUE.

Anyhow, here's the picture:

wire harness for heavy cooler

Your PSU is sucking air into the case? What's the point it it? Why did you do that?

 

[Syzygies]

Originally posted by: AstroGuardian
Your PSU is sucking air into the case? What's the point it it? Why did you do that?

Good eye. That computer is in my study in Concord, CA, which hits 100 F regularly in the summer. We have solar panels making us roughly energy neutral, yet we rarely use A/C. (This got quite a reaction in a different thread a few years back. You'd think I was implying others were un-American for turning on their A/C. No, just living my life, my way.)

Rather, we ride the nightly temperature swings, with strips of 80mm computer fans exhausting out most windows. I've built enough wooden fan strips to make our house look a bit odd, but we prefer them to box fans. (Hey, we're all modders here...) For instance, the windows remain secure, unlike a box fan sitting in an open window.

Even if one discounts the rated cfm of Newegg's MASSCOOL FD08025S1M4 80mm Case Fan (10+, $1.29, free shipping), with enough of them we reach a tipping point where the air is changing many times each night. Then we ride out the heat of the day till it's time to open up the house again. My engineer wife calls this "sailing the house."

Anyhow, left unchecked my office can get 10 F hotter than the rest of the house. My plan is to vent the top of the computer out a dryer hose, out the window. (I've done this before with other computers.) With the fans on 5V this doesn't involve so much air, and with the Megahalems I can still manage a surprising overclock.

The Mountain Mods Pinnacle 18 case is easily adapted for this, with 3 front and 2 back 120mm fans blowing in, 3 top 120 fans blowup up and out, and the power supply fan reversed as you noticed.

In my past experiments, memory speed had a secondary effect on the parallel computations I use this machine for. Processor speed times number of cores is dominant. Getting the cpu cooler fresh air from the back helps for overclocking, even if it means exhausting warmer air onto my memory.

 

[Syzygies]

[oops, duplicate post]

 

[Zepper]

I did the support thing as WoodButcher recommended a long time ago on a CPU sink that was a lot lighter than most of those sold today. So add another ditto to W-B's solution. But you have to watch your zip ties as well. I've bought some cheap Chinese ties over the last year and some have snapped with hardly any load on them. I bought some adjustable cable ties from Cyberguys which might be better as they allow easy re-use for those who mess with their components all the time... OTOH, it's not too difficult to unlock a zip-tie if it becomes necessary.

I'd also recommend against bungee cords which are temporary use devices, not designed to be installed and forgotten about. They are susceptible to many environmental agents - inside the colorful jacket they are mainly just natural rubber (latex) strings...

.bh.

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: Zepper
But you have to watch your zip ties as well. I've bought some cheap Chinese ties over the last year and some have snapped with hardly any load on them. I bought some adjustable cable ties from Cyberguys which might be better as they allow easy re-use for those who mess with their components all the time... OTOH, it's not too difficult to unlock a zip-tie if it becomes necessary.

When it comes to cable ties T&B is the best.

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