I just wanted to know if anyone knows the proper procedure in removing heat sinks from the NB and SB of a ASUS MAXIMUS FORMULA. I haven't received the motherboard yet, so it hasn't been ran on. I want to apply arctic silver on them instead. Is this a bad idea?
Removing heat sinks from ASUS Maximus Formula
- Thread starter journalofthewhills
- Start date
surfsatwerk
Lifer
- Mar 6, 2008
- 10,110
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I have no experience with that board, but I can reccomend you go with Ceramique instead. It's completely nonconductive and noncapacitative. Much more suitable than AS5 incase you accidentally get some on the motherboard.
Sylvanas
Diamond Member
- Jan 20, 2004
- 3,752
- 0
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The same goes for MX-2, my thermal paste of choice.
To the OP- I would assume this board comes with push pin attached heatsinks like most boards these days, and in the case of removing them its pretty simple. What I usually do is flip the board over, get some pliers and squeeze together the V plastic so it fits through the mounting hole and you are done (It will be easier to see what I mean when you get your board). Once all the Push pins are removed the heatsink should simply fall off (maybe not without some careful teasing).
If the board has a 'proper' screw mounted NB/SB then its even less hassle....just unscrew
.I believe this board has the heatpipes attached with both pushpins and some nasty adhesive thermal compound. Heard that if you heat it to loosen it up, it actually bonds more. So your best bet to try to gently pry it off before you start it up. If you have some Spectra fishing line or some strong nylon thread, I would try running that under the edge of the heatpipe to try to break the seal. I have this board and will probably just leave it as is since I heard that even if you're successful in removing the heatpipes you still have to deal with removing hardened thermal adhesive from the chipsets. Way too much trouble for me since I don't plan on any extreme overclocking.
I'm going to advise you leave them alone. The artic silver is good stuff, but you're liable to damage the board needlessly by popping off the copper heatsinks. Not worth the risk in my humble opinion, and I've been there, done some damage before. Those are expensive boards, and if you cause any damage, you'll void your warranty. Boards are inspected carefully during the rma process, and any damage will cause a refusal by your vender or asus to repair or replace them.
In a word its not worth it.... I've seen pics of guys at Xtreme systems that riped the northbridge right off the board. It is doable but if your not doing extereme overclocking just toss an Antec spot cool over the NB and live with it. the NB uses 4 screws and a back plate its connected via heatpipe to the SB which uses 2 push pins. plus this doesn't count the mosfet cooling stuff thats all connected by that sticky thermal stuff too
with my rampage formula, it was stuck on tight. i was a noob and just yanked it off. i have heard of people using acetone or alcohol to get the thermal sticky stuff off. let me explain how the heatpipes are attached. there is a pipe going from the southbridge to the northbridge, there is a plate of copper ontop of the nb, then the pipe from the sb gets glued ontop of that. then, another heatpipe is glued onto it and is connected to the stair looking pin-fins. then a whole nother heatpipe/slab of copper cools the area around the cpu and the mosfets. so as long as you have a nb and sb cooler, rip those pos stock heatpipes off. im using a swiftech mcw30 chipset cooler for mine. and some generic cooler for the southbridge.
here i have outlined the three different cooling areas in the rampage formula, which is essentially the same as the maximus.
here i have outlined the three different cooling areas in the rampage formula, which is essentially the same as the maximus.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...howthread.php?t=162085
thats a whole thread about the stock heatsink on the maximus.
thats a whole thread about the stock heatsink on the maximus.
this might change your mind about removing the heat sink/s. I guess asus put some pretty stong stuff on the heat sinks. but look for your self.
http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/1330-post164.html
http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/1330-post164.html
Oh boy. Wow did I feel sorry for that guy that ripped the entire northbridge off the uber expensive mobo. The other guy with the ripped off heatspreader just made me laugh :laugh: ("boo boo" indeed). Haven't had any issues removing northbridge or GPU heatsinks that are attached with the thermal pads (the kind with that obnoxious gummy gauze). Makes me wonder what ASUS is using...thermal epoxy?
I was unable to get mine off without fear of damaging the board - the thing is on there like superglue :|
From my own experience, the removal of the NB heatsink can be accomplished pretty easily and without fanfare or damage. But while I don't guarantee your results, the method I'll describe below has worked for numerous people without failure or incident. The key is cold, not heat. People that used heat, the method first used, is the method that resulted in many of the NB heatspreaders being removed unexpectedly. Using cold, on the other hand, has yet, as far as I've been able to discover in readings on several forums, to have resulted in removing anything other than the NB heatsink.
As for why to do this.....the stock Asus heatpipe cooler, while nice looking and all, isn't very effective in heat removal from the NB. And if you're trying to get stable OC's on your Maximus Formula, you know that one key element to doing this is raising the NB's voltages to 1.5V at least. This, naturally, raises its operating temp.....which is why we remove the stock unit. The stock cooling aparatus just won't move enough heat from the NB to keep the NB cool enough...my NB temps prior to removing the stock unit and replacing it with an aftermarket solution was in the 50C range, at idle. Now, even with 1.52V running through it, my idle temps are in the mid-30C range. That's a huge difference......and that's the reason we do this....not just to get another 20MHz FSB out of it. Longevity is the answer we seek. (And yes, I even had a fan actively cooling both the NB part and the silver finned MOSFET section, and still the temps were not below the 50'sC with the increased voltages needed for ultimate stability in OC'ing on the mb.)
So, how did I do it? First, I did mine after it had been operating in my system for about 2 months, so it can be done even after the heatsink has been heated up by operating....it just resists a tad more in coming off. Nothing dramatic, just wants to stay glued in place.
Now then......how to do it? Get your parts needed to do it assembled. I used two flat bladed screwdrivers, one a very small, narrow bladed one, and one "normal" sized flat bladed screwdriver with a shaft of at least 2-3" in length....better for leverage. You also need a small piece of wood, plastic, something inert and substantial to use as a fulcrum(?) or pivot point when removing the NB heatsink. Last, you'll need a way to chill the NB.....many have stuck the mb in the freezer for a few hours. I went a different route and used some Circuit Freeze spray......a product sold in most any electronics store, like Fry's or Radio Shack, and is used to spray on circuit boards to spot freeze an area for diagnosing intermittent thermal failures in circuitry.
This is the stuff I used: http://www.puretronics.com/products/7400.htm
Now, what I did:
1.) After you have your motherboard laying flat on an inert and stable surface, remove the ROG sticker on the SB....it covers one end of the heatpipe that runs through the NB. (I left my SB heatsink intact and am currently air cooling it with a 40mm Scythe Ultra Kaze Mini fan......very quiet and effective. So this is why I did it this way. If you want to remove the SB heatsink, too, I'd still do it just this way and remove the SB heatsink independently as working on one heatsink at a time will definitely be easier.)
2.) Unscrew the four mounting screws from the NB heatsink....don't worry about the backplate.....it'll either fall off when you remove the screws or you can easily remove it after the heatsink is off....)
3.) Do not concern yourself with the other end of the heat pipe's run. It terminates under the silver finned heatsink on top of the MOSFET heatsink, just in front of the I/O panel. This end is held on with double-sided thermal tape that's not very sticky at all.....comes off ultra easily when you pop off the NB heatsink.)
4.) Using the small flat bladed screwdriver, gently slip it under the exposed heatpipe and gently begin to pry it upward until it frees up. It's only in with a press fit, so it will release from its channel on the SB heatsink very easily.
5.) Now that the heatpipe is free of the SB, the real work begins.........
6.) Spray the Circuit Freeze onto, under, all around the NB heatsink until the entire heatsink and surrounding area is frosty....completely. Make sure it's all frosty...this is key here. In my first attempt, I didn't freeze it enough and had to start over as I didn't get the compound cold enough to release. The second time I sprayed the Circuit Freeze, I sprayed for 30-45 seconds continuously. (Don't worry, despite what the naysayers will inevitably say, freezing the sink and surrounding PCB will have no detrimental effects on your mb at all. After all, this spray is designed to be used on electrically active circuit boards to locate thermal failures in circuitry, so spraying it on an electrically inert mb will have no ill effects.)
7.) After the NB is nice and frosty, put your piece of wood, plastic, whatever next to the NB sink, and using it as a fulcrum point, use the larger screwdriver to lift up on the heatsink where it's attached to the NB. I put my fulcrum point "above" the NB, sort of in line with the top PCI-e slot. I pried upward and then gave it a little twist. The heatsink popped right off and left a nice, fairly clean exposed NB with its heatspreader quite intact. You'll now have a heatpipe in hand with the NB heatsink in the middle of its length and the silver finned heatsink at one end of the heatpipe....the other end will be bare as that's where it was attached to the SB.
8.) If you want to remove the SB heatsink, loosen the attaching pins from under the mb, and then redo the same sequence as done for the NB....should pop off just as easily or easier. Most say the SB's heatsink isn't attached as firmly as the NB's.
9.) I then cleaned the NB's heatspreader first with acetone and then followed with 99% pure isopropyl alcohol.....of course, waiting until the freeze spray had dissipated from the motherboard. (Darn stuff says it'll freeze to a -65F....darned cold!)
10.) Apply TIM of choice and then apply aftermarket heatsink of choice. Reassemble mb in case, etc. Fire up and watch your NB temps miraculously drop from the 50'sC you've had to the 30'sC now.
Granted, it may seem extreme....but it can produce excellent results. I was hesitant before doing it as I had never done anything like this before, esp. in light of reading lf the failures some had when trying heat to remove the NB heatsink. Thankfully, I overcame my hesitation and made the move to extreme cold instead of heat. Oc'ing my Q6600 with the NB being more effectively cooled has resulted in my being able to get it to run stable at 4GHz.....albeit 24/7 running speeds are at 3.6GHz. And even at 4GHz, the board and cpu had more left in them. And during that extreme speed on the quad core, with the NB overvolted at 1.55V, its temps never got above mind-40'sC. Try that with the stock cooling......never happen.
Good luck and it can be done!!!
As for why to do this.....the stock Asus heatpipe cooler, while nice looking and all, isn't very effective in heat removal from the NB. And if you're trying to get stable OC's on your Maximus Formula, you know that one key element to doing this is raising the NB's voltages to 1.5V at least. This, naturally, raises its operating temp.....which is why we remove the stock unit. The stock cooling aparatus just won't move enough heat from the NB to keep the NB cool enough...my NB temps prior to removing the stock unit and replacing it with an aftermarket solution was in the 50C range, at idle. Now, even with 1.52V running through it, my idle temps are in the mid-30C range. That's a huge difference......and that's the reason we do this....not just to get another 20MHz FSB out of it. Longevity is the answer we seek. (And yes, I even had a fan actively cooling both the NB part and the silver finned MOSFET section, and still the temps were not below the 50'sC with the increased voltages needed for ultimate stability in OC'ing on the mb.)
So, how did I do it? First, I did mine after it had been operating in my system for about 2 months, so it can be done even after the heatsink has been heated up by operating....it just resists a tad more in coming off. Nothing dramatic, just wants to stay glued in place.
Now then......how to do it? Get your parts needed to do it assembled. I used two flat bladed screwdrivers, one a very small, narrow bladed one, and one "normal" sized flat bladed screwdriver with a shaft of at least 2-3" in length....better for leverage. You also need a small piece of wood, plastic, something inert and substantial to use as a fulcrum(?) or pivot point when removing the NB heatsink. Last, you'll need a way to chill the NB.....many have stuck the mb in the freezer for a few hours. I went a different route and used some Circuit Freeze spray......a product sold in most any electronics store, like Fry's or Radio Shack, and is used to spray on circuit boards to spot freeze an area for diagnosing intermittent thermal failures in circuitry.
This is the stuff I used: http://www.puretronics.com/products/7400.htm
Now, what I did:
1.) After you have your motherboard laying flat on an inert and stable surface, remove the ROG sticker on the SB....it covers one end of the heatpipe that runs through the NB. (I left my SB heatsink intact and am currently air cooling it with a 40mm Scythe Ultra Kaze Mini fan......very quiet and effective. So this is why I did it this way. If you want to remove the SB heatsink, too, I'd still do it just this way and remove the SB heatsink independently as working on one heatsink at a time will definitely be easier.)
2.) Unscrew the four mounting screws from the NB heatsink....don't worry about the backplate.....it'll either fall off when you remove the screws or you can easily remove it after the heatsink is off....)
3.) Do not concern yourself with the other end of the heat pipe's run. It terminates under the silver finned heatsink on top of the MOSFET heatsink, just in front of the I/O panel. This end is held on with double-sided thermal tape that's not very sticky at all.....comes off ultra easily when you pop off the NB heatsink.)
4.) Using the small flat bladed screwdriver, gently slip it under the exposed heatpipe and gently begin to pry it upward until it frees up. It's only in with a press fit, so it will release from its channel on the SB heatsink very easily.
5.) Now that the heatpipe is free of the SB, the real work begins.........
6.) Spray the Circuit Freeze onto, under, all around the NB heatsink until the entire heatsink and surrounding area is frosty....completely. Make sure it's all frosty...this is key here. In my first attempt, I didn't freeze it enough and had to start over as I didn't get the compound cold enough to release. The second time I sprayed the Circuit Freeze, I sprayed for 30-45 seconds continuously. (Don't worry, despite what the naysayers will inevitably say, freezing the sink and surrounding PCB will have no detrimental effects on your mb at all. After all, this spray is designed to be used on electrically active circuit boards to locate thermal failures in circuitry, so spraying it on an electrically inert mb will have no ill effects.)
7.) After the NB is nice and frosty, put your piece of wood, plastic, whatever next to the NB sink, and using it as a fulcrum point, use the larger screwdriver to lift up on the heatsink where it's attached to the NB. I put my fulcrum point "above" the NB, sort of in line with the top PCI-e slot. I pried upward and then gave it a little twist. The heatsink popped right off and left a nice, fairly clean exposed NB with its heatspreader quite intact. You'll now have a heatpipe in hand with the NB heatsink in the middle of its length and the silver finned heatsink at one end of the heatpipe....the other end will be bare as that's where it was attached to the SB.
8.) If you want to remove the SB heatsink, loosen the attaching pins from under the mb, and then redo the same sequence as done for the NB....should pop off just as easily or easier. Most say the SB's heatsink isn't attached as firmly as the NB's.
9.) I then cleaned the NB's heatspreader first with acetone and then followed with 99% pure isopropyl alcohol.....of course, waiting until the freeze spray had dissipated from the motherboard. (Darn stuff says it'll freeze to a -65F....darned cold!)
10.) Apply TIM of choice and then apply aftermarket heatsink of choice. Reassemble mb in case, etc. Fire up and watch your NB temps miraculously drop from the 50'sC you've had to the 30'sC now.
Granted, it may seem extreme....but it can produce excellent results. I was hesitant before doing it as I had never done anything like this before, esp. in light of reading lf the failures some had when trying heat to remove the NB heatsink. Thankfully, I overcame my hesitation and made the move to extreme cold instead of heat. Oc'ing my Q6600 with the NB being more effectively cooled has resulted in my being able to get it to run stable at 4GHz.....albeit 24/7 running speeds are at 3.6GHz. And even at 4GHz, the board and cpu had more left in them. And during that extreme speed on the quad core, with the NB overvolted at 1.55V, its temps never got above mind-40'sC. Try that with the stock cooling......never happen.
Good luck and it can be done!!!
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