READ! Heatpipe Cooler Users! [Experiment]

[tkpenalty]

So, yeah here is an idea that I came up with, chances are that hasnt been done yet. Basically I was thinking about doing this, but as I do not have the resources, nor do I have the time I can't do it. Read on to learn what I'm talking about.

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Sanding the copper base down to heatpipe for
dramatically improved performance!
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The proven idea is that the extra copper base acts as thermal resistance versus the heatpipe. The copper base enclosing the heatpipe was originally a means to prevent damage to bare dies, back in the P3/Skt A days.

However since most CPUs these days have an IHS this is rendered useless. An example of application is the Xigmatek Line of HDT products, having exposed heatpipes, making their much smaller sized and cheaper products excellent in terms of performance.

So what am I saying?

I'm saying if your CPU cooler has that extra copper block sandwiching the heatpipes sand it down to the heatpipe! But before you grab some low grit sandpaper to tear through that copper you'll have to consider some things:

1. Normal lapping/sanding procedures

2. How thin the heatpipes are - this means you wont be able to have a fully flat heatpipe, therefore sanding the base down to half a millimeter thin-versus heatpipe will still be enough to yield a massive performance gain. Sanding too much, may weaken the heatpipe too much, or even puncture them; effectively destroying your cooler.

3. Retension pressure compensation. Sanding the base down will reduce the height of the base, because it will make it higher from the IHS, therefore you will need to find a means to increase the mounting pressure/height, in equivalence.
Example, you sand off 2mm in thickness off the ultra 120's base. You will use a 2mm thick steel ring to raise the retention bracket so it will have the same mounting pressure as before you lapped. Take note of how the cooler is installed, some retention mechanisms prevent increasing of pressure!

4. What type of method you use to sand. This is VERY VERY VERY important. Dont use a disk sander to thin the base, even if you are good at using it. The vibrations from the disk sander can possibly ruin the heatpipes! You MUST use normal sanding methods, i.e. sand paper.

5. The method of how the heatpipes are sandwiched. If the cooler will clearly fall apart with the reduction of the copper base, please do not continue with this.

So yeah! Who wants to turn their ultra 120 extreme, thats already a good cooler, into a cooler that performs almost as good as water cooling? (ask your manufacturer for what type and how thick the heatpipes of your cooler are, if you want to sand into the heatpipes)

 

[tkpenalty]

bump c'mon guys at least comment

 

[largon]

Have fun sanding off several millimeters of metal - only to gain ~1ºC.

 

[REVHEAD]

Some actual pics would be nice, show us your handy work?

 

[tkpenalty]

Have fun sanding off several millimeters of metal - only to gain ~1ºC.

1*C? You're smart. [/sarcasm]

The thick copper base is an obvious bottleneck to the performance of heatpipe heatsinks... Xigmatek has proven it works.

 

[Kursah]

Not a bad idea TK, but I think with cost of the cooler, supplies and labor invlolved, it'd be much wiser to just get the Xigmatec 1298 imo...less work, similar costs (I got mine for $26.99 + $6 s/h), and the performance that is seeked.

Interesting though...but really that's a lot of work, plus some fabrication skills would be required for new mounting and keeping everything secure...plus a thinner base is a weaker base, meaning it may flex or even crack after a long time causing issues of course.

Nonetheless, I'd love to see someone give it a shot! Wonder if MKMods would be up for it? I know he's fully capable of tackling something like this!

 

[tkpenalty]

Not a bad idea TK, but I think with cost of the cooler, supplies and labor invlolved, it'd be much wiser to just get the Xigmatec 1298 imo...less work, similar costs (I got mine for $26.99 + $6 s/h), and the performance that is seeked.

Interesting though...but really that's a lot of work, plus some fabrication skills would be required for new mounting and keeping everything secure...plus a thinner base is a weaker base, meaning it may flex or even crack after a long time causing issues of course.

Nonetheless, I'd love to see someone give it a shot! Wonder if MKMods would be up for it? I know he's fully capable of tackling something like this!

Considering an Ultra 120 completely tramples the Xigmatek HDT S1283 after its lapped flat... I'd give it a go. Yeah Mkmods would probably do this!

 

[Kursah]

Considering an Ultra 120 completely tramples the Xigmatek HDT S1283 after its lapped flat...

I would hope so considering the price difference!

You should see if you can contact MK and see if you can get his attention this way and see if he's up for it! This could have a sweet project log!

 

[ghot]

Vouche the Ultra 120 Extreme.....as does Tom's hardware guide as the best air cooler by a huge margin...it very heavy and must be lapped.....they come un-smoothed from the factory....also due to its 790gm weight...you should definitely ty-wrap the top of the radiator to the top of you case, as most motherboards are only rated for approx 450gm HSF coolers ^^

 

[Wetbehindtheears]

@ ghot

I'm sure (I might be wrong) ive seen that its not wise to lap - it was deliberately made this way - they proved it was better @ cooling unlapped

 

[Nitro-Max]

Just sit some chipset coolers on it?

 

[Wetbehindtheears]

Just sit some chipset coolers on it?

I'll find the article (eventually)

I'm sure its something to do with the curvature of both the cpu and cooler (ones convex other concave) and Thermalright had reasoned (?) that thay made better contact with a rough finish than lapped (ie flat) finish - still trying to find article

 

[tkpenalty]

TRUE only works better in ONE case which is on pentium Ds and P4s... not the Core 2s. Get back on topic I wasnt talking about that. Im talking about thinning the rather thick copper bases.

on the ultra 120 you would do this:

 

[imperialreign]

hmhmhm . . .

I could possibly do this to my Zalman 9500 . . . come to think of it, the base is removable and I don't believe the heat pipes are soldered to the block - but it would potentially completely destroy the retention mechanism of the cooler . . .

 

[a111087]

this sounds like something that should work, but that is going to be one long sanding job
at the moment i do not want to even touch my Ultra 120

 

[MilkyWay]

Its technically called glass paper because it has glass on it not sand.
So it should be smoothing or lapping or thinning ect.

I pay for my cooler to come perfect ready for use and flat as shit and with a good layer of thermal paste applied already, if your cooler is uneven consider buying a better one or paying a little more its will be worth the extra paper doe. IF you dont like how your cooler is made or how it is layered with aluminium or copper buy a different model.

Even a few millimetres of metal to thin is a lot of metal i wouldn't recommend using glass paper as its fairly inaccurate. I dont recommend using glass paper on metal anyway its designed for wood, for metal use a file to thin metal and then smooth the metal using the paper or whatever.

 

[Kursah]

Well if the HP's can be removed from the HSF's base on Imperial's 9500...he could attempt to either flatten the face of the pipes if not done already, or try to sand them a little bit (would be risky depending on pipe thickness).

The next challenge would be retaining such an HSF...someone with a good attention to detail and pretty fine measurements with fabrication experience would be nice!

This idea of modding coolers is...well pretty cool!

Hey Imperial..I'm not uber familiar with the Z9500's...could you flip the base or take it down to where there's less material for heat transfer between the pipes and CPU? We need some pics of the base of some HSF's so we can more visually get better ideas of what to do here imo.

 

[DanishDevil]

What I want to see is somebody take the S1283 and take the aluminum baseplate off that holds the heatpipes, grind it down a few MMs, and then lap the heatpipes flat

 

[Kursah]

What I want to see is somebody take the S1283 and take the aluminum baseplate off that holds the heatpipes, grind it down a few MMs, and then lap the heatpipes flat

If anything I'd take the Aluminum off and grind down the dividers a little bit more...but I wouldn't take it off all-together unless another mechanism was made to keep the heat-pipes aligned and secured properly...the only other thing holding them together or the aluminum fins...which are not designed for taking on more stress than they do.

I don't really think the S1283 can do a lot better...I'm sure lapping the pipes would help...but due to the fin size/design, there's some limitations to the effectiveness in the first place...but that's also what makes it an affordable, yet very effective solution too.

 

[DanishDevil]

I meant grind down the aluminum dividers so the lapjob on the heatpipes would still contact the CPU, put it back on, and lap the heatpipes.

I almost want to take a heatpipe cooler like that, snip off the tops of the heatpipes, and flow water through it. Call it an AquaPipe or something. I wonder if that would work at all...

This is what happens when you can't sleep...

 

[wazzledoozle]

Or you could just remove the IHS from your cpu...

 

[imperialreign]

Well if the HP's can be removed from the HSF's base on Imperial's 9500...he could attempt to either flatten the face of the pipes if not done already, or try to sand them a little bit (would be risky depending on pipe thickness).

The next challenge would be retaining such an HSF...someone with a good attention to detail and pretty fine measurements with fabrication experience would be nice!

This idea of modding coolers is...well pretty cool!

Hey Imperial..I'm not uber familiar with the Z9500's...could you flip the base or take it down to where there's less material for heat transfer between the pipes and CPU? We need some pics of the base of some HSF's so we can more visually get better ideas of what to do here imo.

yeah, I just took some pics - let me hook up my USB connectors so I can move em to the HDD and try to resize them in Paint so I can post . . .

 

[DanishDevil]

Or you could just remove the IHS from your cpu...

Or both!

 

[imperialreign]

I was wrong on how the 9500 is assembled. The heat pipes are soldered to the copper plate, the aluminum plate that the retension mechanism and fan are attached to is removable. a few shots of the base of a 9500:

here's a couple of shots with the aluminum plate removed:

As you can see, I could remove quite a bit of material from the copper base - but also notice that the bottom side of the heat pipes themselves are in-line with the aluminum retension plate mounting . . . if I was to remove enough of the base to expose the bottom of the heat pipes, the cooler would completely lose is structure . . . unless I went to the extra effort to add an ass-load of solder to the tops of the pipes - and if that solder will 'stick'

 

[tkpenalty]

I was wrong on how the 9500 is assembled. The heat pipes are soldered to the copper plate, the aluminum plate that the retension mechanism and fan are attached to is removable. a few shots of the base of a 9500:

here's a couple of shots with the aluminum plate removed:

As you can see, I could remove quite a bit of material from the copper base - but also notice that the bottom side of the heat pipes themselves are in-line with the aluminum retension plate mounting . . . if I was to remove enough of the base to expose the bottom of the heat pipes, the cooler would completely lose is structure . . . unless I went to the extra effort to add an ass-load of solder to the tops of the pipes - and if that solder will 'stick'

Don't try it. In your case it wont work. Imperialreign, how about just thinning down the copper base though?

Hmm, yeah. Some coolers you wont be able to. Ultra 120, yes, but this I doubt it. I think ill make a list of coolers which work, and a list of coolers which work but need modifications to the RM.

Guys if you could, with some of the coolers, you can use an altenate bolt thru kit instead of the stock retention mechanism.