- Joined
- Dec 4, 2002
- Location
- CT
This mod will void your warranty! If you decide to perform this mod do not hold myself or OC Forums responsible.
After having some OCing stability issues (disk read/write errors on occasion) and proving all of my other components good I decided to go old school and pull my P5W DH Deluxe out and see what part the factory chipset coolers were playing. The southbridge (ICH) chipset was making very poor contact with ICH chip. As you can see in the photo the majority of the chip was not touching at all, this seemed to be due to ASUS using a very thick layer of some sort of light epoxy based thermal compound. The northbridge (MCH) was in much better shape, but that was to be expected as the core is significantly smaller. What I did was pull the ICH heatsink off by releasing the white plastic push pins with a set of needle nose pliers and then gently prying it off the chip with a screwdriver; of course be very careful not to damage the motherboard traces. The MCH was much easier to remove due to ASUS using the spring clip; removal is as easy as grasping the clip with needle nose pliers and push/pulling it out of the clip catch on the motherboard. There are 2 white plastic push pins on the back of the board holding the heat sink on the voltage regulators that need to be released before the MCH heatsink can be pulled off.
After removal and a good cleaning with a razor (the ICH thermal material would not come off with just wiping, the MCH did) and with alcohol I decided to remove the heatsink covers also. They are pretty and certainly dress up the looks of the board but they also act as a restriction to air flow so off they came. I will warn you now that removal of the covers almost certainly will void your warranty, not something to be done lightly on a 250 dollar motherboard. If you do decide to remove the covers they require a slight amount of prying since they are attached with a light adhesive. If you do remove them I doubt you can reuse them if you want to put them back on later because the removal process causes stress bends in the soft metal (copper?) that the covers are made from so be sure you want to change the look of your board for good. The covers do leave a small amount of sticky adhesive on the sinks which I found easiest to remove by just rubbing off with a finger and some easy cleanup with alcohol on a rag.
Also of note is the fact that the MCH heatsink has an insulating foam material around the outside edges (very clear in photo 2) acting as a sort of shim. I believe the reason is to ensure the heatsink does not come into contact with the resistors scattered around the chip die. I scrapped off the foam while removing the old thermal paste so I used some cut to fit pieces of electrical tape and placed the adhesive side on the heaksink. This seems to work very well and I have had no issues since performing this mod. Some people may want to have the foam on hand to replace the factory stuff before performing the mod. The foam is extremely thin with an adhesive on one side to attach it to the heatsink. I do not know of a place to buy a replacement for the foam thats why I used electrical tape.
The thermal material on the voltage regulator sink is a mastic of some sort that is thick enough that I worried about removal casuing a contact issue with half of the voltage regulators. I decided to gently squeeze the material in towards the center of the sink just enough to raise the pliable material and ensure contact upon reinstallation. The thermal material is very much like putty so this is easily done, just dont squeeze it in too much which might leave the outside edges of the regulators uncovered.
After cleaning and prepping the chips with AS5 reinstallation is a relativley quick process. Here are the photos of the sinks and the end result is that I have not had any stability issues since performing the mod. I am almost certain the ICH was the source of the stability issues I was having. After performing this mod both heatsinks, but especialy the ICH, get very hot which means they are pulling heat off the chipsets a lot better than before.
Good luck and happy modding!
After having some OCing stability issues (disk read/write errors on occasion) and proving all of my other components good I decided to go old school and pull my P5W DH Deluxe out and see what part the factory chipset coolers were playing. The southbridge (ICH) chipset was making very poor contact with ICH chip. As you can see in the photo the majority of the chip was not touching at all, this seemed to be due to ASUS using a very thick layer of some sort of light epoxy based thermal compound. The northbridge (MCH) was in much better shape, but that was to be expected as the core is significantly smaller. What I did was pull the ICH heatsink off by releasing the white plastic push pins with a set of needle nose pliers and then gently prying it off the chip with a screwdriver; of course be very careful not to damage the motherboard traces. The MCH was much easier to remove due to ASUS using the spring clip; removal is as easy as grasping the clip with needle nose pliers and push/pulling it out of the clip catch on the motherboard. There are 2 white plastic push pins on the back of the board holding the heat sink on the voltage regulators that need to be released before the MCH heatsink can be pulled off.
After removal and a good cleaning with a razor (the ICH thermal material would not come off with just wiping, the MCH did) and with alcohol I decided to remove the heatsink covers also. They are pretty and certainly dress up the looks of the board but they also act as a restriction to air flow so off they came. I will warn you now that removal of the covers almost certainly will void your warranty, not something to be done lightly on a 250 dollar motherboard. If you do decide to remove the covers they require a slight amount of prying since they are attached with a light adhesive. If you do remove them I doubt you can reuse them if you want to put them back on later because the removal process causes stress bends in the soft metal (copper?) that the covers are made from so be sure you want to change the look of your board for good. The covers do leave a small amount of sticky adhesive on the sinks which I found easiest to remove by just rubbing off with a finger and some easy cleanup with alcohol on a rag.
Also of note is the fact that the MCH heatsink has an insulating foam material around the outside edges (very clear in photo 2) acting as a sort of shim. I believe the reason is to ensure the heatsink does not come into contact with the resistors scattered around the chip die. I scrapped off the foam while removing the old thermal paste so I used some cut to fit pieces of electrical tape and placed the adhesive side on the heaksink. This seems to work very well and I have had no issues since performing this mod. Some people may want to have the foam on hand to replace the factory stuff before performing the mod. The foam is extremely thin with an adhesive on one side to attach it to the heatsink. I do not know of a place to buy a replacement for the foam thats why I used electrical tape.
The thermal material on the voltage regulator sink is a mastic of some sort that is thick enough that I worried about removal casuing a contact issue with half of the voltage regulators. I decided to gently squeeze the material in towards the center of the sink just enough to raise the pliable material and ensure contact upon reinstallation. The thermal material is very much like putty so this is easily done, just dont squeeze it in too much which might leave the outside edges of the regulators uncovered.
After cleaning and prepping the chips with AS5 reinstallation is a relativley quick process. Here are the photos of the sinks and the end result is that I have not had any stability issues since performing the mod. I am almost certain the ICH was the source of the stability issues I was having. After performing this mod both heatsinks, but especialy the ICH, get very hot which means they are pulling heat off the chipsets a lot better than before.
Good luck and happy modding!
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