Wesley's Tool-Box

• Heatpipe for PSU

The bulk of the components that were not used for the video card heatsink were to be used to cool something that had been a relatively big problem for my system, and it actually does have to do with cooling the video card a bit, too.



This is the close-up of the PSU (power supply unit) which provides electrical power to my system. This is a powerful 300W model that is fit into a relatively small form factor, and was originally intended for use in 1U servers. Due to the high capacity, though, the aluminum heatplate connected to the regulators tend to get very hot, to around at least 80C, and is probably sufficient enough to cook an egg, literally. In the picture above, I had attached a copper heatsink to combat this glaring heat problem, but this proved to be of little help since there's no fan on this thing and it couldn't get the heat dissipated well, having too small a surface area for sufficient natural convection cooling.

Now, if you look at the area just above the PSU, you will notice that the video card literally sits on top of it very closely. Obviously, the heat generated from the heatplate will affect the video card and it gets unintentionally hot. This would not only hamper the reliability of the video card, but also its overclockability. I needed a better way to cool the PSU.



It was rather difficult to remove the copper heatsink that I had attached. Apparently, I attached this thing almost too well. I was afraid I might break the case trying to remove it, but I managed to do it without much drama while having the PSU heated up. After the removal, I started installing the heatsink bases that would hold the heatpipe and the heatsinks into place.

• Installing the Video Card

But this is no standard system at all. Because of the AGP riser that the video card plugs into, the heatsink can extend beyond the AGP slot without much trouble. Sure, it looks a bit unusual, but does it really matter if it works anyway?



To help cooling the video card's GPU, I've added a 60mm fan on the case. To keep the noise level to the comfortable level, this fan was also set to operate at 5V. I noticed that this fan made a faint scratching noise occasionally, so I replaced it with the stock fan that came with the heatsink that came with the AthlonXP CPU I bought for this system later on. We're not done here. Read on.

• Video Card Heatpipe Installed

After the heatpipe is inserted into the heatsink bases, the last step I needed to do is place the appropriate heatsink on each side and fasten it with bolts. Again, I needed to apply the contact points with sufficient amount of thermal paste so that heat can be seamlessly transferred to and from the heatpipe for effective thermal dissipation.



This is how the front side of the video card looks after the installation. This small heatsink is the standard front side heatsink for ZM50-HP model, and if it were not for the heatpipe linking to another heatsink at the back, it would have been completely insufficient for cooling the GF4 Ti4200 core that lied beneath it.



Flip the video card and you see this. The huge heatsink here is the aforementioned standard back side heatsink for ZM80-HP model, and thanks to the heatpipe most of the heat dissipation happens here without overloading the front side heatsink. You may wonder how this card can actually be plugged into the system without problems since the heatsink obviously extends beyond the AGP port connector. It's true that this card cannot be installed on a standard system...

• Setting up the Video Card Heatpipe

The heatsink bases were assembled on both sides using the bolts, rubber standoffs, and nuts that are provided with the heatpipe cooler package. You'll notice the groove that is present on the heatsink base. This is where the heatpipe is supposed to make a clean contact with, in order for it to transfer heat between the heatsinks properly.



The heatpipe was now inserted on the heatsink bases. For efficient heat transfer, thermal paste was spread around the areas that got in contact with the heatpipe. One of the obstacles in installing the heatpipe was the capacitor that was sticking out at the top middle of the circuit. As you can see in the picture, the heatpipe narrowly avoids it and makes a safe round around the video card.

• Ready to Assemble

I opened the package and laid out the parts that were necessary. You might notice that there are more than enough parts to make two heatpipe systems, and you've seen it right. I will only be using a part of these components for the video card cooling. What are the other parts for? You'll eventually find out.



Due to the height restraints of my system, I needed to mill down the heatsink bases by about 1mm. Normally, the whole heatsink base should be coloured yellow, but as you can see in the top left side of the picture above, that is no longer the case.



Also, the heatpipes cannot be laid down in the length direction of the video card as it would normally be preferred (see here). This is because the right hand edge of the video card would come in near-direct contact with the power supply module in my system, leaving absolutely no room for heatpipes to go around. So I had to make the heatpipe go around the top part of the video card, where there would be sufficient room. This is why the heatsink base would be installed in a strange way as you can see in this picture.