Pro/Forums - How to get correct clamping force for cpu/wb??

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How to get correct clamping force for cpu/wb??

Quick questions.

With my home made wb, I plan on using the 4 mounting holes.
What sort of mechanism do most of you guys use and how do you ensure good clamping force?

Springs for most I take it?
If so, what type of springs?

TIA

fuRy

i bought my mounting kit from dtek.

it consisted of

(4) 3" 6-32 machine screws
(12) nylon washers
(8) nuts (6 32 too)
and those brass nut things. someone here gave the specific name.

if you cant find those brass things you can always use wingnuts. and for those springs i dont know where to get them. i belive bigben2k bougt some type of springs to mount his block

Springs are the easiest, and widely available online in the US, not sure about Ireland. The only "trick" is to recognize that hoses hanging from the block can upset the force of the springs and cause poor contact. Take care to support the weight of the hoses to minimize their impact on the block. As for the right springs, I'm assuming you're familiar with calculating spring force based on spring rate and deflection.

Quite a few people ( including me ) leave the springs off and just "hard mount" where you just tighten the nuts right onto the top of the block. You get a fairly decent clamping pressure to start with, then adjust each nut in turn while watching temps in BIOS until its right.

Fairly hit and hope method, but you get a feel for it after a while, and you do avoid the problem with springs that myv65 mentioned.

If you use this method, you can buy everything you need at B&Q.

4 x 4mm bolts, about 30-40mm long
4 x 4mm wingnuts
8 rubber washers
4 x 4mm nuts

put a rubber washer on each bolt, push through mobo from behind, then another rubber washer on the top side of the motherboard, followed by nut. This holds the bolts upright while you position the waterblock. Then the waterblock goes on, wingnuts on top.

I actually used the cage and cam-lever part of the OEM fan/heatsink combo by making a cage out of acrylic (Acrylite) from Tap Plastics. This cost me only about $5 US, and all I had to do was glue the pieces together, Tap Plastics cut it for me.

This worked out well, because the clamping pressure is the same as the OEM, and I have a retention mechanism that is easy to release.

Here are the rough plans...

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/mmz_tl_01...tion-block.gif

I will post a picture of the installed cage after I get home... :dome:

That seems really complicated... don't really get it...

the blue is the dimentions of the original mouting bracket for the P4... OEM type.

The heavy black outline is the Acrylic mount...

The light purple is the P4 cpu outline per Intel's white papers.

The orange/copper color is my water block. From the top view it appears as a light grey hash filled block.

Quote:

Originally posted by GTA
Quite a few people ( including me ) leave the springs off and just "hard mount" where you just tighten the nuts right onto the top of the block. You get a fairly decent clamping pressure to start with, then adjust each nut in turn while watching temps in BIOS until its right.

Fairly hit and hope method, but you get a feel for it after a while, and you do avoid the problem with springs that myv65 mentioned.

If you use this method, you can buy everything you need at B&Q.

4 x 4mm bolts, about 30-40mm long
4 x 4mm wingnuts
8 rubber washers
4 x 4mm nuts

put a rubber washer on each bolt, push through mobo from behind, then another rubber washer on the top side of the motherboard, followed by nut. This holds the bolts upright while you position the waterblock. Then the waterblock goes on, wingnuts on top.

I have all the parts I need except for the compression springs.
I have found them at RS components ( www.rswww.com ), bit I dont know what strength to get.

AFAIK, the max clamping force recommended is 24lbs or so. But would 4 X 6lb springs give me this (when maxxed out), or is there a method for working out the total force when you apply the force in 4 different corners.

[edit]
Hmmmm........ just discovered this website:
Springmasters
[/edit]

Thanks

Fury

Yup, thats the one :)

Its a simple method, and it works very well. The only difference that I can see is the fact that I use wingnuts. This MAY make a difference, simply from the fact that it might be easier to get a sense of how much force you're applying.

Rotor, I assume that you probably have to use a spanner or socket to tighten the nuts on top of the block? do you think that with the added leverage this would give you, you might overtighten?

I doubt it, its a feel thing, and besides, you can always take a quick took at how much the motherboard is bending, and judge from that ;)

I use an 8mm long-shank socket, but not with any wrench attached, only my fingers and even then I only use about 25% of the max torque I can apply ... it works like a charm, and yes, I always tune my blocks, always.