ASUS_K8N4E-Deluxe_Chipset_Fan, originally uploaded by Mr.South.

Last week (precisely 6th of June) SpeedFan reported an increased temperature reading on the mainboard sensor from my Windows box. It runs on a ASUS K8N4-E Deluxe mainboard which i bought almost 3 years ago because of the outstanding reviews. It has 2 SATA controllers, one from Silicon Image one from nVidia, which can connect up to 8 disk drives along with 2 IDE ports. All this along with nVidia 4 chipset, 2 IEEE 1394 ports, Gigabit LAN. All wrapped up: pretty neat.

Early January this year the IEEE 1394 controller crashed. Don’t know why, i’ve used it quite a few times last year (2-3) to transfer video data from a miniDV cam. So, suddenly, Winblows pops up to tell me a IEEE controller was found, and of course cannot find a suitable driver for it. Pitty. Couldn’t find time to investigate the problem given the fact i stopped playing around with miniDV stuff. Reason? Way too much time to spend on transcoding processes. So that was it. Disable IEEE controller and live happily ever after.

The board was in service after the 1st year because of the PCI-Express crash. Was it the video card that crashed the mainboard or the other way around i don’t know. So that’s her history. I call it Quimera. That’s spanish for Chimera.

So, hands-on-Sunday to see what’s wrong with the chipset fan. I must say that ASUS engineers found a very crappy solution for cooling down the chipset. A sort of an aluminum slot with a mini-fan on top. Clearly with ASUS branding all over it, disregarding the cooling principles that govern most of the heat sink manufacturing. This wouldn’t have been a bad thing if the chipset aimed a lower functional temperature. Another mainboard i got live 24h a day, EPOX 8K9A-I, beside the common fanless cooler, runs in a range of 36 degrees Celsius to 38 degrees Celsius on a regular basis.

Given the fact i had the Bios alarm on Chip fan warning, i didn’t bother too much. But any alarm can trick you…the fan was blocked (in fact upon inspection afterwards, was declared dead).
So here I am, Sunday, with no possibility to shop for a fan, chipset cooler or any available metal workshop around that would tailor a cooler i got laying around to suit the chipset. Home-tools from few of my friends i called, rendered useless.
I remembered reading this guy some time ago, on a short review, cooling down RAM with 1 cent coins… :). 1 cent coins are copper 100% (at least this is what i found) so finding a solution to glue them up to my aluminum bed would be a nice solution.
But since i live in Europe and none of my friends got spare cents from any of their US trips, i decided to give it a try using euro-cent coins i got around from shopping things around Europe.

ASUS_K8N4E-Deluxe_Cent_heatsink, originally uploaded by Mr.South.

I used a epoxy adhesive combined with sliver thermal paste, since the epoxy compounds from this product are not very suitable for heat transfer. I decided to use a 5 euro-cent coin at the base of the structure and progressively build up using 2 euro-cent and 1 euro-cent coins. The result: reported 42 degrees on the chipset. Touching it felt a bit more, so i placed a 12V 2000 RPM fan i found around directly on it.
Since this was designed as a temporary solution i had to start looking around for some proper heatsink solutions.

Removing_Thermal_Compound, originally uploaded by Mr.South.

Some other problems:
The old thermal compound on the chipset was quite overburned and solid. So i had to find a solution to remove it easily. Since it was Sunday and no shop available to buy a specialized cleaning solution, I got my WD-40 spray can which i’m using to remove stains from quite a lot of things. So i gave it a try. Now i can submit a new use. Removes/Disolves overburned thermal compound. I was so satisfied with the results, consequently i decided to advertise them in a picture. Since WD-40 has some organic compounds such as a petrol derived components, the chipset was cleaned afterwards with an alcoholic based solution.

Adding thermal compound , originally uploaded by Mr.South.

I scratched a bit the base of the aluminum slot before mounting it on the chipset with a new round of thermal silver compound. Contrary to what the physics says, I hoped this would ensure better heat transfer because of the enlarged surface of thermal contact between the compound and the chipset.

ZALMAN_NB47J , originally uploaded by Mr.South.

I finally managed to order the best buy chipset cooler, Zalman ZM-NB47J. With a bit of patience - i had to blueprint the mounting holes on the mainboard on a piece of paper before aligning the link assemblies of the cooler in order to perfectly match the motherboard design - i managed to get it up and going in 40 minutes. Having the fan oriented vertically left a bit of a space between it and the video card below. And of course exposed to a maximal airflow front-current from a 10 Volts, 120 mm case fan mounted upfront in the case which is cooling the hard-drives.

ZALMAN NB47J BIOS readings , originally uploaded by Mr.South.

BIOS temperature readings were great after 15 minutes of test, no airflow in the case except the one generated from the PSU fan.

ZALMAN NB47J BIOS readings , originally uploaded by Mr.South.

I also found this outstanding 1500 RPM fan, Arctic Cooling AF8L at the same guys (sorry, Romanian only),a brilliant collection of products mostly dedicated to pc-cooling & modding - www.pc-coolers.ro. I was more than satisfied regarding the price and the shipment. Great job guys.

Check out the difference between a 5 euros fan and a 3 euros fan. Which one will you buy next time?

Any difference ?, originally uploaded by Mr.South.

Arctic Cooling AF8L and Silicon fan mounts. Altho’ they don’t match (fan mount holes do not traverse the fan body) they are nice to mention for a silent, less vibration solution. Notice how fan rotor is mounted on the fan chassis using same silicon mounts
, originally uploaded by Mr.South.

Conclusions
In conclusion, there is no conclusion. I did a survey on some of the most recent ASUS mainboards. Think they’ve fired their chipset heatsink craftsman and hired a real engineer. Heatsinks do look ok now. Not like Zalman’s tho’.:)
Zalman manufactures some of the best products on the entry level of pc modding. But unfortunately I didn’t have anything to do with pc modding. I just wanted to save my mainboard :). And it seems i did. Being effective.

Kid you not, i don’t remeber if it was Zak Greant or Brian Behlendorf, having said that. (think was Brian ‘cuz of the timestamp the original photo has).
Open source community meetings are not toxic, rather hallucinating.
You go in, as a passionate user committed to absorb a lot more than your 7 AM wakeup, 2 AM sleep-out and an almost 12 hour eye-balls marathon across the screen would predict you will be. And you think. Oh boy you think. What you’ve missed, what you’re going to miss in the next 5 years, what have you accomplished and were are you on the bleeding edge of technology.
And you gasp. Oh boy you gasp a lot.

But a lot of these guys were also committed to take us to another level.

Atley Jackson: It's like a little boy's nursery school I've come upon here. (Gone in 60 seconds)

Some of us got it, some of us didn’t. I think most of the future crew did.
It’s all about being humble, sharing, respectful and passionate.

Have you spotted this before?

Jim Willis had a double-indestructible point on this. Nevertheless he speaks from the other side of the barrier, but still, i bet there is a long count for sleepless nights and anxiety. Congratulations Jim! Very proud of the LAMP stack lighting up a proprietary solution.

Wake up! Maybe it’s time to act. Why? Because you can!
I had always believed in the six degrees of separation. Lucian, Zak, Brian, Jim, advocated it with strong arguments. There is nothing to do more. Just look around you. At maximum 5 hops from you there is a strong willing to transform

Nailing down the process of creating something [developing] it comes that text-editing would be the foundation. Being effective here means being effective throughout the entire process.

Here is one of my favorite vim tips.

In case you haven’t heard yet, Larry King did a 2-part series called Beyond the Power of Positive Thinking. The series is all about how to create your reality using your mindset and features 10 of the biggest names in the self growth and personal development industry.

LARRY KING, CNN HOST:
Tonight, unhappy with your love, your job, your life, not enough money? Use your head. You can think yourself into a lot better you. Positive thoughts can transform can attract the good things you know you want. Sound far-fetched? Think again. It’s supported by science.

Ahead, an hour that can change the way you think about the world and alter your life forever.
It’s next on LARRY KING LIVE.

Question marks
• Do i need to complicate my living with this kind of maintainance?

Recommended tools for benchmarking:
1. Bonnie++
2. IOZone

Waiting to check aggregated results for my gateway