Cooling the MSI Master2 FAR
It's got dual Opterons and a non-standard (for AMD) heatsink mount.
In any case, now I need to select a pair of Socket478 coolers for this board. My criteria are:
Must use the Intel HSRM or Intel Xeon thru-board mount holes.
Must fit entirely within the space outlined by the Intel HSRM.
Must perform better than the Intel stock 3.0+GHz HSF.
Must be no louder than 40dB (the quieter the better).
Must not look hideous.
EDIT: Pretty sure they're not AMD mount holes, try Xeon.
You'll probably see what I mean about size restrictions if you look carefully at this photo
(source: newegg)
I've found one HSF, the AVC SunFlower2 HSF, that seems to meet all of my criteria.
(source: ninjalane)
I'm open to suggestions if y'all have 'em. I'm still using my stock Intel cooler on my P4 (too lazy to change it), so I'm pretty inexperienced in this department.
-drasnor
I had originally planned to water-cool this platform, but that didn't fly real far financially with the folks and given a choice between a bigger case and water cooling or dual Opteron 250's, that was an easy choice.From GamePC.com:
What MSI has done, apparently, is NOT used AMD's standard Socket-754/940 heatsink retention system, opting to use a Pentium 4-style (!!) heatsink retention system instead. What this means is NO standard Athlon64/Opteron heatsink will work on this motherboard, not even the AMD retail coolers. Not only does MSI include the incorrect mounting brackets, but they do not leave the necessary motherboard holes if one wanted to change out to the correct mounting system.
On the plus side though, one could use any number of Pentium 4 coolers on the market for use on the K8T Master2 motherboard, but we can imagine most (if not all) potential buyers of this board will be confused by the cooling situation.
Update : We've just been informed that using Pentium 4 coolers, such as the ones included on the MSI K8T Master2-FAR motherboard, voids the warranty on AMD Opteron retail CPU's. Keep in mind, this is only on retail packaged CPU's, OEM CPU's determine warranty breaks in different ways which is up to each OEM distributor. Still, we thought it was interesting and well worth mentioning.
In any case, now I need to select a pair of Socket478 coolers for this board. My criteria are:
Must use the Intel HSRM or Intel Xeon thru-board mount holes.
Must fit entirely within the space outlined by the Intel HSRM.
Must perform better than the Intel stock 3.0+GHz HSF.
Must be no louder than 40dB (the quieter the better).
Must not look hideous.
EDIT: Pretty sure they're not AMD mount holes, try Xeon.
You'll probably see what I mean about size restrictions if you look carefully at this photo
(source: newegg)
I've found one HSF, the AVC SunFlower2 HSF, that seems to meet all of my criteria.
(source: ninjalane)
I'm open to suggestions if y'all have 'em. I'm still using my stock Intel cooler on my P4 (too lazy to change it), so I'm pretty inexperienced in this department.
-drasnor
0
Comments
Two Thermalright SLK-900Us will probably fit if you use 70 or 80mm fans.
edit:
This may be another option. It seems to perform well on p4 CPU's
http://www.svc.com/vanaerp4tmdc.html
If so, two Swiftech MCX4000 would fit brilliantly. The choice between 70-92mm fans is a plus as well. 3.14"W x 3.5"L x .375"H
None of the Thermalright HS will fit because they interfere with the AGP slot. If they were rotated 90 degrees, they would have been perfect, but they all have the mount clips on their long dimension as pictured above.
-drasnor
But those mounting brackets look very close.
Good luck, with Intel mounting holes this could be a trick.
(source: newegg)
-drasnor
Drasnor, your image was bringing up a login prompt from Newegg. Had to remove it.
-drasnor
-drasnor
support@msi.com.tw
Online tech support form
http://www.msicomputer.com/msiforms/c_problem_desc_form2.asp
Regardless, the swiftech heatsinks are excellent, but due to the fact that they have very tight pin spacing, they apparently don't generally do well in low-noise/low flow applications
-drasnor
-drasnor
Reeaal helpful.
-drasnor
They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
-drasnor
Tyan Tiger i7505 (S2668) dual Xeon motherboard scaled up to 525% (source: Tyan)
MSI K8T Master2 dual Opteron motherboard scaled up to 400% (source: MSI)
I matched their back dimension and ATX hole positioning before zooming in on the processor sockets to ensure a match.
It's not like anyone makes a decent Opteron HSF anyway. If you buy OEM processors, the warranty is 30 days. I guess they were thinking they would make life easier on everyone by using a HSF mount that has lots of alternatives for cooling. BTW, since the HSRM accepts socket478 sinks and bolts into Xeon holes, I bet I can use these on a Xeon board to mount socket478 sinks. Besides, if the board eats my CPU's, I bet I can b!tch out MSI and make them replace them.
I forgot to mention that the board ships with a pair of reaaaally loud CoolerMaster Socket478 copper HSF's.
-drasnor
-drasnor
The thru-hole mounts are indeed Intel Xeon hole configuration, which also happens to be the same as Socket423. Most Xeon HSF's come with heatsink retention mechanisms, so that isn't an issue. However, the only real decent Xeon cooler I found that met the not hideous requirement is the Intel Xeon stock sink w/ windtunnel, and unfortunately for me I don't have enough space to mount the fan on its side, and it'll probably be about as good as the MSI stock sinks if I mount the fan on top, so that option is out.
The MSI stock sinks are pretty loud and they aren't matched. The one down by the AGP slot is offset to allow lots of room by the graphics card, though cooling suffers. The other one is friggin loud. Everything is made by AVC. MSI does have this feature where the MB fan headers are 7V modded in the BIOS, then flip up to full speed if the core temp exceeds 60 C. The sinks are tolerable in this configuration, but the core temps are around 50-52 C, and these are $1000 processors so that really isn't acceptable.
No one sells MCX603 rev1 or rev2 heatsinks. They've been discontinued and are long gone. Instead, I looked around for Swiftech sinks with similar properties so I can mod them, and found the MCX462+. It's essentially the same sink, though the base has much less material removed around the edges. You'll notice that on the MCX603 it looks like they just took the MCX462+ and milled out all the copper around the raised up portion to the same level as the corners on the MCX462+. The "universal bracket", $3 extra with each sink you order, allows bolting the sink to any Socket423 or Socket478 motherboard, though limits you to 70mm fans. I took a look at the placement of the 80mm fan mounts and the Socket423/Socket603 holes on the universal bracket and it looks like I'll still be able to use 80mm fans if I knock off the Socket478 part of the bracket with my tin snips. You'll notice that the mount holes for extra mount hardware are in the same position on both, but the spot is occupied by an aluminum plate on the MCX603.
MCX462+ (3"x3"x1.66", 650g) and universal bracket.
MCX603 (3"x3"x1.66", 510g) and thru-motherboard bracket
CrazyPC was having a sale on MCX462+, so I ordered 2. I've got a couple RPM-sensing Panaflo H1A's on my desk just waiting for the Swifties to get in. I'll post a follow up when I get everything in and assembled. It should go fairly easily, since MSI put a massive steel plate behind each CPU socket with tapped inserts for the thru-motherboard holes. It looks like I'll be able to use Swiftech's screws in MSI's holes, meaning I won't have to pull the computer apart to install these.
-drasnor
Motherboard: MSI K8T Master2-FAR
Processor(s): 2x AMD Opteron 248 @ 2.2GHz, 1MB L2 cache
Memory: 1GB (2x512MB) Corsair TwinX PC3200RE-LLPT DDR400, 2-3-2-6 @ 2.65V
Graphics: ATI All in Wonder 9700 Pro 128MB
Chassis: Lian Li PC-7 w/ all Panaflo H1A fans.
NIC: Integrated Broadcomm gigabit LAN w/ boot ROM.
Storage: 2x Western Digital Caviar 160GB/8MB drives in RAID0 using SATA->PATA bridge boards and VIA Southbridge SATA RAID, 1x Western Digital SE 250GB/8MB for backing up the array.
Sound: Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 Platinum
PSU: Antec TruePower EPS12v 550W, partially sleeved.
Optical Drives: Sony CRX300E 16x DVD, 48x24x48 CD-R/RW. Sony DW-U14A 4x2 DVD+/-R/RW, 24x16 CD-R/RW, 32x8 CD read/DVD read.
Other:
Internally-mounted ATI Remote Wonder
Internally-mounted Atech Flash Pro-9 USB2 multi-reader/writer.
3.5" floppy drive.
5.25" floppy drive w/ blue activity LED.
USRobotics 56k V.92 hardware PCI modem.
ALi-chipset USB2 adapter on PCI.
This is going to be my primary desktop and workstation at school, and it's going to last me for at least four more years without any significant upgrades (more RAM if needed to run Longhorn). I'm studying to be an aerospace engineer, so I'll be developing software for controlling aircraft and spacecraft, doing AutoCAD, possibly doing some computational fluid dynamics work, and simulating orbital constellations (satellites orbiting in formation). Additionally, it's going to take care of all my day-to-day stuff like surfing the internet, chatting, and gaming. I plan to use it occasionally for video capture and encoding. Right now it has Windows XP Professional (32-bit), but in a couple weeks it will also have Gentoo Linux with an A64 kernel and at an undetermined time in the future Windows XP 64-bit edition.
It also folds 24/7.
-drasnor
Heatsinks came in yesterday, and the modding went fairly smoothly. I have no idea what these brackets are made out of, except that it isn't aluminum and isn't iron-bearing and isn't cut by my steel razor saw. No problem for the reinforced cutoff wheel on the Dremel though. I think the melting point is kind of low, since friction from the cutoff wheel got the piece I was cutting off to glow red.
The standoffs Swiftech uses are English threads, some UNC series. MSI uses 3mm metric threads in the holes around the socket, so I had to buy a new die and cut 3mm threads onto the Swiftech standoffs. That went fairly smoothly, I broke one standoff but Swiftech gives you an extra. Getting the broken standoff out of the die was a pain, so watch it when your die bottoms out against the standoff.
I don't have temps yet, so bear with me. It's certainly a lot quieter than with the stock sinks, and I'm hoping the very thin layer of Arctic Silver 5 will cool better than the thermal pads bundled with the stock sinks. I'll let you know once it's all warmed up.
-drasnor
-drasnor