How safe is to remove the Chipset Heat Sink

[salty dog]

I posted this elsewhere but didn't get any replies so I thought this might be a better place for it....


I have just ordered a Gigabyte GA-H55-UD3H motherboard to try out as the basis of a Pro Tools HD system.

I opted for this bard as it has 4 PCI slots allowing me to use 4 Pro Tools HD PCI-X cards. I currently have a Pro Tools HD system based on a P55A-UD4 which is working great, but I'm limited to 2 x HD cards as in only has 2 PCI slots.

I already own all the extra hardware I need so I didn't go for a newer board as I don't want to have to shell out for a new CPU etc.

I one issue I foresee is that the chipset heat-sink will probably obstruct the two PCI slots nearest the CPU as the cards Im using are 64bit PCI-X, hence have an extra bit that will stick out the back of the slot.

So, me question is how risky will it be to remove the chipset heat-sink? See the picture below, I have circled the offending heat-sink in red.



I may make some kind of DIY heat-sink if I need too.

 

[minihack]

Hi,
Sorry for the obvious answer, but removing the heatsink and not putting an alternative heatsink onto it means it will overheat and you motherboard might become useless very quickly.
Numerous replacement chipset heatsinks are available though, so finding something that you could replace it with and will not interfere shouldn't be a big problem.

 

[GSUS969]

Just to reiterate - it is imperative that you have a CPU heatsink!

Check this website for low profile heatsinks. http://www.frostytech.com/top5_lowprofile_heatsinks.cfm

 

[Macblack4]

That heatsink is short - it doesn't look taller than the PCI-X connector in the picture in the middle of this page
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/ga-h55musb3-h57musb3_3.html

 

[salty dog]

Just to reiterate - it is imperative that you have a CPU heatsink!

Check this website for low profile heatsinks. http://www.frostytech.com/top5_lowprofile_heatsinks.cfm

It's not the CPU heatsink that I'm talking about, its the chipset heatsink circled in the picture.

I got the motherboard today, and the heatsink is too tall as I suspected. I've done a few measurments and I've worked out that there will be enough free space of a heatsink max 5mm high. I have removed the factory heatsink and the contact area on the chip and the heatsink is only about 1cm x 1cm. I think I'm going to try one of the heatsinks designed for RAM chips.

 

[neilhart]

Can you actually run 64 Bit PCIX cards in a 32 Bit PCI slot?

I have seen where there are PCIe host adapters cards that cable out to PCIX backplane assembly which appears painful.

neil

 

[salty dog]

Can you actually run 64 Bit PCIX cards in a 32 Bit PCI slot?

I have seen where there are PCIe host adapters cards that cable out to PCIX backplane assembly which appears painful.

neil

In this case, Yes it works.

I'm currently using 2 x 64 Bit PCIX cards successfully in 32 Bit slots, and it's working perfectly. I just want to use another 2 card for four in total.

 

[salty dog]

I have replaced the heatsink with a much shorter one that I got from a local computer store.




The adhesive thermal pad that it came with isn't great so I might need to find a way of fixing it more securely.



I had to align the new heat sink very precisely as the it is a fraction of a mm to tall for the edge connector of the PCI-X card to sit above it.

Hopefully this solution works out.

 

[DBP]

Very nice work! Of course, watch those temps like a hawk now.

I might have been tempted to get a bigger heatsink and just cut off strategic fins to provide a "slot" for the card to fit through. But if this works!...