Things you’ll need.
1
the motherboard and GPUs from
condensation because I have found
that the dry eraser tends to not
insulate the surrounding surface
mounted components from the
cold. On GPUs this can especially
cause problems on long bench
sessions. Use the brush and apply
the grease all around the socket
(areas marked green) so that the
board is coated adequately. If you
are overclocking memory using
sub-zero cooling, then insulate this
area as well, getting all around the
DIMM slots. On the back side of the
motherboard, apply the grease with
the brush covering up pretty much
whole top half of the motherboard.
For this guide, I will just cover CPU
and memory preparation for LN2
overclocking. The next instalment
will be covering GPU preparation
for single and four way multi-GPU
overclocking at which point I will
detail what to do with bottom half of
board near PCIe slots.
After the grease has been
applied, take the hair dryer and
heat up the board around the DIMM
slots and CPU socket to make the
grease more viscous so it flows in
between the DIMM slots, around
the CPU socket and PWM area
leaving no critical motherboard
surfaces free from grease. I don’t
recommend putting grease directly
in the CPU socket or DIMM slots as
this can lead to hardware detection
issues later on. After you have
greased the board entirely, clean
off the top of the PWM mosfets and
replace the motherboard PWM
heat-sink.
STEP B
Now take the foam tape and cut
out pieces so they fit neatly around
the CPU socket and DIMM area
as show in pictures 4 and 5. Make
sure there are no gaps or cracks
where air can easily get in (example
circled in green) and cause
moisture/ice.
Usually I will double layer the
tape first before I start cutting
the pieces out so each piece is
just the right thickness. On the
backside of the motherboard, cut
some flat pieces of tape to cover
the underside of the socket area
and the DIMM slots as shown
in picture 6. When applying
the foam, tape or pre-cut the
socket area pieces to the board,
peel the backing off and spread
grease all along the sticky side
of the cut pieces before you
stick them on the board. This is
of paramount importance as it
forms a nice air tight seal under
the tape to keep moisture out.
Install the CPU and slide in the
CPU mounting hardware/rods.
Once you’ve done that, put all
the pre-cut pieces around the
CPU socket and DIMM slots so
we are ready for next step.
Issue 20 | 2012 The OverClocker 19