Heat Sink Mod

Last night I went to work on my modification of the heat sink mounting bracket I am using. I filed down the risers on the bottom of the bracket about 1/32" to compensate for the lack of an integrated heat spreader on the Core Duo CPU package. This made the heat sink so tight that I couldn't secure the latches without damaging the processor.

(update: This modification turned out to be necessary I later found out. I had just been using the mounting clips incorrectly. Please read "Start Your Engines" post for details )

It looks like MSI has already compensated for the difference in the CPU packages by making the CPU socket itself slightly higher. This means that I likely could have used the socket 478 heat sink and mounting bracket without modifying it. I added washers as spacers to the bottom of the bracket to bring the bracket back up to its stock height. When I tried this, however, the screws for the mounting bracket were not long enough to grab the backing plate on the back of the motherboard.

My local Fry's is out of stock on these mounting brackets, so I can't pick up a new one. I will try to find some longer machine screws at Home Depot, and hope they work. At least there was not damage to the CPU or motherboard during this process, and not too much time lost in the project!

When I attempted to install the heat sink, the thermal paste on the bottom of it was pressed onto the CPU die. I am not sure if I can get good contact using the same thermal compound when I reinstall the heat sink, so I also picked up some Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste and cleaner to take off the old thermal paste from the CPU and heat sink. The Arctic Silver Cleaner worked amazingly well and now the CPU die has a perfect mirror finish. I also scraped the rest of the paste off of the heat sink and used the cleaner to removed the residue. It looks surgically clean now too!