Cooling for m1015 Raid Card

I'm looking for a fan and/or heatsink to use on my m1015 raid card. The stock heatsink is held by two plastic push pins that are about 46mm apart. The heatsink has to be light and not too high. It'll end up hanging upside down from the PCIe raid card when everything is together. After hours of searching, this is all I've found:

http://www.enzotechnology.com/slf_30mm.htm



It's not ideal. The minimum pin spacing is 47.5mm. I'd have to dremel out the pin slots. It's also $30 and I'd prefer to spend about half that much.

I don't think a fan is necessary but I do need more cooling than the stock heatsink provides at my level of case airflow.

I'd have more options if I didn't use the push pins but I don't want to use anything permanent like thermal epoxy. I've heard of thermal tape but I don't know enough about it to know if it's suitable. I worry that the heatsink would eventually fall off since it'll be upside down.

Zip ties! Wrapped strategically completely around card/heatsink, or very thin one through push pin holes on a smaller heat sink. Not very pretty, but strong and zip ties don't impede airflow significantly. BTW: you can connect two or more zip ties together to make longer ones if the ones you have are too short.

xer0 said:

Zip ties! Wrapped strategically completely around card/heatsink, or very thin one through push pin holes on a smaller heat sink. Not very pretty, but strong and zip ties don't impede airflow significantly. BTW: you can connect two or more zip ties together to make longer ones if the ones you have are too short.

Click to expand...

The zip tie solution looks tough if I replace the heatsink. The problem is that the heatsink overlaps the PCIe connector so I can't wrap around the short side of the card.



I could leave the stock heatsink in place and add a small 30-35mm fan with zip ties. There are two good spots to thread zip ties under the heatsink. I'd still prefer to use an integrated solution like the SLF-30 though.

I just zipped tied a 80mm fan to the empty expansion slot below the card. It blows right on the card and didn't cost me anything.

A thin ziptie from the bottom right (right next to the PCIe pins) to the top left cutout should work. The cards do not actually need to bottom out in the PCIe connector and there should be a couple millimeters of room from the bottom of the card to the top of the PCIe slot when it's seated.

Or vice versa a long ziptie from the bottom left cutout, all the way across heat sink through hole in top right corner.

With a taller heat sink/fan, it will probably hold even more tightly againt top of ROC.

kristof said:

The zip tie solution looks tough if I replace the heatsink. The problem is that the heatsink overlaps the PCIe connector so I can't wrap around the short side of the card.

I could leave the stock heatsink in place and add a small 30-35mm fan with zip ties. There are two good spots to thread zip ties under the heatsink. I'd still prefer to use an integrated solution like the SLF-30 though.

Click to expand...

osrk said:

I just zipped tied a 80mm fan to the empty expansion slot below the card. It blows right on the card and didn't cost me anything.

Click to expand...

You gave me an interesting idea! Buy any old broken card from ebay. Remove all components, dremel off the PCI contacts, drill four holes for a fan, mount fan using standoffs. The idea is that I could install the card adjacent to the m1015 so the fan blows directly on the m1015 heatsink.

xer0 said:

A thin ziptie from the bottom right (right next to the PCIe pins) to the top left cutout should work. The cards do not actually need to bottom out in the PCIe connector and there should be a couple millimeters of room from the bottom of the card to the top of the PCIe slot when it's seated.

Or vice versa a long ziptie from the bottom left cutout, all the way across heat sink through hole in top right corner.

With a taller heat sink/fan, it will probably hold even more tightly againt top of ROC.

Click to expand...

I didn't notice the hole in the upper right or the notch on the bottom left. Duh! Thanks for pointing them out. I'll probably go this route since I need to spend as little time as possible.

kristof said:

You gave me an interesting idea! Buy any old broken card from ebay. Remove all components, dremel off the PCI contacts, drill four holes for a fan, mount fan using standoffs. The idea is that I could install the card adjacent to the m1015 so the fan blows directly on the m1015 heatsink.

Click to expand...

You can get those ready made!

DeathPrincess said:

You can get those ready made!

Click to expand...

I did not know that! I was only familiar with the kind that pull air from the case and exhaust it out the case slot area. I'll look for one like the Vantec Blue Spectrum but for PCIe 1x and without the blue light bling.

kristof said:

I did not know that! I was only familiar with the kind that pull air from the case and exhaust it out the case slot area. I'll look for one like the Vantec Blue Spectrum but for PCIe 1x and without the blue light bling.

Click to expand...

From the looks of it it would fit into a PCIe slot too (even if it doesn't a simple modification with a knife would make it fit, it gets no power from the PCI port), similarily, those LEDs could probably be just be snipped off at the wires!

After thinking about this more, I decided to go this route. I can use a quiet 120mm fan and don't lose a slot. It also fits in well with my current cooling configuration. I have intake fans on the right side of the drive cage that blow across the drives. Exhaust is out the back of the case.

thx