Upside down cases, heat pipe coolers

R

ribs1

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 2, 2005
Messages
216
Hey guys,
I'm planning to buy a lian li V1000 case and I was wondering if there is any evidence that a motherboard with heat pipe coolers will actually have problems in a case like this. I've been looking at some of the boards from Asus. I also might buy an A8N SLI premium from a friend. Lots of people say these boards will have problems in an upside down case, but is there any real evidence? Does anyone elso run a board like this in one of these cases?
Thanks
ribs
 
depends on the board and the kind of heatpipes used I am guessing.

Some heatpipes will have a wick to transfer the fluid back down while others rely on gravity to do their dirty work.

I would contact the motherboard manufacturer and ask them
 
If you go with the A8N-SLI series i suggest the deluxe and not the premium. The deluxe has more fan 3pin connectors and basically same set up minus the pipes... and i think its cheaper. thats just my opinion.
 
I have a A8N32 SLI in the PC V1000 and have watercooled both the NB and SB chipsets. Asus recommends that you do not mount that board, or any heatpipe cooled Asus board, in the "upside down and backwards" configuration.
 
"Good" heatpipes work in any orientation. They use a wick-like material to move the liquid back to the hot area. Capillary action pulls the liquid along; gravity and the pipe orientation doesn't make a significant difference.

I quote "good" because there are heatpipes that use gravity to move the liquid. I've never used them or come across them, so I can't say much about them.

Asus recommends that you do not mount that board, or any heatpipe cooled Asus board, in the "upside down and backwards" configuration.
Click to expand...

I'd say go with the Asus recommendation just to be safe. But I'm skeptical they're using gravity-driven heatpipes. Where did you find the info from Asus?
 
I called Asus tech support, and they told me the same thing: dont mount the mobo upside down. "It'll fry your chipset." (P5B Deluxe)

Now, the *flip-side* to this argument is that I literally turned my Lian Li PC60 upside down and let it run idle in BIOS for about an hour. The "MB temperature" in BIOS was 40 C in the normal position. In the upside down position, it was

Granted, I did not "stress" the northbridge chip since this was just in BIOS (sorry, no OS installed yet). Then again, my top "blowhole" fan is pointing downward and all my cool air enters the case at the "top" when it's flipped too.

Take it only for what it is. Your milage may vary.
 
Dammit, I was gonna get the P5B Deluxe with the Lian Li v1000 II Plus.

I guess the DS3 is the way to go now, huh?
 
Crap, now I'm hearing reports of the DS3 overclocks degrading over time. I'm starting to hate these first gen of Conroe Mobos.
 
tbonem91 said:
theres a decent discussion in here on it: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1093010
Click to expand...

Thanks, read through the whole thing. Seems like no one has actually fried their mobo mounting it inverted.

However, when I just sit back and look at it, I see where all the concern lays - logically if you flip it, water will "pool" on the end that it's not suppose to. On the other hand, if there's such a miniscule amount of liquid inside the heatpipes, I see no reason to worry.

Then again, you could always get the: Lian Li v1000 II Plus to be safe. There's enough fans to cool both ends of the heatpipe.

One question though, where is the Southbridge or Northbridge chips located on this motherboard (P5B deluxe)?
 
You might find it interesting to know that the "fluid" in the mobo in question is just air.

That's right . . just air.

Your temps will be ~10c higher. . . I promise.

I eventually just cut off the pipe and munted a zalman.


Hope that helps!
 
esturk said:
You might find it interesting to know that the "fluid" in the mobo in question is just air.

That's right . . just air.

Your temps will be ~10c higher. . . I promise.

I eventually just cut off the pipe and munted a zalman.


Hope that helps!
Click to expand...

Can you recommend a good aftermarket replacement? Can you link me to the Zalman (and possibly explain to me real quick how you would remove the heat pipe)?

"Cutting it off" sounds like you need a mini-saw or something.
 
i just read my own post... goofy.

I FLIPPED my PC60 case upside down BEFORE buying a V1000 to see if it would make a difference. I only ran the mobo in bios for 1 hour, but the temperatures did not vary at all. Not so much as 1 degree.

Additionally, i've READ that some heatpipe manufacturers have designed their PC heatsinks to work upside down.

Food for thought.
 
grit said:
i just read my own post... goofy.

I FLIPPED my PC60 case upside down BEFORE buying a V1000 to see if it would make a difference. I only ran the mobo in bios for 1 hour, but the temperatures did not vary at all. Not so much as 1 degree.

Additionally, i've READ that some heatpipe manufacturers have designed their PC heatsinks to work upside down.

Food for thought.
Click to expand...

Well, I sent ASUS and e-mail and they said it doesn't work effectively upside-down. So I guess ASUS motherboards are out with the upsidedown config.
 
I just finished building 2 systems with this board.i played with one on the bench for a week before i had to assemble it for the customer.I ran the board in standard mounting position and then upside down.i ran each in this position for 3 days each.
No fans at all blowing on the board.there was a 5c-7c degree difference in the temp of the chipset.i monitored the temps with compunurse.the probe was touching the core.in standard config temps were 39-42c idle and 46-51c loaded prime for 6 hours.upside down config idle temps were 42-44c and loaded 53-58 prime for 6 hours.the ambient temp in the room was right at 78 deg f.a/c in fla.blowing a fan on the motherboard made very little difference.so it seems like it makes a difference but not enough to destroy your board.i personally prefer the active cooling fans on these boards as i can always modify the heatsink and fan and get them to run nice and cool.all these o/clockers and modifiers cant stand a little fan noise and have to have silent boards,i dont understand it.look at dfi boards true o/clocking boards and you dont see heatpipes on them.there is a reason for it,cooler temps with active cooling and you may have a small amount of fan noise but you have to be pretty anal to complain of the amount of noise the fan makes when working properly.and when a fan goes out it takes very little effort to put on a replacement or modify an aftermarket one to work better than the oem one.my asus a8n-e o/clcoked with a modified cooler on the nf4 chipset never gets above 38c and runs normally at 33c ina 78f room.i like the foxconn sli 590 board and as hot as these nf5 systems run i wouldnt buy a heatpipe board.the new dfi 590 sli board looks nice.ill get one of those before the year is out.......
 
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