Intel Socket LGA775 Installation



As seen above the Socket-T installation on our Asus P5AD2-E Premium (and P5ND2-SLI Deluxe) didn't go smoothly. I decided the best solution was to remove the "Fanless Design" mosfet-sink Asus uses on the P5 boards. This is of-course and ad-hoc solution and most likely not conducive to a water-cooling kit sold perhaps for an entry-level user. None-the-less at this stage it was my only alternative and once removed I was in for quite a surprise.



It's obvious somewhere along the way an Asus employee confused toothpaste application with thermal paste application. Where this amount of thermal paste is used an opposite result is obtained. The paste acts as a insulator where it's needlessly applied as bare copper would normally radiate heat much more efficiently then if it were "insulated" with a foreign substance. I set about at cleaning things up.




The Ring



After consulting XSPC about this issue I realized once again I'd just about lived up to my reputation as an idiot savant. An item supplied by XSPC intended to raise the mounting plate above any cap's or other devices is supplied with each kit. Unfortunately its ambiguous label had me overlook it. The item is, haunting in its simplicity.



Applying the Ring takes about 1-second, it simply drops onto the water block. Made of aluminum the ring has a lip matching the mounting plate securing it from sliding off the CPU water block surface.



Unfortunately the height of the Ring was just about 2mm shy raising the mounting plate above the Asus Fan less Mosfet heatsink.



XSPC informed me they were willing to ship out another ring to stack upon the first; however, I thought the point was clearly made. While the ring is an ideal solution several should be included with each kit which would truly make the X20's mounting plate "universal."




Intel Tests

Intel Test System
CPU	Pentium 630 Retail (SL7Z9 3.0GHz 2MB L2 1.25V ~ 1.388Vcore) Socket-775
Mainboards	1.) Asus P5AD2-E Premium (BIOS 1005)
Memory	Crucial Tracer Balliztix 5300 (2x512MB DC CL4-4-4-12)
Graphics	1.) AOpen Aeolus 7800GTX-DVD256
Power Supply	PCPower&Cooling TurboCool 850 SSI
Cooling	XSPC X20 Alphacool 12V Cora 662 XP (passive H20-system)
Operating System	Windows XP

Were performed running the Pentium 630 at Default speed and Vcore 15x201FSB=3034MHz / 1.31Vcore then overclocked at 15x270FSB=4073MHz / 1.450Vcore.

Temps were recored at IDLE and LOAD using the CPU/Memory/VGA stress test utility S&M to stress both threads on the 630 creating LOAD. Identical condiitons were recreated in Thermaltake's Kandalf case with 120mm front intake and 90mm rear exhaust.

Ambient room temps = 19°C/66°F. CPU temps were recorded using the Prescott 630 internal thermal diode. Thumbnails below exemplify speeds, voltage and temps.

3034MHz IDLE | 3034MHz LOAD | 4073MHz IDLE | 4073MHz LOAD