I had been waiting on upgrading to socket A until the KT133a
chipset became available. After reading all the reviews I decided to go with
an Iwill KK266 and a Duron 800 (actually I had the Duron from an RMA of a
chip I fried about a month ago building a server). Upon securing the MoBo
I ripped the guts out of my test rig and slapped the new parts in only to
realize that I could not use my direct water to die configuration and still
access the bridges atop the Duron. I rifled through my box of water
blocks, finding one giant block of copper after another and not a single beehive
- so It was down to the lab to make one!
This was a perfect chance for me to try out some ideas I had
been bouncing around. The first of these was to use a solid silver dollar
(circa 1902) as the base for a beehive - I had seen plastic blocks with a
silver plate glued to the bottom, very similar in design to the "Tide Pool"
which I had already blatantly ripped off when I was doing my "Tide-hive" experiments.
The "Tide-hive" worked well enough and was easy enough to make that a japanese
site was selling an exact copy and kit to make it only 2 weeks after I posted
it.
The one difference with this unit is that I placed a single
3/16" copper pin sticking up in the center of the base, hoping that it would
increase the surface area without disrupting the swirling effect of the water.
I also reduced the size of the copper cap to 1 1/4" so that it would fit onto
the coin. Once it was all soldered together I took it to the sander to try
and get "lady Liberty" off the mating surface. I have to praise the US mint
in their coin stamping - after 99 years the relief was still very deep and
took some serious sanding to get rid of the image. Once I had lapped it smooth
I took this shot to show the nice shiny silver bottom, unfortunately the copper
pin coming through the bottom is not visible.
Once I had the block done I realized the round shape would prevent it from
sitting on the Duron's rubber feet. I tried a conventional type clip but it
was too wobbly to be effective - so back to the lab!
This is what I came up with. Basically a version of my spring clip that makes
use of all three socket lugs to keep it from rocking on the die. This clip
works better than I had hoped and keeps the block parallel to the die at all
times.
Once I had it all stuffed into the case I fired it up and got a reading of
27c in the bios - it was doing it's job :) I have run this thing at 1.92v
(the KK266's 1.85volt setting) at everything from 6.5x150 to 10x100 and was
never able to get the temp to rise above 37c under full load (my Alpha
PAL 6035 topped out at 43c!).
I normally test my blocks on a peltier - but because of the diminutive size
and the central pin placement, the results would have been misleading. I am
going to try a few different configurations, as soon as I can find the necessary
coins to make them. 1900's silver dollars are not all that rare, but usually
sell for $5 or more - finding them for $1 is not as easy as I would have thought
;)
I really like the fact that this block is small and light yet
performs like those big ass hunks of metal that everyone else is selling -
not to mention it only cost me $5 us. to make it. So, if your lookin for a
kick ass water block that wont rip the lugs off your socket or rip the
wallet from your pocket - go raid Juniors piggy bank, fire up the torch, grab
a beer and make yourself useful!
Dr. Surlyjoe
