Mounting an SLK900U on a Epox 8RDA3G

[Rev.Reboot]

Hello to all on these forums!


I bought a Epox 8RDA3G after my 8RDA+ sadly past away last week.
With the 8RDA3G I also decided to get myself one of those Thermalright SLK900-U heatsinks with an Enermax 92mm adjustable fan as well as some other goodies (Titan copper fan on NB, Zalman copper heatsink on SB and copper heatsinks on MOSfets) to transform this newly purchased mobo into a superduper aircooled overclocker :-)
(Yes I've considered watercooling as well, but that will have to be something for the (near) future)

Well to the point:

I've been looking and looking at this wonderfully box filled with all this material that came with the SLK900-U, but I can't seem to figure out in what order to slap that beast on my motherboard.

Point is I want to do it right the first time, and the things I do know are that the X is to go underneath the mobo with the plastic sheet in between.
But from here on my mind starts worrying, I can't seem to figure out where or in what order to fit all the plastic washers that came with the heatsink, I know they need to go between the X and the motherboard on the bottom, but which one's go here???
I also know some go between the motherboard and the screws where the HSF will be mounted onto, but which one's go here???



A few details that might be asked otherwise :-P

- CPU: Athlon XP3000+
- CPU cooler: Thermalright SLK900-U
- Motherboard: Epox 8RDA3G Rev. 2.0

Oh and the holes that the heatsink is supposed to be mounted on on this particular motherboard doesn't have any metal rings in it, there just holes in the ground plate of the motherboard, nothing in it.

I would really appreciate it if someone can provide me with some answers on this, because I really don't want to either crush my CPU's core or Burn it because it doesn't make contact with the HSF.


Thanks for whoever has taken the time to read this and I look forward to a helping answer.

Shellshock.

[Neoprene]

Hi ,

Try this :

http://3dvelocity.com/reviews/slk800u/slk800u_1.htm

or this

http://www.3dgameman.com/vr/thermalr...eo_review.html

and this ..link to the official instructions.

http://www.thermalright.com/

I followed them all and had no problems , all you`ve got to do is to make sure the plastic washers are located between the mobo surface and the rest of the mounting screws.

[Rev.Reboot]

Thanks a lot for the links you supplied me with Neoprene, managed to slap it on yesterday evening. I had to put on both plastic washers between the motherboard and the HS since this board has the small HSF holes.

Installed it in my case with all the rest of the stuff and will be formatting and reinstalling XP tonight, then for the magic moment :-)

Any tips in what order to install drivers etc?

I was thinking in the following order, but if anyone has any experience or suggestions on installing it in another order or using other drivers please let me know.

- XP (Home edition/NL)
- SP1
- 2.45 Nforce2 drivers (or are there other drivers that are better suitable for the 8RDA3G?)
- Flashing to the latest Bios for 8RDA3G
- Direct X 9b
- Radeon Catalyst 3.8 drivers (9700PRO)
- Norton Personal firewall
- Norton Antivirus
- All available necessary windows updates

[cloasters]

Welcome to AOA Forums, Rev.Reboot!

A partial answer: Get connected to the Web as quickly as possible during the XP installation process. The OS is very good at finding the drivers it needs at Microsoft. They may not be the latest, but they work well with few exceptions.

Your proposed order of driver installation looks good. Personally, I shy away from BIOS updates until they are absolutely necessary. Lots of folks think differently.

[Neoprene]

Hi ,

There is a 2.45 nforce 2 "remix " which from what I have seen , has SW drivers which were not updated in the original driver release. I`m using this " remix " and although havent noticed a massive performance increase, they have caused me no problems.

http://www.mwarhead.tk/

Good luck with your new setup and OC.

[Rev.Reboot]

Thanks for the replies, I've had the system up and running since last weekend and it runs great.

I installed XP, updated to the latest Bios and installed everything else.
Also it appeared Hercules had released their own version of the 3.8 catalyst drivers as well and I installed them.
Machine runs absolutely great, 15853 3Dmarks2001SE with everything @ stock speeds.

Now I'm getting eager to clock this baby, but is it possible that the 8RDA3G reads the CPU temps incorrect or differently from the 8RDA+?
The temps (in degrees celcius) I'm reading now with USDM as well as with speedfan 4.09 are:

CPU
Idle:43
Load:49 max.

Case:
Idle: 27
Load: 30 max.

This is with the SLK900-U with a 92MM enermax fan running @ 2700rpm and 6 casefans (2 intake on full speed, 2 intake on half speed and 2 outtake on full speed as well as the PSU's 92mm fan above the CPU on full speed) running. Also all air exiting the system through the outtake fans feels COOL!

I've put a very thin layer of arctic silver 3 on the core of the processor and rubbed some into the SLK's CPU contact plate, did everything as described in the instructions on both arctic silver's and thermalright's website.

On the arctic silver website it's mentioned that Arctic silver 3 needs approx. 200 hours to settle in and temps might then drop another 2-5 degrees celcius.
But to be honest, with this setup I was expecting my CPU temps to be below 40 degrees celcius on load @ stock speeds.

I've noticed when mounting my processor on this board that it has the temp sensor directly under the CPU, the 8RDA+ didn't have this. Might this be causing a different read out on the CPU temps perhaps?

If there is a difference in read out on this board what will the temps be let's say in comparison to the 8RDA+ then?


Thanks all for your help and time.


Added some links to pics of my system so you can see my setup:

Sidewindow, all alu outside and copper inside :-)

A closer look on the inside

Front & side view

[Neoprene]

Hi ,

There have been several posts on temps with this board , when I had one I found BIOS updating caused a jump in temp reporting. I guess the only way to be sure is to get an independent temp probe and measure the core temp. Important if you plan to overclock. Oh and lol , I NEVER had a temp below 40c , even @ stock .

Very nice setup btw .. lol if my digital camera ever functions again I might post one of mine !

Good luck with your overclock ,

Gerry

[Rev.Reboot]

Hi again,

Well I had already ordered a coolermaster Aerogate II which comes with several temparature sensors and looks cool doing it's job as well.

Now if I put one of those sensors to measure my CPU's temparatures what would be the best place to put it to get an accurate reading?
Also would it be wise to let the AS3 give some time to settle in before starting on OC'ing?

Too bad I won't have it untill the beginning of next week, I'm really curious what the readout on the Aerogate II will be so I can be can keep full control on my temps while OC'ing.

A lot of questions coming from me, but I'm the kind of person that rather gathers some information and then starts on something to make sure I get it right the first time and this seems a good place with quite a bit of experience to gather that information from ;-)

[wgragg]

I'm curious. The 8rda3g looks like it is laid out very similar to the 8rda3+. Did you have any clearance problems between the heatsink and the nb cooler? If so, how did you fix it?

Wendell

[Neoprene]

Originally Posted by wgragg

I'm curious. The 8rda3g looks like it is laid out very similar to the 8rda3+. Did you have any clearance problems between the heatsink and the nb cooler? If so, how did you fix it?

Wendell

Hi,

I had no problems mounting an SLK-800U on an 8rda3+ , even with a 92mm fan.

[Rev.Reboot]

WGRAGG: As you can see in the pics of my system, I replaced the stock NB fan by a Titan full copper NB fan (TTC-CUV2AB). After that I had all the clearance in the world to slap on the SLK-900 and a better cooled NB as well

On the subject of my CPU temps
I've mounted the Aerogate and put all the temparature sensors in place.
I stuck the temparature sensor for the CPU just above the bottom plate of the SLK, and Although these readouts aren't optimal the readout on the CPU temps with the Aerogate are 33.5 max now, so my guess is the real cpu temps are probably somewhere in between the readout from the 8RDA3G's CPU temp sensor and the Aerogate temp sensor which should leave the CPU stressed at an estimated max temp of 40.