Im interested too, how hard is it to put the brackets in, gotta titan running offsite that could use some cooling down during the summer months.
I just did my first 4 after stalling (blew a plug..did the dig out the burnt plastic on the plug to the bare pins and slide on the knc y adapter hack trick works well no issues)
Anyway got me off my ass to repaste after 22 months
NOTE: they get quite dirty after 22 months don't ya know. (the occasional blast of air into the cube notwithstanding ...) So that scared the living crap out of
me and also helped after cleaning the heat issue. (The rubber mounts they use on the kludge Titan KNC heatsink after time they degrade and they get oil leak an oil like film that coats everything)
Anyway alcohol and Q tips later ....pain in the butt to clean....ready to repaste
Below is a link to what I think is the best stuff at the best prices to do such a re-paste and upgrade to the X brackets etc on other threads here
also a list of the best parts and prices I could find of the other parts besides Maxumark's X brackets .which at his price is a steal imho.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1283859.msg15286157#msg15286157Anyway I likely put on too much thermal paste..may as well be up front about this. The thermal paste above is thick above. I've been told
(and 2 of my cubes I got used) that the Arctic Thermal paste is TOO thin ..seemed true enough on 2 cubes I re-did...so I went the other way.
Will become clear below with dithering about it probably did not matter....but that is explained below.
As to the brackets themselves. I had a couple Philip head screws holding the board down on one of my cubes that were NOT long enough to attach the bracket
wings on the existing cooler tube plate on the copper radiator/cooler. So I just swapped them for 2 case cover screws that worked instead and then those Philip head
screws are used now instead to replace and hold the cube cover on. The other 3 cubes the screws all were the same as the titan cover screws etc
So anyway you mount the brackets as per instructions (big whoop ...screw them on with 4 screws).
HOW I did the repaste seemed to work with the thermal paste I list above I used. I put the paste on the cooler end not the chip first....then I lowered it on
to the chip. I then took it off. Sure enough all the edges missed. (note on all knc cubes NONE of the edges had thermal paste on them thus my method and
test above to see first before committing to screw down).
So looking at that I do a bit of 'make sure the edges are covered' and 'touch up"
I then put a bit more on the cooler plate copper tubes part to replace what was taken off in my 'look see' above test (probably I used too much thermal paste
but it seems fine) and made sure all the chip itself was covered along with again my replacement on the cooler plate side also from what was taken off on the
test mount of the above....again getting off as much excess as I could keeping both covered.
I then put the whole thing on the chip. A bit of wiggle and alignment so the screw holes match up and should be set.
I put 2 screws in on on / part of the X plate (cross ways placement of screws) and then the other two on the other \ of the
X plate bracket arrangement. Then carefully went clockwise around not tightening it down too much.
If you look thru at the board below edgewise you can tell if it is 'taco'd' bent a bit much (a bow) so I just release some screw pressure in the above cross X pattern till it all evens out and seems less so and level.
It sounds here harder then what it is..to do the above ...but his is 'just so' kinda fiddling...but when it is all even and the cooler tower does not wiggle at all you are golden!
You should also when you look at the chip edgewise have a nice caulk like bead of thermal paste around your chip
when you look at it from the side. Mine all looked pretty clean in a caulk gun kinda way. I assume the wiggle
to get everything just so works it all around and evens out my repaste (of likely too much thermal paste) with any excess forming this nice bead around the chip
Hell whatever floats the boat and works. I've done 4 cubes so far this way they all have the same bead and work great ..just gonna go with it
With this mod the clunky KNC with the rubber mount heatsinks are now gone (yea! no more rubber mounts leaking oil)...NOTE: thou I did leave the 2 UNDER the board
rubber mounts alone for support after wiping them down with alcohol and cleaning them ...just so you know)
Anyway with that gone you can NOW see thru the whole titan cube. It is wide open in comparison!
With the chips having heat sinks on them it is quite the little 'wind tunnel' especially with the 3000 rpm fan I used (see above) the fan is a BIT louder but imho maybe only 20% louder) hardly a big deal with my miners in the basement. But man you put that new fan in a cube and do a side by side comparison of a knc fan in a cube the diff is dramatic
...feels like a hair dryer.....zoom zoom..with the opening up of all that area in there by getting rid of the knc kludge heatsink setup and all them small heatsinks in the wind as it were.
I found 10c temp drop on ALL DIES on the 4 cubes I've done so far. Some up to 15c down so went from 80/70 ranges to the 70/60 ranges and that was the day my
basement was 84F!
Now most of this is this 3000 rpm fan imho (no frigging way was the knc fan as I was told 2000 rpm) but anyway the clear view and no obstructions
by adding Maxumark's X brackets.....again for a nice wind tunnel effect...all my spiky copper 8 heatsink replacements have no obstructions at all to the fan air flow.
Also of the 4 problem dies that were underclocked on my 4 cubes. And the one cube that could never get above 300 setting on adv page no matter what.
Now after all this the 4 dies that were at 200,225, 250, 275 are all 325. The cube that was only able to do a 300 setting now can do 325 w/o issue BUT was pulling 42 amps to do
so per die ...so backed it off to 300 too be safe (probably will back all my stuff off to 300 as I repaste and clean too keep lightfoot happy.....he is not big on my 325mh Titan abuse)
On the other hand...
The cube that was full out at 325 (and melted the plug and now has the knc y adapter to bare pin hack) is kinda hard to clock down. In that it is at 38/40 current draw
on the dies and in the 84F basement 68/58 for temp on the dies. (lol) So I've left that one alone.
I also gained on the tweaks of the above in getting some speed back gained 10mh, thou to be truthful they were plenty oily and dirty let me tell you. I won't let it get
that bad again. Again that is 10mh total for the 4 cubes I've done so far as a total of all 4 not per cube.
All in all with the above items/X bracket/heatsinks/repaste and the gen tarkin 3rd party firmware we just might keep these puppies from going doorstop for another
couple of years (LTC price rise willing) who'd a thunk it
Anyway GET THE BRACKETS/HEATSINKS/FAN/THERMAL PASTE and re-do the works and CLEAN the oil/dirt out of your cubes!
They will be oily and dirty even if you have blown out the dust once in awhile. The nature of those rubber mounts after all this time they will have leaked an oil coating
on everything, dusty thou it may be also.
So I have 10 more cubes to have done. The above cost of all this was 60 bucks a cube (see above links) but man well worth it at these LTC prices etc.
Anyway how the brackets should have been designed (and hell probably were at one time till they went cheap or why the hell are there 4 mount holes in an X pattern
that fits the standard model water cooler pad (see above link)
?
So imho KNC went on the cheap and did the rubber foam/plate arrangement to save money on copper
heatsinks per 8 and not bothering to figuring out a better bracket) (knc: cheap as hell and proud of it) (tm knc)
anyway my experiences with this repaste of cubes and brackets. So I recommend the brackets as a great buy for the price.
Note: I will add pictures on some of my other re-pastes and this bracket. I just was having so much fun ramping them up did not do so with the first 4 cubes
