I need to replace a fan on one of my KNC Titan cubes. What replacement fans have others had good luck with?
Very happy with Noctua NF-A14, a tad louder than stock fan but cools much better.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KFCRF1A?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage
Curious, whats the DCDC temp difference you noticed?
They managed to keep temp below 80F during summer months, but I also added individual heat sinks to the DCDC module (like in Swedish video). Temp would go up to 90 when I was using stock fan.
Edit: mod pic
Did you get a picture of your 'obviously' modified cut down 'heat sink plate' on the above also (or a link)
trying to 'man up' and do the same
on a side note I 'heard' from someone who got an email from kurt at knc (tech) back in the day ..that you put the 'thermal paste' on the 'heatsink' not the chip..just enough to cover it
not sure if legit advice or not (it is a knc tech) but figured I'd pass it along here .....perhaps we can have a debate on the merits of each
anyway my plan is if I ever do such I will simply take the 'heatsink plate' to a local metal shop ..give the guy 10 bucks to cut it 'precisely' and buff it up...lazy that I am
anyway again a picture of your mod would be great!
Traditionally for stuff like CPU's at least, you apply the TIM(thermal interface material) on the chip itself, in the form of a little bead in the center. The pressure from the heatsink being screwed down then spreads it out. This way you get a nice thin layer created by the 2 surfaces you're mating together. The TIM is only supposed to help w/ heat conductivity due to the imperfections of both of the surfaces. There isnt supposed to be a thick ass layer of it between the 2 surfaces, often times this will hurt thermal conductivity.
People & manufacturers tend to apply way too much TIM... lol...
If you want the best TIM possible there is this stuff thats miraculous for high wattage applications.
http://www.amazon.com/Coollaboratory-Liquid-Pro-Thermal-Compound/dp/B001PE5XAC
I used it on my hashfast cards, dropped the temps 20-30c ... Im not shitting ... I couldnt believe it at first myself. The watercooling tube went from a mild warmth in my hand to to a near scorching feeling in my hand... the thermal conductivity of that liquid pro is fucking insane. It should be, its literally liquid metal. Of course the hashfast cards were like 600watts or something. These Titan cubes are around 270w(actual ASIC usage)(depending on clocks / volts), so liquid pro may not have that much of an effect, but it would help still somewhat. On second thought, if the heatspreader on the Titan ASIC is aluminium then cant use liquid pro =/
Also, keep in mind the Titan ASIC is covered by a heat spreader ... it could be mounted faulty as well and no matter how u apply the heatsink ... the ASIC dies may still be running hot if the manufacturer didnt mount that heat spreader right.
Also, as far as the actual temp of the Titan ASIC itself, its all guesswork... we have no fucking idea. Heck, some of these dies not working right may be simply because they are overheating either due to bad heatsink seating or the heatspreader is mounted like shit.
If the heatspreader is actually soldered to the ASIC on all 4 dies ... then the thermal conductivity of the heatspreader should be perfect.
We only know the temps of the DCDC's modules. Which is the copper heatsink mod posted above. Each one of those is a DCDC, 2 per die.