Rumor has it a single BM1397 can hit 25W if you really go for it. So, that's like 15A for two chips at 3.3V
ive never built the bitaxe before so whats the power draw on there to get say around 700gh? I know on the s17+ you can get it to around 370gh per chip.
I am right now running 6 BM1397 in the R909 that Skot linked to you earlier, producing 2.133Th/s at around 100W. So you need 2 chips at 350GH/s each and those will pull about 30W together. Giving them more juice just makes them run too hot and getting less efficient.
thermal paste would work but you run the risk of not putting enough on and it making contact same with thermal adhesive.
Thermal paste would still give you contact in some areas. It is just meant to fill tiny imperfections in the metal of heatsink & chip, not to create an electrically insulating layer between them.
Maybe look into graphite thermal pads. They have very high thermal conductivity (like paste) and I believe low electrical conductivity.
The way the 17+ is laid out it has seperate heatsinks per asic but thats also in a machine with a 6000 rpm fan
You could buy yourself an R909 and open it up (I won't do it with mine); I see 2 beefy heatsinks, one per side of the PCB. It has 6 chips. No idea how sidehack did it.
