Installation – S939 and 775

Once the decision is made to purchase the VapoChill LS and the initial excitement wears off, the end user is then left with the daunting process of installing the system. There are two ways to attack the install in our view. The first is to go all guns blazing and start cutting up the PC case so that the VapoChill LS can be installed underneath. Asetek do provide the full cutting guide to allow this, however it is clearly not the easiest way to begin. The alternative is to take the decision to leave the side of the case off at all times. This isn't the most aesthetically pleasing method, however it does make life easier and is the route we followed.

So with that decision made we began to look at the installation of the system. The first steps are straightforward and involve assembling the plate which sits underneath the motherboard. This plate has pre drilled holes in it and you place a foam insulation sheet on top followed by a heating element which reduces the risk of condensation forming. The following shot shows the results:

For S939 systems the two middle holes have plastic washers inserted, on socket 775 the four corner holes are used.

The next step is to place the above components underneath the motherboard and align the 2 or 4 holes with the motherboard screw holes. This can be a bit tricky and it does help to have a second pair of hands available. Especially when the next step is to pass a metal guide pole through the motherboard hole and screw into the back plate. To do this we were required to put pressure on the motherboard in order to compress the insulation on the back and make the guide poles reach the backplate to screw in. The result is as follows:

There is actually a method of attaching the poles which is not noted in the manual however this makes the install easier. That is to attach the thumbscrews to the top of the pole prior to this step and it can then be used to make the screwing of the pole into the backplate a much easier process.

The next installation step differs across the various CPU sockets. On the 939 test system the next step is to coat the underside of the CPU (pins) in the supplied thermal paste. This isn't something that we were keen to do, and to be honest the manuals black and white faded pictures didn't make us feel any more confident. The socket 775 install is a little different and instead we were instructed to fill the centre of the CPU socket with an insulation square.

With the 939 system we decided that putting paste all over the pins wasn't the easiest way of getting this done and instead we rubbed paste over the socket, this meant that all of the pins would be covered when inserted and the base of the CPU would also be covered too (in theory). The picture below shows the CPU after we removed it.

As you can see the CPU is going to take a bit of cleaning at some point.

So with the CPU's installed and the guide poles inserted it was time to take the next step, adding some more insulation. This is a relatively simple step and involves taking the two insulation layers and placing them around the CPU socket. The step is slightly complicated in that we have to remove a protective layer from the bottom insulation to reveal some adhesive which is very sticky, keeping the bottom layer completely flat whilst trying to fit on the top layer is very fiddly. The result is as follows:

As indicated in the above 939 shot the next step is to apply the thermal paste. Asetek supply a plentiful volume of the paste in an easy to use syringe and we layer the paste onto the CPU until it is completely covered. The motherboard can now be installed in the case.

Following the installation of the motherboard in the case we assemble the CPU attachment which insulates the CPU block and holds another heating element. This is again not a complex procedure, however we do need to state that Asetek really need to supply better quality documentation as the diagrams in the manual are less than stellar. A bit of common sense gets us there, however we could see this being daunting for a novice.

The next step of the installation according to Asetek is to install the evaporator on the CPU, however this reduces room to move in the system so we opted to install the ChillControl next. Asetek supply attachments to adhere the panel to the case and other than that all that is required is a few wires connected here and there to connect power, USB, heating elements and the LED display. It does make the case a little more messy, however with some time, ties and a little effort this could be solved.

So with the CPU ready and the wiring completed all that is left is to install the cooler on the CPU, a simple process which involves pushing the evaporator over the guide poles which surround the CPU and then tightening the thumbscrews. This is probably the easiest step of the whole process and all we need be concerned with is making sure there is good contact with the processor.

Here is how the installed cooler looks (top left 939 bottom 775):