Ninja/Ninja Copper Baseplate and S1 cooling

thetoad30 · Post by **thetoad30** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 7:47 pm

All,

After water cooling for a few years, I think I've decided to go back to air cooling. It's not that I don't love the water cooling and the silence, but that I just don't have the time or patience anymore for maintenance or for the degree of difficulty that water cooling adds when trying to replace components.

Anyway, I know that I want to get really good temps and really silent heat sinks, even though I'm a gamer.

Here's what I have:

P182
C2D E6700
Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 (has Crazy Cool, a heat sink on the bottom of the board needed to hold on the NB heat sink)
EVGA 8800GT SSC 512MB

I was looking at the Ninja, the Ninja Plus Rev. B, and the new all-copper Ninja. My biggest concern is the Ninja/Ninja Copper backplate. Will it fit over the crazy cool? Does anyone have a Gigabyte board with a Crazy Cool that can show pics? I'd say I could just get longer screws, but the last thing I want to do is over-tighten and kill my motherboard/CPU.

Secondly, I'm wondering if the Copper Ninja is worth it. I know there is a review of it said to be had here at SPCR, so I will probably wait, but does anyone have a *rough* time frame of the review? I know no specifics due to timing and promises and all that, but is it relatively close? I need these components soon (within a week or two, I suppose).

For the last part, does the S1 with a YL 12SL (Slow-speed Yate Loon) on it cool the 8800GT pretty well? I think the 1950XT that was used is roughly equivalent to the 8800GT in terms of wattage, but my fear is that mine is OC'ed from the factory. Not sure what this does to wattage as I don't have any equipment to measure.

Also, is the S1 SLI approved? I can't really tell from the pictures. Is there someone with an edge on that gives a wider angle so I can tell how many slots it takes up?

Also, with the pictures, I can't tell how close the heat pipes come to the memory chips. I was going to install BGA sinks in order to help keep the memory cool, as well as the VRMs on the board, but I am trying to figure out if I need to get the Enzotech low-profile or if I can use the Swiftech MC14s.

Thank you in advance, all.

EDIT: I also have a soundcard about three or four slots away from the video card. Will the S1 still fit and will it fit with a fan installed?

s_xero · Post by **s_xero** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 2:31 am

Hey,

I'm afraid I can't help you with the Ninja-choise.
But I do know that the S1 is SLI-compatible. That's nice

And take a look at the review of www.xbitlabs.com they tested the
8800GT for wattage. I believe it lay arround 90 Watts. Ofcourse
yours is overclocked and may be a bit more power-consuming.

But I don't think that the 8800GT comes near the cunsumption
of the 1950XTX: it rocks in 140~145 Watts. I guess you could do
8800GT SLI with to S1's even passive. But you might add a fan
blowing horizontally for the summers

Good luck with it! I'm pretty jealous over here
I need a new rig too

Tzupy · Post by **Tzupy** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 4:27 am

I have the same mobo and E6600 with Thermalright SI-128 and Nexus fan, BIOS controlled. Since it's winter, room temp is about 20C.
Temps are right now 33C for CPU (with Nexus at 0 rpm, reported by EasyTune5) and 45C for chipset (EasyTune says 35C, but thermal probe shows 45C).
The backplate prevents the installation of any heatsink with bolt-through attachment AFAIK. I'd like to know how to remove the backplate without disrupting the chipset cooling.
That's why I got the SI-128 with the push-pins, otherwise I would have needed to install a new chipset cooler, and I got this mobo for the stock chipset cooling.
When I installed the SI-128 some 14 months ago I had to loosen the screws that hold the backplate, then tighten them back, thus applying more pressure through the push-pins.
IMO for you the best choice would be the Scythe Andy Samurai Master.

thetoad30 · Post by **thetoad30** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 1:39 pm

All,
Does anyone have any ideas about the mounting of the Ninja Copper on this board?

Do I have to get longer screws? If so, how long should I get?

Are the push-pins for the Rev B ok to use, or does it not apply pressure appropriately?

I'd really like to stick to the Ninja versions of the Scythe line.

Thanks.

bonestonne · Post by **bonestonne** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 2:03 pm

the ninja copper has a bolt-thru kit exactly like the ninja rev A has.

but even with that, the ninja copper weighs over 1kg. to be really honest, unless the motherboard is in a horizontal position, i'd be scared to mount that on a motherboard.

you may just get the ninja Rev B with the thermalright bolt-thru kit. only reason for the bolt-thru is that the ninja itself weighs around 600+g...its also a tower style heatsink. do you trust small plastic pins to support that hanging of a motherboard? i don't, and lots of other people feel the same way.

thetoad30 · Post by **thetoad30** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 2:12 pm

bonestonne wrote:the ninja copper has a bolt-thru kit exactly like the ninja rev A has.

but even with that, the ninja copper weighs over 1kg. to be really honest, unless the motherboard is in a horizontal position, i'd be scared to mount that on a motherboard.

you may just get the ninja Rev B with the thermalright bolt-thru kit. only reason for the bolt-thru is that the ninja itself weighs around 600+g...its also a tower style heatsink. do you trust small plastic pins to support that hanging of a motherboard? i don't, and lots of other people feel the same way.

I agree, but unfortunately I'm stuck with a motherboard that has a heatsink on the BACK of the motherboard. It's Gigabyte's Crazy Cool.

So, I'm stuck with either the pins (not really liking the idea) or modifying the bolt-through kit with longer screws, but I don't know how much longer they should be... so I'm stuck asking for help since I have no idea what I should do about this...

WR304 · Post by **WR304** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 3:11 pm

thetoad30 wrote:So, I'm stuck with either the pins (not really liking the idea) or modifying the bolt-through kit with longer screws, but I don't know how much longer they should be... so I'm stuck asking for help since I have no idea what I should do about this...

The easiest way is to get a hacksaw and cut away the "crazy cool" backplate behind the CPU socket. It's only aluminium and takes 5 minutes or so. Make sure to give the backplate a good clean to get rid of any swarf, and file down the sharp edges before fitting it back on the motherboard. You cut along the line next to the Northbridge heatsink screws.

That lets you fit any CPU cooler backplate you like. I had to do that with my Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 motherboard to fit a Thermalright IFX-10 backplate.

The other way you could do it would be to remove the motherboard backplate altogether and use bolts for the two northbridge fittings instead:

http://www.thetechrepository.com/showthread.php?t=179

closersource · Post by **closersource** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 3:24 pm

I have several GA-P35-DQ6 boards installed. I believe it is the same design, as the 965P boards, at least the same situation anyway with the heat-sink on the rear of the board. The push-pins work but the pressure is not even without a lot of fiddling and cut hands.

What I eventually did was to purchase a number of the Scythe Universal Retention Kits from NCIX. (Rip-off shipping rates.) Although the backplate can not be mounted, the screws and the retention kit itself with spacer can be mated to the board, and after that simply use the 478 quad-lever action attachment for the Ninja B. This is still not as optimal as direct bolt through but still better than the push-pin method. Aside from removing the Gigabyte heat-sink (not recommended) this would remain the most hassle free option to avoid using any plastic push-pins.

WR304 · Post by **WR304** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 3:35 pm

The problem with using the mounting without a backplate is that you could potentially bend the motherboard if it exerts too much pressure.

closersource · Post by **closersource** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 3:53 pm

That would be the same case with push pins at the very least the kit exerts even pressure. Besides the Gigabyte heat-sink already serves the function as a backplate

thetoad30 · Post by **thetoad30** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 6:54 pm

WR304 wrote:The problem with using the mounting without a backplate is that you could potentially bend the motherboard if it exerts too much pressure.

I understand this thoroughly!

I was meaning that I want to use the backplate AND the Crazy Cool (Since if I remove this, I have to remove the entire heatpipe option... NB, SB, and VRM cooling).

Is there anyone who has not done this before, or am I stepping into new territory?

EDIT: Whoops, didn't see WR304 and closersource's responses before... I'm reading them now, so I might just have to count this as an erroneous post!