Beware X38 Buyers

N

nexolus

New Member
k so I finally got my gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 motherboard today. excitedly unpacked it, installed my crucial ballistix ram, placed in the old p4 processor, and began to attach the zalman 9700 backplate and such, however i found that the screws on the top could not reach down to the backplate to attach because of the included chipset heatsink: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowI...ra+Durable+2,+Ultra+Cooling+Intel+Motherboard

On the back of the board directly under the CPU is about 1/4 inch of the heatsink. Therefore, (as to my knowledge) NO aftermarket heatsink will fit this new board, which I am enraged about. It is most certainly a high-end motherboard, and they should expect that the people purchasing it would be using aftermarket heatsinks. Well I RMA'ed it for a refund thirty minutes ago and ordered one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131219

I'm just pissed because I'm having to use a family computer and not my own, and they should warn people about this.
 
i have a maximus formula and the zelman 9700 works like a dream on my board and its the x38 chip set, although it may be because i got the se version of the mobo so it has some different heatskinks for the bridges
 
SE version has water cooling ports for chipset. Non-Se is air cooled with a regular heatsink.
 
tuxify said:
Theres no known problems like this on the P35, correct?
Click to expand...
It depends on the manufacturer really, many other X38 boards don't have the same heatsink below the CPU like that does.

My P35 didn't have one at least, and my aftermarket fan works fine.
 
k well i looked into it more and some people are just buying longer screws so it can reach the backplate. when i called the guy at zalman he said definitely don't do that because it'll put too much stress on the chipset and it could break it/rip out capacitors and such. i'm a little doubtful about that but i didn't want to risk it so i got the asus one. from the pictures of it it looks like it should definitely work, but i'll post an update when i'm done.
 
Actually yes ther are known problems like that on the P35. The Gigabyte
GA-P35-DQ6 has the same problem with the short screws and the back
plate. I saved the comments people made about the GA-P35-DQ6 on newegg,
because like I expected they deleted all that stuff.


So here's one about getting longer screws:

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9/7/2007 11:52:16 PM

Rating + 5Rating + 5Rating + 5Rating + 5Rating + 5

Pros: This board has a very well cooled chipset with their stock coolers. It was easy to install. I had no problems with my RAM, nothing but a breeze.

Cons: I wanted to install my CoolMaster GeminII heatsink on it, and the nuts and washers supplied with it were too wide in diameter, it was on thing. A quick snip of the washer and a trip down to the hardware store fixed me in a jiffy. They are 3mm metric nuts for anyone wondering, and my local hardware store had the standard diamter ones, at 23¢ a pop. So a minor inconvenience, nothing I would dock the board a n egg for though.

Other Thoughts: EasyTune kinda sucks for the overclocking, just use the BIOS.
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There were lots of recommendations about after-market heatsinks if You want
to see those.
 
That's Gigabyte's new cooling arrangment for top-end boards. As the chap above said, just get longer screws and just hope you can fit it all in. Alternatively find a cooler that uses the standard retention pins.
 
Just wondering but why did you choose a CPU cooler that needed a backplate? You can find several great CPU coolers that do not need any type of additional/custom backplate.
 
[-0MEGA-];837046 said:
Just wondering but why did you choose a CPU cooler that needed a backplate? You can find several great CPU coolers that do not need any type of additional/custom backplate.
Click to expand...

i've had a really good experiences with zalman 9700 and I plan to overclock my Q9450 when i finally get it, so i wanted to be sure it'd stay cool.

yes you can get longer screws to reach, but when i talked to the guy at zalman he said that's a bad idea because it puts a lot of stress on the mothboard. i'm not totally sure i believe it because it works just the same as if the backplate were on it normally. oh well, getting the asus in on tuesday anyways so all will be well.
 
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