Intel 5500 chipset heatsink tuning, part 2

Introduction

A little over one year ago, I tuned the heatsink of my Intel 5500 chipset using an old CPU heatsink and a hacksaw. I was very happy with the result until I decided to get myself a new graphics card. I wanted a more powerful model to be able to play games, but still with passive cooling so as not to add a source of noise to my system. Passive cooling on a mid-end graphics card implies a very large heatsink, and the Asus HD7750-DCSL-1GD5 I chose was no exception to the rule.

As soon as I received the card, I opened my computer case to install it. And there happened the drama : it dit not fit! The customized mainboard heatsink was too high and stole space close to the graphics card slot.

Let's do it again

So what? I grabbed my hacksaw, got the heatsink off the mainboard, and we're at it again!

I only removed the minimum required, as I did the first time, so as to keep as much mass and cooling surface as possible. I even had to fold a couple fins so that I didn't have to cut them apart.

Conclusion

Here's the customized heatsink installed. You can see there's just enough room for the new graphics card's big heatsink.

I am still very happy about the temperature, even more so as the graphics card itself idles at only 45°C, thanks to the large heatsink, the 28 nm fab process, and also the improved radeon driver with better power management.