Written: 2/26/2000
Written by: MotoŽ
Sponsored by: AMK Services

Well, it didn't take long for me to start tinkering with LAN 825. Two days after it was built I had the whole system in pieces, trying to make it run cooler/faster and look better. Welcome to part II of making an 825Mhz LAN party Box! If you haven't read part one, go here to catch up.

To better improve the cooling of the Slot 1 PIII-550E, I decided to remove the backplate off the CPU. That backplate traps heat so it can't be very good for an overclocked system. Removing the backplate is really simple if you have an OEM Pentium III. You just need a pair of needle nose pliers to squeeze two tabs that hold the backplate to the CPU. If you have a retail Pentium III, go here for instructions on removing both the backplate and heatsink. Once the backplate was off, I had to figure out a way to mount the Global Win VOS32 back on.

The solution I came up with is nothing new. I've used it before. I took a ball point pen and cut them into tubes that fits over the Global Win PIII mounts. Then I just had to put the mounting clip on like normal. The above pic shows the finished setup.

This photo shows the no backplate PIII-550E in the VT6X4 motherboard. Because there is no backplate or casing, the side rails don't really support the unit. This is a major problem since the Global Win cooler is very heavy and will make the CPU lean over if you don't find a way to support it.

What I ended up doing was removing the Slot 1 rails that came with the VT6X4 and replacing them with a set of thinner Slot 1 rails that came with Celeron end caps. Since my PIII is now all PCB, it was just like a Slot 1 Celeron CPU. The end caps side down the rail and lock onto the Slot 1 PIII-550E. The caps hold the PIII PCB really well. I couldn't move the unit at all once they were locked in place. If you don't have access to these type of rails, you can always zip tie the PIII to the rails that came with your motherboard. There is a hole on the CPU for that purpose (well, I'm sure it wasn't for that purpose). You can also see the temp probe coming out of CPU and along the heatsink in the above photo.

The bottom line to removing the backplate is a drop in temp. I wasn't able to run the CPU any faster because I'm already at the maximum bus speed of my VT6X4. Too bad the Abit motherboard doesn't have bus speed above 150Mhz. However, I was able to lower the operating voltage of the 550E to 1.6V from the stock 1.65V. Not bad at all considering it's running at 825Mhz.  

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