Joined: 24 Aug 2009 Posts: 2070 Location: South Florida
Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 12:34 Post subject: Asus RT-N16 cooling mod(s)
Ok, first off, sorry for the quality, but all I have is an iPhone.
Basically the CPU heatsink is a for a north bridge IC chip on a motherboard. It is 12v (I have it running at ~8v via a riostat due to noise. It is attached to the BCM 4718 CPU with a mixture of Arctic silver thermal paste #5 and arctic silver thermal adhesive. The heatsink itself is copper and the fan has a blue LED in it for power indication.
The green heat sinks are designed for nVidia GPU's and come as a kit that winds up being perfect for the RT-N16. The Extra ones I had left over went on to the USB and LAN port housings (I know, kindly silly). They are also attached via Arctic Silver thermal compound and adhesive mixture.
So far, it has been working great. I can literally touch the heatsinks with my fingers when the router is under full load and not get burnt at all. They are probably staying under 130 degrees F. _________________ Optware, the Right Way
Asus RT-AC68U
Asus RT-N66U
Asus RT-N10
Asus RT-N12
Asus RT-N16 x5
Asus WL520gU
Engenious ECB350
Linksys WRT600Nv1.1
Linksys WRT610Nv1
Linksys E2000
Netgear WNDR3300
SonicWall NSA220W
SonicWall TZ215W
SonicWall TZ205W
SonicWall TZ105W
Joined: 04 Jan 2007 Posts: 11512 Location: Wherever the wind blows- North America
Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 20:25 Post subject:
OK...I finally got all my parts to finish my mod.
I used DDR RAM heat sinks for the RAM chips, and 2cm X 2cm sinks for the radio and switch.
The fan is 50mm X 50mm X 10mm so it fits INSIDE the case. The fan guard is external....the fan is blowing out (or up).
The fan control circuit is very simple...(this link provides the basis for the circuit...I just use components that I have laying around, as indicated below)
a 2n3904 NPN transistor and a 25K 10-turn pot. Clockwise speeds up the fan (will supply up to 11.3V) and Counter Clockwise will reduce fan speed until the fan's low 7V threashold is reached....I like keeping mine in the 7.5-8V range....it still produces enough air movement yet it is whisper quiet.
I used DDR RAM heat sinks for the RAM chips, and 2cm X 2cm sinks for the radio and switch.
The fan is 50mm X 50mm X 10mm so it fits INSIDE the case. The fan guard is external....the fan is blowing out (or up).
The fan control circuit is very simple...(this link provides the basis for the circuit...I just use components that I have laying around, as indicated below)
a 2n3904 NPN transistor and a 25K 10-turn pot. Clockwise speeds up the fan (will supply up to 11.3V) and Counter Clockwise will reduce fan speed until the fan's low 7V threashold is reached....I like keeping mine in the 7.5-8V range....it still produces enough air movement yet it is whisper quiet.
Hope it helps someone....
redhawk
May I ask...where did you get those blue chipset heatsinks? They look exactly like the ones on my Asus x58 mobo...