Would this type heatsink/fan be suitable for a Readynas Pro 6 (newest version) running OS 6 ?

Luminary

Sep 03, 2024

Okay, so answering my own question, I went ahead and made the following CPU Heatsink Mod.

Note: some simple drilling + dremeling is involved, but all a very simple 10 minute job. Plus, adding new mounting screws (Amazon).

First, some history

So, this is where I was at having already done the CPU Upgrade (Core 2 Quad Q6700), and PSU Upgrade (BeQuiet) (which was a right pain in the a** !) but worked a treat. Link to that post , here. I was using an old CoolerMaster CPU fan which wasn't doing that great of a job, so I wanted to improve it. The main issue was the EOM cooler....

(Still trying to find some nice, 2 x 4gb DDR2 PC2-5800 1066MHz Ram, but its like looking for 'hens teeth'! Might have to put this one on hold for the time being....)

i.e. stock heatsink with CoolerMaster fan - no noticeable difference from stock fan.

So, to beef things up a bit (..after some research) I found this 'Gelid Solutions SlimHero Low Profile' LGA775 Heatsink/fan. Its a perfect fit on the CPU , lines up with the 4x screw-holes, and even covers some of the Chipset Cooler! Given the 120mm fan, I knew this was going to do two cooling jobs in one...

Everything seemed great until I went to try and attach it to the motherboard as it had its own native screw system that meant you had to put the screws through the back of the motherboard, and into the Gelid Intel mount clips!!

At this point I nearly gave up but then had the idea to just mod the Intel mount clips, so that i could still make use of this cooler... Here is what I did.

Firstly, buy the Gelid SlimHero Cooler & Fan kit (£25.10 from https://www.quietpc.com/gel-slim-hero)

Then, buy these 'spring loaded screws' from Amazon (£3). They do come with the necessary 'starlock' washers, they're just not shown in the amazon advert ?).

Step 1: Now , drill out ONLY the LGA775 holes on the Gelid Intel mounting clips to 5.5mm.

Step 2: Then, using a Dremel "elongate" all 4 x LGA775 holes (now at 5.5mm) about 3mm further inwards, towards the inner clip direction. (Take your time doing this! if you go to close to the edges, its game-over!). My Dremel kit came with a '4mm dia boring-bit' that looks a bit like a 'diamond-cut' shaft that let me 'elongate-cut' the 5.5mm holes into a tic-tac shape).

Step 3: This part is crucial! - before doing anything else, check that each 'spring mount screw' goes through all the new 'tic-tac' shaped holes, and also slides inwards and out, by a few mm. (This is to allow a little "wiggle" room for the screws and cooler to slide around, when mounting it to the board).

Like this...

Step 4: This part is crucial! - Now prepare your 'spring loaded screws' by placing the springs on each screw (like in the pic above). Then place onto (just below the spring) nearest the threads, use 4 x 10mm(dia) x 6mm(hole) washers, to make a '3mm spacer' as such'. Then push the screw-threaded part through your newly drilled/dremeled 5.5mm elongated holes (the washers will stop the screw going through the hole, and only the threaded part should be visible through the other side of the bracket).

Now, this is now the hardest part of the whole thing as you nearly need 3 hands lol!.

With the screwhead now resting on a bench, and the LGA775 bracket resting over the threads (making sure its the right way round!!), you need to press-on the 'starlock' washer so that it locks onto the groove allocated for it. (I used a socket screwdriver to do this by placing a socket bit slightly small diameter than the starlock washer, and placing the socket over the threads, pushing down on the starlock washer until i heard it ' click' into place. Check that all of the washer has wrapped around the locking groove as you don't want one popping off!. Repeat for the other 3 screws.

(Note: you should place the thin protective PVC washers over each screw-hole (included with heatsink kit) since there are no stand-offs being used here. This will protect the motherboard board from the starlock washer, should you overtighten them).

Here is my heatsink installed. You can see the screw, spring, 4x washers, bracket and PVC washer, going into the motherboards threaded mounting hole.

This sorts out the heatsink mod... but the 120mm fan that comes with it makes it too tall for the NAS side panel to go on, so I basically just cut a 110mm hole into the side-panel and strapped on a Noctua NF-p12 120mm Fan. It has enough air flow and pressure to get the job done. (just remember to make its power cable safe for removal!)