Well awesome news, Matt, i am not messaging you from the comp with the Pro-E in it, and all i can say is WOW. 82 degrees, down to 49!!!! I mean, WOW. Now THAT, is one helluva difference eh? I managed to finally get that darn SB HS off, took me a good 1/2 hour on that one, but i stayed patient and calm, and just kept wiggling softly and then a bit harder as it loosened. Once it gave way, i felt like i just climbed Mt Everest lol. And yea, you’re right, it looks like a normal chip like others on the board with a ‘rubbery’ top, rather than an exposed die like the NB. I was EXTREMELY careful with the NB as well, because when you said if the die cracked and the mobo would be ‘a piece of garbage now’, that made me gulp when hearing that, so i took extra care with that part of it.

As for the bad news, well my god, what was MSI thinking with that TIM they used? Supposedly, some were changed to a white paste once people complained enough, but i wasnt lucky enough to get a Pro-E that had it. One plus is the Pro-E never used push pins, but the crap they used for paste was just downright terrible. It took me 2 hours to clean it off, it was this pink looking bubble gum nonsense, very hard and dry, and i think even Maguyver could have made better thermal paste out of an empty soda can, fire, and some dirt and rocks. It was very sticky too, and since i needed to be careful with the NB die, i couldnt use any metallic sharp things to scrape it. I used a butterknife on the HS, which was easier, but the die and SB surfaces were a real ‘joy’ to work on, uhhgg. I basically used a toothpick and scraped from the outside, in, to make as much of a clump as i could, but it the rest of the residue wouldnt come off, and so i just had to use a microfiber pad with alcohol and just spent the rest of that time rubbing it endlessly. Basically, it never really came off, it just would up dissolving into thin air from all the rubbing back n forth lol. But yea, it all came off and i got a nice, non-sticky, mirror finish on the die, and the SB came out great too, nice and clean and could actually read ‘intel’ on it after cleaning it lol. I used Arctic Cooling Mx4, great paste that is. Hell, even the CPU waterblock i have had great stock paste on it, but i cleaned that off and used the Mx4 on their too, and got that down even 5 degrees more. MSI reaaaaaalllly needs to start using quality paste, because that stuff had to be the worst ive ever seen, its just horrible :-/ Oh yea, and i added an extra 6-32 size washer between the original spring and 4-40 washer. Couldnt find any 4-40s around here, the 6-32 is a tad bigger, but sits very snug around the head of the screw and spring, and made a nice tight fit all the same. Oh and the Antec spot fan i put right on the NB, im sure helps too, along with the 200mm fan i also added on top of the case, to blow air out

But, Matt, i just want to thank you a bunch for your great video and write up here, it helped a ton and i watched and read it several times and memorized just what i had to do before attempting this and it all worked out perfectly. I look forward to more tips and help you have to offer for anything else in the future. Perhaps you can do a write up on the new z68s out there and which one would be a good buy ?

The hair dryer’s not a bad idea, though I’d be a bit hesitant to run warm dry air over everything (potential for static buildup). Once the pad’s a little warm it should be a little more malleable though, and you should be able to twist a little more each direction – really once it budges even a slight bit back and forth, wiggling should go further each time. The other thing you could try would be a soldering iron pressed against the heatsink in very short intervals, but that starts getting fairly risky. You’ll get higher heat then with a hair dryer, but if it gets too hot (which can happen *very* fast) you’ll end up exposing the components to temps they’re not designed for which could potentially cause damage. Not to mention, there’s the potential to burn yourself when you grip the heatsink.

Keep in mind that you should be able to apply a little more force to the SB heatsink than you did with the NB – the NB has an exposed die, and they’re pretty brittle. The SB is the standard large black chip and should be a fair bit more durable.

Best of luck.

http://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=126885.0

I decided to go with Arctic MX-4, since its non conductive and right up there with some the most used.

What really has be worried so much, and the ONLY thing, is getting them damn things off. I seen several people, even on MSI’s own forums, saying the SB was a real hassle to get off, and a couple never even posted back, making me believe they gave up :-/ That is why i am praying its not that old purple cement they once used. I mean, heck, i bought this back in June, and it would be quite odd to be getting a mobo that they were still using that terrible TIM with. But yea, everyone said the NB came off easily, but the south wouldnt budge and took many a long time to finally get it loose. The guy who posted all them pics, actually kept the NB heatsink, but bent it back and replaced it with his own. Lol it was just hanging over the sata ports. Eventually, he hacked it off, but it just looked so weird like that.

I just hope this darn thing comes off easily, i really need to change this out asap, i hate being at 80 degrees most times

Thanks for all your help though, Matt, definitely learned a lot from all your info here, and ill post back with the results soon.

You’re right – southbridge doesn’t have that black “pad” – just the thermal gunk that can all be scraped off.

As to the amount, I used what’s known as the “credit card” method to scrape the paste thin (basically put down a drop and spread it with a credit card or another flat plastic item to get it as thin as possible and remove the excess). The “drop” method would probably work too, though it’s tough to gauge how much you’d need, you’d probably have extra spilling off the sides, and it might end up being thicker than you need. Whatever method you use, you’re probably best not to use a conductive paste either way, because if somehow you get some squeezing out onto the electronics, that stuff is a mess to try and remove. Noctua makes a non-conductive thermal paste, although if you want to go with the Arctic brand, they make a non-conductive paste known as “Artic Ceramique”. Actually there are plenty of non-conductive pastes, so there should be plenty of options there.

As a final reminder, when you place the heatsinks back on, pull them off again and make sure some paste TRANSFERRED on BOTH heatsinks. If it didn’t transfer, you might have an air gap on one, in which case you need to apply a little more paste (and try again).

Best of luck.

I am going to attempt this procedure this weekend, and it seems like many are getting great results with it. It’s really ridiculous that MSI didnt add better stock cooling to this. All that was a needed was better quality paste, and a lil 40mm fan like many other manufacturers have. Honestly, this board should have been recalled, because it is unfair of them to expect people who buy these pro/pro-e boards to have to spend additional time and money to use them. But they obviously didnt want to do a recall and have to eat the costs on them.

I read a classic thread on their forums, with some guy who showed tons of pics and a reworking to get the temps down, and the pics of the TIM were just beyond terrible. He had an Eclipse board, which just like the Pro, use this purple gum/cement crap, and it just basically is impossible to get off and with the board running so hot, it pretty much gets welded on there. Couple this, with the poor stability of the push pins, the contact is also terrible. Did my homework on this, and the PRO-E doesnt use push pins, since MSI started listening to people a bit. There was a revision of the PRO-E that had a black colored board, rather than the initial reddish-brown ones (the one i have, lucky me uhgg lol). Unfortunatetly, many Pro-E’s were still using that awful purple gunk, and they finally stopped using that in late 09/early 10, and started using a greyish paste that was a lil bit better, but still not all that great, but way easier to remove the heatsinks from. What they need to stop doing is lining the NB/SB heatsinks together, because as you stated, it may not allow for them to both be flush. It’s just a silly set up and they should really be separate and would allow for easier aftermarket modding to be done.

Now, i was going to go with the thermalright hr-05 SLI heatsink, you have heard of it. Many in that thread used it and got good results, but many also just did what you outlined and got virtually the same temp decreases. So i figured, why spend money on that if it aint needed. And as you pointed out in your youtub vid, the SB has to be replaced (though if i did go that route, i would just hacksaw it off, and use the SB heatsink still, since it never gets hot anyway. SB is always lukewarm/cool even on full load, so doesnt need much cooling).

I just bought this system with an i7 2nd gen chip in it @3.2Ghz (water cooled with an H50 from Corsair), 6gigs of ram, gtx460 in it, 200mm side fan, 120 in the front and back, which ill be replacing with 2 more 200mms, Win7, and it all runs really nice. This heat issue though is the only damn problem, but its a big one. Im running 78-80 daily and this is just going to reduce the mobos life more n more like this Everything else runs great temp-wise, nothing over 40, hell, CPU is at 19, and the cores under 35.

The questions i have for you though, have to do with the padding you removed in your video. Now yes, the black one i know has to ALWAYS stay on as to prevent any shorting. But i noticed the SB doesnt have that. All it had was the original goop, and what looked to be a pad of some type. I just want to be sure if that can all be scraped/cleaned off.

As another user also pointed out, the AS5 is conductive, and me being a first timer for this kind of mobo work, i really DO NOT want to be using that. People rave about it and say its the best out there, but all i need to do is have some of it drip off the sides or whatever, and then im totally out of a system for awhile and that is something NO ONE needs to be dealing with. Just how much paste am i supposed to use here? I watched some vids of a guy doing one with a CPU HS, and well…man, he barely used any. He mentioned the grain of rice, and also the pea size amount, but it just seemed like way too little. I noticed in your vid you had what looked to be all of it evenly covered up. Is it a good idea to also put the same amount on the heatsinks as well, and then contact them together have it’s own weight evenly distribute the rest? If i was to put on bigger goops of it, and then put the sinks on, im afraid it would leak out the sides lol. Whether its conductive or not, i really dont want that stuff getting on any of the copper lanes of the mobo, or on a capacitor, as those things need to be left alone and not have unwanted material on them. I get enough dust and damn cat hair as it is lmao.

So yea, just wanting some more clarification on all of this. I know this original post is old, so not sure if youll even notice it, but hopefully ya will