My MDD cooling mod

[mustagcoupe]

The first thing i did when i got my MDD was attempt to improve the cooling as i do not have air conditioning in the summer. I took aluminum tape and put it over the top of the heatsink to force the air to stay within the airflow channels instead of blowing in and out the top of the heatsink and causing turbulence and air buffeting noises. I was very careful to keep the edges of the tape completely even or just back from the edge of the heatsink so i didnt block any of the airflow. I also added a fan behind the heatsink pulling air through the top half of the heatsink that the main big fan doesnt really blow air through. That fan is half ducted to the heatsink with more aluminum tape and the other half is left open over the memory to pull cool air over the memory and video card. A 20x70x70mm fan fits perfectly. You could also use a 60mm as those are easier to find. A 25mm thick fan will fit but you will either need to modify the case or the heatsink in order to be able to slip it into position as there isnt quite enough room. I also replaced the top 2 pci slot covers with well ventilated ones for more airflow and i removed the speaker and double sided taped it to the top inside of the case to allow a little more airflow in through the speaker grille. I made no real attempt to make it quieter, this mdd is the original 2002 model with the original 400 watt power supply and fans. Its loud but not particularly obtrusive, it just sounds like theres a desk fan running somewhere in the room. With nap mode off it does keep the processor below 47 degrees in a 21 degree room without the main big fan speeding up so im happy with it. With nap mode on it eventually drops down to about 10 degrees above ambient temp. All temperature measurements done in celcius.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

The first thing i did when i got my MDD was attempt to improve the cooling as i do not have air conditioning in the summer. I took aluminum tape and put it over the top of the heatsink to force the air to stay within the airflow channels instead of blowing in and out the top of the heatsink and causing turbulence and air buffeting noises. I was very careful to keep the edges of the tape completely even or just back from the edge of the heatsink so i didnt block any of the airflow. I also added a fan behind the heatsink pulling air through the top half of the heatsink that the main big fan doesnt really blow air through. That fan is half ducted to the heatsink with more aluminum tape and the other half is left open over the memory to pull cool air over the memory and video card. A 20x70x70mm fan fits perfectly. You could also use a 60mm as those are easier to find. A 25mm thick fan will fit but you will either need to modify the case or the heatsink in order to be able to slip it into position as there isnt quite enough room. I also replaced the top 2 pci slot covers with well ventilated ones for more airflow and i removed the speaker and double sided taped it to the top inside of the case to allow a little more airflow in through the speaker grille. I made no real attempt to make it quieter, this mdd is the original 2002 model with the original 400 watt power supply and fans. Its loud but not particularly obtrusive, it just sounds like theres a desk fan running somewhere in the room. With nap mode off it does keep the processor below 47 degrees in a 21 degree room without the main big fan speeding up so im happy with it. With nap mode on it eventually drops down to about 10 degrees above ambient temp. All temperature measurements done in celcius.
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Cool mod. Glad it works for you. When I upgraded my Quicksilver from a single 733 to a dual 1ghz daughter card, I added n additional fan to the heat sink to help push air through the heat sink.

 

[mustagcoupe]

Cool. I know the quicksilver doesnt have a built in thermal sensor but how much would you estimate it helps the cooling. I have a quicksilver single 933 that overheats and locks up after about 20-30 min when the ambient temp is above about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Ive been trying to figure out how to get more air into the case without doing major mods or changing the way it looks. I did buy these cheap thermometers with remote sensors, you can get them in both Fahrenheit or Celcius. i chose Celcius because thats what im used to for computer measurements. I stuck one of the sensors between the fins of the heatsink and crimped it in place. When im using it i can run the sensor out the door or something and at least see when its getting dangerously hot. I havent had a chance to test it out yet though so i dont know how well it works. Once i test it out ill probably make a thread detailing how well it works and if its worth doing.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

Cool. I know the quicksilver doesnt have a built in thermal sensor but how much would you estimate it helps the cooling. I have a quicksilver single 933 that overheats and locks up after about 20-30 min when the ambient temp is above about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Ive been trying to figure out how to get more air into the case without doing major mods or changing the way it looks. I did buy these cheap thermometers with remote sensors, you can get them in both Fahrenheit or Celcius. i chose Celcius because thats what im used to for computer measurements. I stuck one of the sensors between the fins of the heatsink and crimped it in place. When im using it i can run the sensor out the door or something and at least see when its getting dangerously hot. I havent had a chance to test it out yet though so i dont know how well it works. Once i test it out ill probably make a thread detailing how well it works and if its worth doing.

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Well, This quicksilver is one of the most stable macs I've had. It rarely ever KPs in any config I've put it in. Ironically the last time it KP'd was last week when I accidentally whacked it with my elbow pretty hard. Before that I can't recall and since, it has been humming along. I did not take before/after temps so dont know if there was a reduction in temp or not, but I use this thing for retro gaming, Q3A, Q2, ShogoMAD, UT etc and it is rock solid and the added CFM/air moving through the heatsink can't hurt. I think I'll pick up one of those sensors if I can find it cheap as the lack of thermal sensors in this thing has always been something I wanted for it. If yours is freezing, I'd clean and repaste the cpu and take a look at the fans in the case. I got another QS for free that was buggy as heck and it turned out stock heatsink fan was seized up. Replaced it and the box runs os9lives rock solid.

 

[mustagcoupe]

The quicksilver itself is fine, the thermal paste has been changed and none of the caps are bulging or leaking. It never KP'd it would just overheat and lock up and id have to pull the plug to turn it off. It runs just fine the rest of the year when the temperature is more reasonable. It just cant handle running in a room thats 85-100 degrees fahrenheit. I dont have ac, im fine with it it but it doesnt seem like a lot of computers are. I have a single 1.8 g5, the imac based one that doesnt seem to care and most decent laptops are fine with it but the quicksilver doesnt have enough airflow. When i built my ryzen gaming pc i put a massive AIO cooler on it to insure it wouldnt overheat or throttle when gaming in the summer despite it only being a 65 watt tdp chip and the graphics card has some of the case fans blowing over it and controlled by its temperature.

I got the remote sensor thermometers on amazon. The listing i bought from says sold out but these ones look identical. https://www.amazon.com/Thermometer-...p/B08R8JH9V3/ref=psdc_678520011_t3_B01MRR4HGM. You can probably find them for cheaper on ebay or ali express or amazon if you dig a bit. It seems like a generic item that comes from one factory with a bunch of brand names. They have them in both fahrenheit or celcius so make sure you get the one you want because they look identical. I would test them next to a known good thermometer to make sure theyre reasonably accurate before you start using it. The one i put in my quicksilver is off by about 1 degree across the entire temp range but thats not a big deal.

 

[TzunamiOSX]

The first thing i did when i got my MDD was attempt to improve the cooling as i do not have air conditioning in the summer. I took aluminum tape and put it over the top of the heatsink to force the air to stay within the airflow channels instead of blowing in and out the top of the heatsink and causing turbulence and air buffeting noises. I was very careful to keep the edges of the tape completely even or just back from the edge of the heatsink so i didnt block any of the airflow. I also added a fan behind the heatsink pulling air through the top half of the heatsink that the main big fan doesnt really blow air through. That fan is half ducted to the heatsink with more aluminum tape and the other half is left open over the memory to pull cool air over the memory and video card. A 20x70x70mm fan fits perfectly. You could also use a 60mm as those are easier to find. A 25mm thick fan will fit but you will either need to modify the case or the heatsink in order to be able to slip it into position as there isnt quite enough room. I also replaced the top 2 pci slot covers with well ventilated ones for more airflow and i removed the speaker and double sided taped it to the top inside of the case to allow a little more airflow in through the speaker grille. I made no real attempt to make it quieter, this mdd is the original 2002 model with the original 400 watt power supply and fans. Its loud but not particularly obtrusive, it just sounds like theres a desk fan running somewhere in the room. With nap mode off it does keep the processor below 47 degrees in a 21 degree room without the main big fan speeding up so im happy with it. With nap mode on it eventually drops down to about 10 degrees above ambient temp. All temperature measurements done in celcius.
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Looks a bit like my old constuction inside my 733 G4 Quicksilver

 

[mustagcoupe]

Looks a bit like my old constuction inside my 733 G4 Quicksilver

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Thats a nice mod, i imagine it helps quite a bit. Can you get the plate off if you need to remove the heatsink or is it still possible with the plate in place. The thermal design of apples older heatsinks is awful, even the mdd copper cooler isnt so great. They learned their lesson with the G5 although i suppose they didnt have a choice.

 

[TzunamiOSX]

Thats a nice mod, i imagine it helps quite a bit. Can you get the plate off if you need to remove the heatsink or is it still possible with the plate in place. The thermal design of apples older heatsinks is awful, even the mdd copper cooler isnt so great. They learned their lesson with the G5 although i suppose they didnt have a choice.

This mod was 20 year’s ago and in reality I have used Double-sided adhesive thermal Pad.

This pads were removable in place.