DFI 855GME-MGF Motherboard Review - Socket layer changes
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One thing DFI did do with this board was change the socket layout from what many of you have grown accustomed to. In a laptop, I'm not sure there is the same "no mount" zone as there is defined by both Intel and AMD in their desktop specs around the socket area. In this case DFI made a very small "no mount" area and included in the box a tiny piece of finned aluminum with a 40mm fan attached to it. This is the heatsink meant to be used, and attached through mount holes to a backing plate with spring loaded screws.
Is it effective? Absolutely, it's probably more than you'll find on any laptop. It's also elegant, and quiet. For overclocking though, there is not much to be said about it other than "weak." DFI lately has seen fit to make that one of their key reasons to buy their product, but by limiting options like this it seems to say the opposite. However, there are some possible changes that can be made for the adventurous soul.
The mount points are identical to that of an AMD north bridge heatsink, with 41mm along each edge. With that you can add in a Microcool North Pole, ThermalRight NB-1C (250g of copper!), or the Swiftech MCX-159 (238g of copper and aluminum), which are the equivalent of decently sized s478 or s754/939 sinks in weight, if not surface area and air volume from the fan. Any of those would be reasonable solutions that would easily fit to the mount points provided by DFI.
That's not nearly the selection available to something like the AOpen Pentium M, which uses the stock retaining bracket for s478. While not needed to cool this processor at stock speed, the s478 mounts are useful for fanless cooling, or extreme cooling using a highpowered HSF or watercooling. I still plan to add water cooling to this eventually, but that will be through the addition of a north bridge water block to chill out the Dothan. That isn't exactly a perfect solution, but it should function adequately.
Next: Layout and overclocking >>
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