Alpenfohn K2 -Liquid Metal, Upgrade?

[Trojan Horse]

I have the Alpenfohn K2 and I wondered if it would be worth buying replacement fans for it?
Currently, they have a 140mm and a 120mm so maybe getting 2 better 140mms may be optimal?

I currently my fans manually and want something with low noise

Does sticky tape over the metal plate affect temperatures? I stuck it down because it makes installing so much less finicky




Or maybe the liquid metal on the nickel base plate has ruined thermal transfer? Will swapping to a normal paste fix it? Does delidded cpu LM dry out too?



Alternatively - any good low profile coolers to swap out?

 

[Jacky60]

I have the same CPU cooler in reserve for my next build. I bought it for my 4770K. A little bit of tape as seen in pic will be of negligible influence on it's efficiency as that part of the cooler is primarily conductive to the fins above rather than assisting convection to the rest of the cooler. I recently bought a kit to allow it's use on AM5 although waiting for Ryzen 4000 before I deploy it. I have the 3x140mm fans it came with (K2 doom was it's full name) and will give those a go assuming there's enough room for RAM clearance on my next build. So yes additional fans will boost its performance although I can't understand what you did with the original fans. Re:the cooling plate as long as its nice and smooth you should be good to go although I have no experience of liquid metal. Its a very beefy cooler and worth hanging on to if you can.

 

[Trojan Horse]

I have the same CPU cooler in reserve for my next build. I bought it for my 4770K. A little bit of tape as seen in pic will be of negligible influence on it's efficiency as that part of the cooler is primarily conductive to the fins above rather than assisting convection to the rest of the cooler. I recently bought a kit to allow it's use on AM5 although waiting for Ryzen 4000 before I deploy it. I have the 3x140mm fans it came with (K2 doom was it's full name) and will give those a go assuming there's enough room for RAM clearance on my next build. So yes additional fans will boost its performance although I can't understand what you did with the original fans. Re:the cooling plate as long as its nice and smooth you should be good to go although I have no experience of liquid metal. Its a very beefy cooler and worth hanging on to if you can.

Yeah tbh, I bought this cooler over 7 years ago for £30 open box on the Bay, the 2 fans came Alpenfohn and all the reviews showed the exact same wing boost fan setup I have, so I am not sure where yo got the 3x140mm (https://play3r.net/reviews/alpenfohn-k2-mount-doom-cpu-cooler-review/)

Do you know of any benchmarks showing what upgraded fans can look like to temps? Is it worth paying for 2x140mm or just grab some Arctic F14s to replace them?

Honestly, it used to be the best, I could idle on 30-40c with no fans, but now it idles on 60-70 without fans / 85c with fans on prime 95

I think maybe the delid needs repasting or something? Or I think putting my CPU back on stock means the Vcore rides a lot higher now?

 

[Jacky60]

Yeah tbh, I bought this cooler over 7 years ago for £30 open box on the Bay, the 2 fans came Alpenfohn and all the reviews showed the exact same wing boost fan setup I have, so I am not sure where yo got the 3x140mm (https://play3r.net/reviews/alpenfohn-k2-mount-doom-cpu-cooler-review/)

Do you know of any benchmarks showing what upgraded fans can look like to temps? Is it worth paying for 2x140mm or just grab some Arctic F14s to replace them?

Honestly, it used to be the best, I could idle on 30-40c with no fans, but now it idles on 60-70 without fans / 85c with fans on prime 95

I think maybe the delid needs repasting or something? Or I think putting my CPU back on stock means the Vcore rides a lot higher now?

Weird because when I look at reviews you're correct and I don't have 3 x140mm BUT I do have 2 x 140mm and 1x120mm all with Alpenfohn branding on them and I'm pretty sure (can't be certain) they all came together, I must have bought a third to go with it. Either way I'd only buy one additional 140mm fan if I were you. I can't see how the fans/cooling fins could lose efficiency significantly unless spinning at a lower speed. More fans definitely means cooler but by how much I can't say. The degradation to the plate/delid is almost sure to be the culprit. A new cooler with equivalent performance is going to cost £60-70 I'd have thought so spending a little time smoothing out the heat plate with glass paper could be a good meditative experience. Dunno any benchmarks but it certainly worked very well for me the only reason I replaced it was it obstructed my RAM modules iirc. https://bit-tech.net/reviews/tech/cooling/alpenf-hn-k2-mount-doom-review/2/ Actually after reading this I'd get a couple of new 140mm fans as long as you can cope with whatever noise they generate. Seems the stock fans it comes with are a little slow and gentle.

 

[Trojan Horse]

Weird because when I look at reviews you're correct and I don't have 3 x140mm BUT I do have 2 x 140mm and 1x120mm all with Alpenfohn branding on them and I'm pretty sure (can't be certain) they all came together, I must have bought a third to go with it. Either way I'd only buy one additional 140mm fan if I were you. I can't see how the fans/cooling fins could lose efficiency significantly unless spinning at a lower speed. More fans definitely means cooler but by how much I can't say. The degradation to the plate/delid is almost sure to be the culprit. A new cooler with equivalent performance is going to cost £60-70 I'd have thought so spending a little time smoothing out the heat plate with glass paper could be a good meditative experience. Dunno any benchmarks but it certainly worked very well for me the only reason I replaced it was it obstructed my RAM modules iirc. https://bit-tech.net/reviews/tech/cooling/alpenf-hn-k2-mount-doom-review/2/ Actually after reading this I'd get a couple of new 140mm fans as long as you can cope with whatever noise they generate. Seems the stock fans it comes with are a little slow and gentle.

Do you think any kind of sandpaper would be good to polish it with? As it is nickel platted copper (I believe). Could pick some up from Aldi.

With the 140mm fans, don't you need the weird fan brackets to go with them? How do you mount your fans? (The brackets are real finicky too). I have freed up my Arctic F14s and will try them on the Cooler instead

Could always replace the LM with some good ol' GD900


I have crucial AT kits, they're quite low profile so hopefully it works out.

These results show 3 fans only decreasing temps by 1c. It also shows keeping fans on 60% is only 2c worse than max. Most importantly it does show that passive cooling should be excellent and my temps are too high. I will give the sand paper a go as it is quite rough the surface.

 

[Jacky60]

Do you think any kind of sandpaper would be good to polish it with? As it is nickel platted copper (I believe). Could pick some up from Aldi.

With the 140mm fans, don't you need the weird fan brackets to go with them? How do you mount your fans? (The brackets are real finicky too). I have freed up my Arctic F14s and will try them on the Cooler instead

Could always replace the LM with some good ol' GD900


I have crucial AT kits, they're quite low profile so hopefully it works out.

These results show 3 fans only decreasing temps by 1c. It also shows keeping fans on 60% is only 2c worse than max. Most importantly it does show that passive cooling should be excellent and my temps are too high. I will give the sand paper a go as it is quite rough the surface.

I'd use zip ties, I still have the weird wire mounts but there are a couple that have gone astray. The long slim zip ties (about 7-8 inches long x 3mm ) ones should do the trick. Haven't tried it yet but just took a look and should be easy enough. I can't see any issue with any kind of sandpaper, ideally a coarse then a fine grade wrapped around some 4 x 2 wood or anything with a flat surface so you can be sure you don't make the surface too concave or convex.Or you could rub the cooling plate against the sand paper on a flat surface/worktop. I can picture how you can do it and I can't see a lot of room for error as long as you don't go nuts and take is slow. Main thing is to remove as many irregularities as possible leaving the surface nice and smooth and even to optimise metal to metal contact. You'll be using some tim there anyway so it doesn't need to be as smooth as glass. Regarding fans and temps as you say it doesn't seem to make much difference but I guess that's because the stock fans spin fairly slowly anyway you want the higher static pressure fan/s as pushers and the high flow one as a puller although whether this will make a significant difference I don't know but that is the principle.

 

[Jacky60]

PS Dunno about liquid metal or whether dries out but I'm pretty sure the loss in cooling comes from poor contact on the plate and probably poor contact on the delid compared to how is once was. Also the cooling fins do look a little dusty so I'd probably give it a vacuum or a wash and thoroughly dry it (hair dryer -yeah I know I haven't got one either, airing cupboard, windowsill on a windy day). My fins get way dustier/dirtier but you may as well if doing the other things.

 

[Trojan Horse]

I'd use zip ties, I still have the weird wire mounts but there are a couple that have gone astray. The long slim zip ties (about 7-8 inches long x 3mm ) ones should do the trick. Haven't tried it yet but just took a look and should be easy enough. I can't see any issue with any kind of sandpaper, ideally a coarse then a fine grade wrapped around some 4 x 2 wood or anything with a flat surface so you can be sure you don't make the surface too concave or convex.Or you could rub the cooling plate against the sand paper on a flat surface/worktop. I can picture how you can do it and I can't see a lot of room for error as long as you don't go nuts and take is slow. Main thing is to remove as many irregularities as possible leaving the surface nice and smooth and even to optimise metal to metal contact. You'll be using some tim there anyway so it doesn't need to be as smooth as glass. Regarding fans and temps as you say it doesn't seem to make much difference but I guess that's because the stock fans spin fairly slowly anyway you want the higher static pressure fan/s as pushers and the high flow one as a puller although whether this will make a significant difference I don't know but that is the principle.

Wanna show me how you’ve managed to zip tie these fans on lol

can you buy the 140mm wire mounts? The other 120mm wire mount is useless in this case

 

[Trojan Horse]

Wanna show me how you’ve managed to zip tie these fans on lol

can you buy the 140mm wire mounts? The other 120mm wire mount is useless in this case

Right, I've only went and done it.

For the half an hour I spent fiddling and tweaking, I got a few degree boost.
It would have been worthwhile if I now didn't have a janky zip tie ghetto setup. Tomorrow, once I get the sandpaper in, I don't think I'll bother with the upgrade fans. Even the Arctic F14s are quieter and more performant, but unless I can find a drill or something to make the setup more permanent, It is not worth it for me.

All the articles on liquid metal show that whilst the metal surface will degrade, it will not affect performance.

What did massively help with idle temps is this power plan -https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/eng1y8/ryzen_3700x_high_iddle_temps_and_fan_speed/

Now I get 30c stable on idle, with 0 RPM fans, which is perfect, I think the voltage jumping all over was the big issue here.

 

[Jacky60]

Right, I've only went and done it.

For the half an hour I spent fiddling and tweaking, I got a few degree boost.
It would have been worthwhile if I now didn't have a janky zip tie ghetto setup. Tomorrow, once I get the sandpaper in, I don't think I'll bother with the upgrade fans. Even the Arctic F14s are quieter and more performant, but unless I can find a drill or something to make the setup more permanent, It is not worth it for me.

All the articles on liquid metal show that whilst the metal surface will degrade, it will not affect performance.

What did massively help with idle temps is this power plan -https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/eng1y8/ryzen_3700x_high_iddle_temps_and_fan_speed/

Now I get 30c stable on idle, with 0 RPM fans, which is perfect, I think the voltage jumping all over was the big issue here.

Well there you go, tbh I didn't I don't have experience of Ryzen/power plans etc and I didn't say the zip tie solution was going to be elegant and something you'd do if you wanted to showcase the build with a windowed case and loads of rgb but I'm pleased you've in some way sorted the problem. I'll keep this in mind for when I upgrade anyway.

 

[Jacky60]

PS Have you contacted Alpenfohn to see if they supply the wire mounting brackets or even OC UK they have some spares etc although no idea if they have these?

 

[Trojan Horse]

PS Have you contacted Alpenfohn to see if they supply the wire mounting brackets or even OC UK they have some spares etc although no idea if they have these?

Theres not much you can do. When I googled K2 Moutn Dooom I found one of my old threads, the 140mm wire mounts require 120mm fan mounts, the 120mm wires required like 92mm fan mounts.

Only the curved tHERMALtake TTY fans work becaude they have the same design.

Yep so two good 140mm fans zipped together is probably the best and most efficient