Modifying a Raijintek Morpheus 2 for use of a CPU

[Day VReamer]

Hi all,

I am on the search for a new cooler and although there are loads of good choices out there I'd like to try fitting the Raijintek Morpheus 2 to my CPU. I have purchased a grade B one so if I muck this up it isn't as bad. It fits on my mother board (mini itx Asus z170i Pro Gaming) if I orient it so that it protrudes off the top of the board, however I want it to protrude over the ram. With low profile ram that part isn't an issue, however the rear heat pipes interfere with the USB ports etc by about 1cm.

So my options, below is a side pic of the Morpheus 2. Option 1: I am considering splitting the cpu plate in half where I have drawn the red line. This is how it was joined - 2 seperate plates. I am guessing it will be soldered so needs heating and slight pressure? Once seperated I will look to remove a slight bit of the top half plate for each pipe so that it can slide slightly further back and around each pipe. The bottom mounting plate should be largely unaffected, just moved.

2: My other thought it to split the plate as before and where you can see the recess in the plate (within the red square) I will cut the whole end of the mounting plate off. This won't affect the contact with the CPU, but will reduce the contact with the heat pipes and reduce the ability to transfer heat to the pipes.

I would most likely therefore go for the first option. Can anyone confirm how the 2 halves of the mounting plate are likely to be attached/removed? Also any other options/advice would be awesome. Thanks

 

[Day VReamer]

Raijintek have confirmed the pipes are soldered to the contact plate. I could remove them however my vlp ram had arrived and I can now see there is not enough space between the ram and usb ports etc/rear Up for the cooler to fit between (by about 3-4mm. So I could either bend 6 of the pipes to get the clearance, and remove and re-seat the contact plate or raise the cooler by about 3cm. I think I'm going towards either raising it with something a bit like the streacom ht4 or just getting a CPU cooler!

Streacom have confirmed that the ht4 has the capacity to transfer 35w per pipe. So approx 140w. The only thing is that by now having 2 layers of thermal paste and 2 contact points not just 1, the thermal transfer won't be as good. So the streacom ht4 might not be sufficient. There are however sellers who provide plates with the option to fit 6 heat pipes which can also have direct contact. I could then fit 12 heat pipes in the same way Raijintek have. Although the issue would still remain with the 2 contact areas, the heat capacity of the pipes would hopefully be so much greater than I would need making the performance loss of the Morpheus 2 much less. Obviously this is mostly assumptions and guess work but I think it is now either this or be normal and get a CPU cooler. It would be interesting to test this combo against something like the Noctua C14s

 

[Day VReamer]

I now have two of the below kits, and 12 150mm x 6mm heat pipes. I intend to weld an aluminium piece of square pipe between the 2 aluminium mounts, bend the heat pipes and fit them in place. The bottom one will then fit to the 1151 socket and the top plate to the Raijintek morpheus 2. As they are direct contact and due to the efficiency of heat pipes, and having 12 of them I am hoping this will produce relatively good results still despite the need for two areas of heat transfer/thermalpaste.

 

[Day VReamer]

I have now almost finished the riser.

I got 12 150mm x 6mm heatpipes, created a template out of wood to bend them round to give me the height/width required. When a copper pipe started to kink I used a plastic clamp and clamped it slightly from the sides to reduce the kink and make the pipe closer to being round. Overall I managed to use all 12 pipes without wasting any.

Next I will get a piece of aluminium welded between both plates to hold them still then I will fix the pipes and mount it.

The riser raises the cooler by 50mm, the Raijintek Morpheus 2 is 44mm tall and then I'll fit 25mm fans so total height will be around 11.9cm tall.

So far:

 

[Day VReamer]

So I contacted a couple of welders (as I don't have the equipment to weld aluminium) and although they said they'd be able to do it and would quote they didn't get back to me. I then regrettably tried using a metal epoxy to fix the aluminium tube. Following that I tried squashing the copper pipes. In hindsight I should have just pushed to weld it as I couldn't put the force I wanted to onto the copper without the epoxy starting to give. The copper wasn't quite as flat as I wanted which means everything for direct contact!

Anyway, I continued to mount the cooler, unfortunately I couldn't fit 2 x 120mm fans without a clearance issue on an exhaust fan - I probably would have got two matching 92mm fans and fitted them to the cooler.

I managed to get it mounted in the case, however needed longer screws (and probably hex bolts would have made it easier) for mounting the cooler to the riser as I could then have tightened it from the side. I couldn't therefore get the force I wanted to between the cooler and riser. Also on measuring, the CPU was only wide enough to make contact with 8 of the 12 heat pipes so reduced the effectiveness of the riser. I could have put a copper shim on it but again this would introduce another layer of thermal paste etc etc. On testing I managed to get the same temps as my previous cooler - 68 degrees C at full CPU load for 10 mins with just one fan. On removing the cooler I could see the thermal paste had been evenly spread, however I think that was more due to me making sure there was coverage (knowing that the copper pipes weren't completely flat) but again the thermal paste wasn't as squashed as I had hoped so as stated before supported that I hadn't got enough force.

I could rectify all of these issues however this is where I have decided to be normal and get a cpu cooler. I just wish CPU cooler manufacturers were a bit more adventurous with their designs and capabilities. Why not have more heat pipes in a design under 160mm, and why not have more cooling area, with deeper fins, with more mass. All of these would add to the cooling capability. If designed professionally I have no doubt that if the heat pipes on the Raijintek were bent in such a way to give greater clearance to allow cpu fitment then it would make an amazing CPU cooler, with a cooling capacity which performs as good as if not better than some of the best, and it would be one that would fit in my case!

Would I recommend trying this at home - if you have got the tools and more patience than me then yes. I enjoyed it until I made the decision to use epoxy. I could clean it off and get it welded and finish it properly but as stated I think I'll now just be normal and get a CPU cooler.

Anyway, final pics for amusement

 

[Day VReamer]

it would be better to buy a normal tower cooler than to make such a fuss

It would be, but it would be less fun, and you could also use that reasoning with every PC case that anyone has built on this forum. I built my current 2 PC cases, mainly because I enjoy the DIY element just as much as using the PC itself youre right though and I know it! :/

 

[Ganelon]

I would understand if you, like, had the hardware lying around, but purchasing a Morpheus (even B grade) to do this is grade A lunacy. I wholeheartedly support it.

That said, if you want interesting coolers there are ones out there. Prolimatech's Gemini, or that new IceGiant Thermosiphon thing. I was going to buy a Gemini at one point. Would look kind of similar to this, actually, and probably perform way better.

 

[Day VReamer]

I would understand if you, like, had the hardware lying around, but purchasing a Morpheus (even B grade) to do this is grade A lunacy. I wholeheartedly support it.

That said, if you want interesting coolers there are ones out there. Prolimatech's Gemini, or that new IceGiant Thermosiphon thing. I was going to buy a Gemini at one point. Would look kind of similar to this, actually, and probably perform way better.

I did look at the Gemini and the Thermosiphon - I absolutely love them both, however the case I have made only has 150mm clearance. I could probably squeeze in the Gemini with a slight bit of bending as I only have a few mm to make up. The only thing is that I have a 140mm fan mount directly above the mb, so if I can fit a 140 x 25mm fan and the morpheus that would be awesome. The morpheus also has 12 individual heat pipes so it would be interesting to see the performance. I have come up with another solution which is a one of the below heat pipes. It is 25cm long, 5cm wide by 3mm and can transfer up to 300w. It is also already flat and very easy to bend so mounting both the morpheus and mounting it to the CPU will be very easy. Buying a morpheus is nuts just to try this, but it was either that or something like a NH-U9/D9L and I just find the morpheus much more interesting. We shall see, and my last resort will be to sell the morpheus anyway - should get my money back for it (although not for some of the bits I've got to make the mounts). I'll try not to clog up the mods section anymore though and will just post if I ever do it/complete it and with the results.

 

[Teebs93]

This is pretty cool, unfortunate on the temps but seems you know where you went wrong.

People online seem to be the worst when looking for someone to bounce ideas off, 99% of replies are not constructive at all and just don't help.

I've been looking at using alternative heatsinks and building my own unique cooling options to overclock in my node 202 most replies are just not helpful.

Keep it up though mate similar temps isn't a fail its just not a success ?

 

[Day VReamer]

Thanks - you're right, most people just don't get the idea of having a DIY/project on the go, even if it is never used or isn't useful in the end, it can just be fun having a go. I'm currently considering building a laptop which fits all desktop parts , got it down to about 400mm x 315mm x 76mm, so it's not huge, considering it can fit an SFX psu, GPU up to 300 x 130 x 57, Mini itx MB, loads of 60mm fans and a 15.6 inch portable monitor. Keep on having a go, and good luck with your Node 202

 

[Bigboy93]

Hi...i wonder if you could put the cooler directly to the cpu without doing this monstrous mod? Maybe upward orientation? If you can, i would be able to design a very interesting case?

 

[Bigboy93]

Hi...i wonder if you could put the cooler directly to the cpu without doing this monstrous mod? Maybe upward orientation? If you can, i would be able to design a very interesting case?

 

[Nunuji]

This is going to be a weird comment, so I apologize ahead of time and bear with me...

I don't like it... but I love that you did it?! Like seeing your thought process and the progress you made was really cool, and I'm a little sad it didn't work as well as you were hoping. Still, it's inspiring to see someone do something like this, even though I'll probably never have the materials/experience to try something like this.

As for what little "constructive" criticism I could maybe offer (since this really isn't my area of expertise), could you have maybe used half as many pipes and possibly gotten equal or better cooling if you had used them in an alternating "C" configuration instead of 6 "O"s? I'm not sure if I can put this into words very well, but I think having the heatpipes meet themselves at the top creates a large void (and thus hot spot) where it should be contacting the actual cooler, whereas is you had a "C" shape you could have a little bit of overhang on both the top and bottom of the "C" and have full contact to the IHS and cooler.

I just wish CPU cooler manufacturers were a bit more adventurous with their designs and capabilities. Why not have more heat pipes in a design under 160mm, and why not have more cooling area, with deeper fins, with more mass. All of these would add to the cooling capability.

There are a few (unfortunately VERY few) companies doing neat things, like massive passive cooling heatsinks for a specialized reverse-socket montherboard (Gamers Nexus on youtube did a video on the company that is doing it), so I have hopes that one day we will see a little more diversity in the consumer market for things like coolers and (budget) SFF cases.

EDIT: Here is a (really, REALLY) bad doodle of what I was trying to say with the pipe shape.

 

[MrJvr]

I suspect the lack of perceived adventurous-ness is down to compatibility...
The standard forms we see today exist as they are the most 'compatible' with all the different motherboard/component layouts.
From rear IO heat syncs to tall ram etc, there isnt a huge amount of 'guaranteed' safe space and at the end of the day, making something more adventurous is likely to limit it's applications and therefore make it a less popular product...
It's hard to find companies that are willing to cater for anything but the most profitable markets these days

 

[Day VReamer]

Thanks all for the responses - I have only just seen them and unfortunately am now onto another project. All options sound quite interesting - half the amount of heat pipes and just do a C rather than an O, and I could possibly have put the cooler upwards just to test - I can't remember now if there was a clearance issue. I have now gone onto another project (no longer have the morpheus cooler) and built myself my own laptop https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/non-portable-almost-non-laptop-build.14544/