I have 20 heat sinks that go to Xeon CPU's for Dell poweredge 6530 servers but they dont fit in the slots with the heatsinks attached and i dont wanna buy new ones * got these free* so would it matter much if i shaved them down by 1/4" or so till they fit or would that be a "BAD THANG" ................. just want a second opinion as i'd hate to fry the CPU's

What are you going to use them on? It would be good to see a picture.

yeh cant see why not - so long as they fit snug to the HSF guide. Are you looking you use these for Socket 478 guides or what?

Quote: Originally Posted by BigAkita What are you going to use them on? It would be good to see a picture.

Here's a pic of the slots they go in and the heatsink attached to the CPU.
And to Nev , im using them in Dell poweredge servers

I don't see any problem here... as long as the CPU 'temp doesn't increase too much...
And if it does, I guess some slight modding of the case could make up for it... nothing major.. just
something to improve airflow over the processors..

You could use a trick... I bet you can read the CPU temp in the Bios... check what it is now... (1 CPU) then
just cut/grind one of those sinks down to the size you want & tape a fan to it (one has to love duck tape!).
Try that CPU with the "modified" sink plus fan attached.. Watch the temperatures in the bios & gradually
decrease the voltage to the fan (lots of ways to do this)... I use one of those Zahlman devices.

This "trick" should give you a pretty good idea if it will work, safely!

TDR

Shaving the heatsink will decrease the surface area.. and increase the temps a little..

But it depends on what CPU that is.. it looks like an older one.. anything under 500mhz doesn't need extreme cooling, so it would probably be fine.

If you could put a fan on top of those CPU's blowing down across the heatsinks, that would guarantee adequate cooling.

By looking at the picture, I would leave the heatsink alone and cut the plastic on the back of the slots.

Thanks for all the input and good idea BA, im gonna try that one first as i really dony want to mess with the CPU's and the heat sinks unless i have no other way out, but if cutting the slots doesnt ,im gonna try cuttin a heat sink then install more fans to compensate ..................again thanks for all the help , joining PR is the best thing i've done in years lol

now i see the pic - how is the air extracted from those heatsinks? Is there like a large duct that covers the top of the CPU area?

While I would leave the fins alone and only shave them as a last resort. If I had to shave them I would only do so if I could add some fan's somehow to increase the airflow. Otherwise I would just buy some new heatsinks that are sized to match. Free and/or cheap is seldom the wisest decision.

I checked Dell's website and I guess that you have a 6350 (not a 6530). That system takes 400MHz CPUs - you can trim the fins and it would be fine - I have a passive cooler for a PIII 700 that came from some server and it is way less dense (as far as the fins) than the one in the picture, so it will be fine. Just one word of advise, if possible add an intake fan that blows directly on the CPUs and that will take care of CPU cooling (maybe in the drive cage?).

Quote: Originally Posted by Slaymate Free and/or cheap is seldom the wisest decision.

Blasphemy.

Thanks Purple, and yeah im dislecsic *and cant spell* its a 6350 and i looked into the cpu cage and i can add 2 80mm fans no problem but im gonna shave the plastic walls for the heatsink fittage and there will still be some left for stabilty, but thanks for lookin into it for me and if my *BA'S* idea dont work then sink shaving is immenent

Keep us posted!

TDR

Quote: Originally Posted by The Dragon Reborn Keep us posted! TDR

No problem, i been real busy but im gonna start it right now and i'll post pic's when i finish.

Quote: Originally Posted by The Dragon Reborn Keep us posted! TDR

Ok so here's my solution to the problem i had, i * Doh took me a bit to remeber* took the whole board out and just removed the slot guides altogether ........... here's the B4 and After





WOOHOOO now i gots my 4x 550 Xeon server, just waitin on the memory.

Damn man what are the specs on that, makes me drool. I would love an old school quad processor pc...

Quote: Originally Posted by TYCOON Damn man what are the specs on that, makes me drool. I would love an old school quad processor pc...

lol, if yer in N. Calif *San Jose* come on and get ya one, i got 4 all with fully populated CPU'S just no memory yet

here's the spec's, http://developer.novell.com/yes/54536.htm
or if yer rich i could ship ya one but yer lookin at $100 for shipping at least

Looks really nice!

If you're at some point going for shaving off some of the heatsinks it should be no problem as long as you maintain a good airflow and have some temperature difference to spare.

I shaved of some of my northbridge heatsink for my girls pc to make it fit with the new silent heatsink for the cpu. Worked like a charm. The only thing was that the heatsink itself became very hot from friction when i used my dremel for the cutting. And I managed to keep all the metaldust out of the computer in the end.