Z230 SFF PCH Heatsink?

[fmyhr]

Hi,

I just acquired a refurbished Z230 SFF Workstation. I'm very impressed with its design, particularly its right-sized platinum-rated power supply, clever tool-free case, and ducted CPU cooling. But I notice one thing that concerns me: there is no heatsink on the PCH. Is this normal for this machine? I worry that maybe mine has somehow fallen off?

Thanks,

Frank

[SDH]

Welcome Frank,

Great little powerful workstation.  Have no fear.... below is an eBay picture of your motherboard (a moderator needs to release images so this might take a bit of time to see).  You can also google Z230 motherboard and click on images to see.  The ones I saw did not have a heatsink on that.  

For others.... it is the square chipset you can see exposed down by the bottom right area where the 5 internal SATA ports are clustered, between the two PCIe slot ends a little to the right of midline:

.

[fmyhr]

SDH,

Thank you very much for your reply. I took your suggestion and did a Google image search. It turned up the photo you posted from an eBay listing, as well as some others that show a PCH heatsink. For example:

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/249475-noctua-announces-3-compact-92-mm-heatsinks/?page=2#comme...

Also, going to the HP Customer Self Repair Services Media Library

http://h20464.www2.hp.com/index.html

and selecting:

Category: Desktops & Workstations

Product family: Personal Workstations

Product series; HP Z230 Small Form Factor Workstation

and then Remove/Replace videos finally directs to a page for the Z230 SFF:

http://h20464.www2.hp.com/results.htm?SID=5367813&MEID=AB9BA2FA-A355-4C16-90A8-B7FFAE07F88C

Clicking the "RTC Battery" link at left, going about a quarter of the way into the video, and looking at the bottom right corner of that image shows the corner of a heatsink on top of the PCH.

Maybe HP built some Z230 SFF motherboards with a PCH heatsink and some without? Or maybe the PCH heatsink is a separate part number that gets added to the motherboards that appear for sale on eBay?

I'm still surprised not to find a PCH heatsink in mine. I've built a couple of machines using Supermicro X10 motherboards with C22x PCH. Those came with PCH heatsinks, which do get hot.

If someone with a Z230 SFF can take a quick look inside and let me know whether your PCH has a heatsink that would be awesome.

Thanks,

Frank

[SDH]

Frank,

You are correct.... I also see some now with and without that silver heatsink.  I'm guessing that it has to do with the build.... slower processor and memory speeds will stress that chipset less.

There are thermal epoxies that can be used to attach a heatsink to a chipset, and I have found some of the HP chipset heatsinks to use that plus metal spring-arm hold downs.

I can see no disadvantage to adding a heatsink to that if you wish..... I'm like you.... I'd rather have it than not.

[fmyhr]

For reference, my Z230 SFF has a Xeon E3-1245 v3 CPU, and no PCH heatsink. I remain very interested to hear whether others with same or different builds have the heatsink present.

I will probably add a heatsink to mine. Think it will have to be epoxied, because I don't see anyplace to attach a hold-down spring.

I can think of 2 disadvantages to adding a heatsink:

1. It may void machine's warranty.
2. If heatsink is too large it may interfere with PCIe expansion cards.

Of course the main advantage would be lower PCH temperature and presumably longer life / better reliability.

[fmyhr]

More Googling produced:

 http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c04527026&sp4ts.oid=5387475

---

Advisory: HP EliteDesk 800 G1 and HP ProDesk 600 G1 PCs - No Platform Controller Hub Heatsink On Newer System Boards; By Design

Release Date: 2014-12-09
Last Updated: 2014-12-09

DESCRIPTION
Computers manufactured beginning in June 2014 no longer have the Platform Controller Hub (PCH) heatsink that was installed on earlier units. This is the result of a planned design change.

SCOPE
Information in this document applies to the following:

Computers:
    HP EliteDesk 800 G1 Small Form Factor PC
    HP EliteDesk 800 G1 Tower PC
    HP ProDesk 600 G1 Small Form Factor PC
    HP ProDesk 600 G1 Tower PC

RESOLUTION
The PCH heatsink has been removed by design. HP has thoroughly tested the computers and they pass all thermal validation criteria with the PCH heatsink removed.

---

The above EliteDesk & ProDesk computers use a Lynx Point PCH, same as the Z230. It appears that HP applied this design change to the Z230 SFF as well, though I've been unable to find an HP Customer Advisory that specifically says so.

I did find a good picture of the PCH heatsink in early Z230 SFF review units:

https://www.slashgear.com/hp-z230-sff-workstation-review-08300082/#jp-carousel-300678

The heatsink is clearly shown at the top, just left of center. It's held down by a spring wire secured to two nearby anchors on the motherboard. My Z230 SFF motherboard is missing these anchors; the through-holes for mounting them are still present, but are filled with solder. There are too many nearby components and traces for me to even think of trying to mount some anchors there. So if I decide to mount a PCH heatsink I'll use a thermal epoxy.