Dockstar - change heat sink

Greetings :)
I have been the happy owner of a Seagate Dockstar for some 4 or 5 years now.
Lately I have noticed that it is running veeery hot. I haven't done any real measure with a thermometer or something like that but I can assure you that I can't touch the surface of the "rubber-like" heat sink that stands on top of it's Sheeva CPU for more than a couple of seconds without burning my hand.
I would say that it is around 50~60ºC on idle with the case open, which by the way seems to be about half of the max operating temperature stated by Sheeva.
With the help of moonman I am already running the Doc at 400MHz when idle by using cpupower. But it's still too hot. :(
And for me hot means reduced lifetime.
Is there anyway that I can remove the "rubber-like" heat sink and use a real heat sink?
If so, how would I do that? I can't find any instructions on the web. :(
All help greatly appreciated. :)
Cheers

I'd say don't do it! you are risking to brick it for good. I would just drill a lot of holes on the bottom and raise the Dockstar with rubber feet. If you're obsessed :) how about using a thermometer to measure the temp after you've done that? if it's way under the Sheeva max operating temp then you should not worry?!

-bodhi
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Hi bodhi.
Thanks for your reply.
I guess I'll do that first. But if it doesn't drastically lower the dockstar temperature I will go back looking for heat sink alternatives.
Thanks mate.

can you cut a section out of the base of the unit and add a small low profile fan, powered from the usb port?

I found a good report on DockStar Cooling project. Its translated by Google Translate. Basically, a combo of cooling tape & cooling paste & heatsink & thermal insulation tape is used to prevent DockStar overheating under full load and at idle, and its cable burning.

Add to it rubber fits suggested by bodhi, and you'll get life long performance from this small devil. :)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2016 06:34PM by sambul14.