XOC Equipment

Most important stuff you need if you want to go cold with your cpu

Let us talk about the most important gear you should have if you want to have a nice and easy start into extreme overclocking (XOC). If you have the right gear you can focus more on the actual overclocking process than worring about why something is not going as you expected it -if that should happen.

LN2 Cpu cooler / Liquid Nitrogen Container
The right thermal paste
Thermometer
Insulation material
Heatgun / Torch
Dewar and Thermos
Fans, Isopropanol

REAKTOR 2.2 with 3D-Printed mounting bracket. If you purchase one you will get a bracket with your name on it too!

Ln2 Pot/ Liquid Nitrogen Container

Obviously the most important part of this list is the LN2 Pot. The term “LN2 Pot or Liquid Nitrogen Container” is a more general term which refers to all sub-zero coolers designed for liquid nitrogen (LN2) and dry ice (DICE) usage.

The pot you use has a direct impact on your overclocking results. It has to dissipate the heat generated by the cpu. If the pot can’t keep up with the generated heat load, you will not be able to maximize your CPU clocks. Some cpus require constant heating up after a crash and one is obliged to cool down again. Thus you want a pot which is fast at both while minimizing LN2 consumption.

A pot which fullfills all those requirements is the REAKTOR 2.2REAKTOR 2.2. The REAKTOR 2.2 is used by top overclocks worldwide and developed by us!

Another option to consider is the T-REX from Kingpin cooling.

The right Thermalpaste

A Pro Tip: Do not go cheap on thermal paste when doing Extreme Overclocking! Thermal paste can make a huge difference when going cold even though when benching at ambient, the diference between certain pastes can be negligable.

By now there are some specific pastes out there which are developed to work as good as possible at sub-zero termperatures. Those pastes stay conductive and will not freeze nor crack even at the low temperatures of liquid nitrogen.

Kingpin Cooling KPx and Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut Extreme are the best options on the market right now.

Two different K-Type Thermocouples and a Thermometer

thermometer and k-type tehrmocouple

When going cold you obviously should know how cold you are. Some cpus have a cold bug (CB) and/or a cold boot bug (CBB). CB means that the cpus stops functioning below that temperature. A CBB means that you can’t boot below that temperature. So you always need to have an exact measurement of your temperature. So what do you do if you are too cold? More about that below!

To measure the temperature you need K-Type Thermocouples. Those are specific for low temperatures such as -200°C. Most thermocouples are not that accurate at them temperatures. You can either buy a thermometer with calibration function or buy specific thermocouples which are accurate at low temperatures. Kingping Cooling has those in his store!

Insulation Material

As soon as you go below ambient temperature condensing water starts to form. To prevent that from happening you need to insulate your hardware properly. To insulate the mainboard you can use liquid rubber (e.g. the one from mibenco in the picture). Liquid rubber is easy to apply and in my opinion the best long term insulation. It is also easy to remove without any remains left!

Art eraser is also “good“ for insulation. It is harder and thus more time consuming to apply. You will not be able to cover everything as easily as with liquid rubber. When removing it sticks to the components and you will have to be careful to not rip something of. For long term usage it is really good though.

Last but not least is vaseline. You have probably heard of vaseline as insulation already. It is easy to apply but also easy to make a mess. It is good for short term insulation and harder to remove.

Paper towels are good to wrap around the LN2 Pot and to cover the remaining large surface areas. More about all the above methods in the article about correct insulation.

Heating up

Let us talk about the point when something goes wrong and you can not boot anymore or just want to quit the session. Maybe you are just benching a cpu with a CB and/or a CBB. In any of those case you will need to heat up sometime. Heating up requires a powerful heat source. There are actually two good options and both have their own benefits:

Heat Gun
Torch

The Heat Gun is not as fast as a Torch but on the other hand you can not burn anything and you will not need to buy gas for the torch. The advantage of using a torch is that it is a lot faster than a Heat-Gun. At the end of the day the choice is not that important and you choose whatever you prefer!

A fan and other useful materials

To prevent condensation on your motherboard you need to keep the cold vapors away from dropping onto the motherboard or other components. The easiest solution is to snap a fan onto one of the threaded rods and let it blow the steam away.

The other crucial item you see in the picture on the left is the thermos. Obviously you need something to poor the LN2 into the LN2 Pot. The easiest and cheapest option therefore is to use a thermos flask. You just need to fill the LN2 from the Dewar into the Thermos and you are good to go.

In the picture below you see a “Dewar” which is used to store liquid nitrogen. You will either need to buy or rent one if you want to get into extreme overclocking.

To clean the surface of your LN2 Pot, the heatspreader of the cpu and much more you will need some isopropanol alcohol.

Inferno Backplate

The item we are talking about is by far not necessary but it is really really helpul during long bench sessions. The name is program: The Inferno Backplate is a backplate with an intergrated heating unit in it.

It prevents that the mainboard freezes around the socket and keeps condensation away. Thus you have to worry less about water and ice around your socket. It is also available at Kingpin Cooling.