Intel Xeon Processor 2.80 GHz Thermal/Mechanical Design Guidelines

Thermal/Mechanical Reference Design
28 Dual-Core Intel
®
Xeon
®
Processor 2.80 GHz Thermal/Mechanical Design Guidelines
Refer to Appendix A for drawings of the heatsinks and CEK spring. The screws and standoffs are
standard components that are made captive to the heatsink for ease of handling and assembly.
Contact your Intel field sales representative for an electronic version of mechanical and thermal
models of the CEK (Pro Engineer*, IGES and Icepak*, Flotherm* formats). Pro Engineer, Icepak
and Flotherm models are available on Intel Business Link (IBL).
Note: Intel reserves the right to make changes and modifications to the design as necessary.
Note: The thermal mechanical reference design for the Dual-Core Intel Xeon processor 2.80 GHz was
verified according to the Intel validation criteria given in Appendix C.1. Any thermal mechanical
design using some of the reference components in combination with any other thermal mechanical
solution needs to be fully validated according to the customer criteria. Also, if customer thermal
mechanical validation criteria differ from the Intel criteria, the reference solution should be
validated against the customer criteria.
2.4.4.3 Structural Considerations of CEK
As Intel explores methods of keeping thermal solutions within the air-cooling space, the mass of
the thermal solutions is increasing significantly. Due to the flexible nature (and associated large
deformation) of baseboard-only attachments, Intel reference solutions, such as CEK, are now
commonly using direct chassis attach (DCA) as the mechanical retention design. The mass of the
new thermal solutions is large enough to require consideration for structural support and stiffening
on the chassis. Intel has published a best know method (BKM) document that provides specific
structural guidance for designing DCA thermal solutions. The document is titled Chassis Strength
and Stiffness Measurement and Improvement Guidelines for Direct Chassis Attach Solutions.
2.4.5 Thermal Solution Performance Characteristics
The optimization of the CEK heatsinks for thermal performance has been completed. Figure 2-9
and Figure 2-11 show the performance of the 2U+ and 1U passive heatsinks, respectively. These
figures show the thermal performance and the pressure drop through fins of the heatsink versus the
airflow provided. The best-fit equations for these curves are also provided to make it easier for
users to determine the desired value without any error associated with reading the graph.