subconcept
12-09-02, 10:24 PM
During the last while Ive seen numerous posts of people wanting to change the stock cooler on their 8500's abd 8500LEs. The same questions have come up about what heatsinks to use and how to do it. From what I have read the crystal orb is probably the best vga cooler that will fit on an 8500 to use. The fan is fast, and the base is copper (its just tin plated). However a crystal orb isnt the only good solution, may people have attached smaller square heatsinks, just big enough to cool the gpu. Ive seen a store near me that has a bin full small heatinks that would fit and probably work well, maybe theres something like that available to you.
Based on personal experience I am not sure how much the cooling on my card has improved my 3d mark or game performance, I really didnt push it to the extent that I have now because I feel safer doing it when I know I have ample cooling. If anyone can add to this and has experienced a big difference please tell us :)
Furthermore, the ram chips get hot as well as the gpu, so again if you want to push your card to the limit this is not a bad idea at all. Ramsinks can be purchases in fancy packages like tweakmonsters, tin plated copper, the whole deal, for both normal ram chips and bga ram chips. I got some generic ones that I purchased from bigfootcomputers.com they sell a package of 8 heatinks that are big enough for bga, although I have normal chips these big ram sinks allowed for some extra area for heat to spread to. Again you dont have to go out and by sparkling new ram sinks, old 486 or p1 heatsinks can be given some surgery with a hacksaw and give you great results too. In my case the ones I bought were cut by the store and because they are quite larger then each chip I ran into 2 areas on the top side of the card where I could not fit the ramsink on the chip because of capacitators blocking the way. So I just cut the sink in half and it fit fine.
Getting back to the cooler, once you have your vga cooler you are going to want to remove the stock heatsink. ATi has annoyingly glued their stock cooler to the gpu so we have to get this thing off. There are a few methods of doing this. I will start with the method I used. unscrew the fan from the 4 corners of the heatsink. Carefully put the card in a antistatic bag, and then in a ziplock bag. Put the card in the freezer for about 25-30 min. Now remove the card and set it down on a soft surface like the foam from your motherboard box. Some people have used a credit card here but that did not work as well for me. I use a flathead screw driver to carefully life up with some might, on each corner. You will hear a little bit of cracking, this is the glue you have just brittled breaking apart. Work with the sides you can safely get at without endangering any capacitators or other parts of the card. Dont panic at this part just be cool, i was a bit nervous doing this to mine too. In addition, when you do this please becarefull that you are in fact lifting up the heatsink only and not wedging a flathead under the gpu. Other methods I have heard of is overclocking the card to a safe speed and looping the nature scene on 3dmark2001se so that the card becomes warm. Then you can remove the card and remove it like that. Others have said that you can use a hairdryer too. These methods somewhat scared me as heat will tend to damage electronics easier but they are respectable methods people have used, do what you feel comfortable with but i recommend the freezer trick.
Voila! your heatink pops off. Now get some Acetone (nail polish remover) and get all the glue off until you have a nice clean gpu. Next do a final cleaning with some rubbing alcohol. Next is where we attach the new cooler. the best way to do this is by using arctic alumnia thermal adhesive. You can mix equal parts of the two solutions you find in each tube and apply a thin layer to attach the cooler. Note: this stuff is PERMANENT. Tomorrow if you decide you dont want that heatsink on it, its not going to come off. Unless you want to rip the gpu out of the pcb with it. If you think this may be coming off your gpu in the future, what you need to do is buy an additional tube of normal arctic alumina, and dilute the mix of adhesive. This will make your mixture less permanent, yet give it enough tack to keep it attached. When ready use the applicator that comes with your adhesive and apply a thin layer, making sure to keep it ontop of the gpu. This stuff has a 'pot life' of 3 minutes which means you only have that amount of time for that stuff to start setting. So be efficient and dont apply the stuff and find out you forgot your cooler in the car, because when it hardens, it hardens. When applied, place your cooler on the gpu firmly, make sure its on there centred and that no corners of the gpu are exceeding the edges of the cooler. Also make sure that any edges of the cooler arent too close to the edge of the card, as when you plug it into the agp slot, the cooler may hit the slot, try to avoid this. Mine touches but it only touches the slot once the card is all the way in. Put a book on the cooler to hold it down nice and tight, or if you think you have still hands press on it. I left mine for about 10 minutes to set, it only takes about 5 but I like to be safe.
Next do the same to your ram chips to attach the ramsinks, but before you do clean the tops of the ram with rubbing alcohol to get rid of any dirt or dust. Be careful with your adhesive job here, try and keep every bit of adhesive ontop of the chip, and keep in mind that if you put a fair amount on right to the edge, when you press down on the chip stuff may come out the sides. You will know how much to put on. When all is done, let it set and flip over the card and do the same to the backside of the card. When its all dry make sure that everything is on tight. Now your ready to roll. So pop it in and fire it up. Make sure you plug in your heatsink fan too :)
Also one last thing. When diluting the adhesive arctic alumina is the safest thing to use. People have used arctic silver to do this, but it is conductive where as alumina isnt. The silver is ok for diluting the mix on the gpu if your carefull but I dont suggest this to dilute the adhesive for the ram chips. Any little bit of AS on the traces of the ram could short out the card.
Here is a picture of my finished product
http://www.negativespace.ca/setup/DSCF0115.JPG
I wish I had a helper to take pics as I did this, as I did not want the glue to settle while Im snapping pictures or something. iF anyone does this and take pics, PM me and ill host the pictures for the thread if needed.
I hope this helps!!!
Based on personal experience I am not sure how much the cooling on my card has improved my 3d mark or game performance, I really didnt push it to the extent that I have now because I feel safer doing it when I know I have ample cooling. If anyone can add to this and has experienced a big difference please tell us :)
Furthermore, the ram chips get hot as well as the gpu, so again if you want to push your card to the limit this is not a bad idea at all. Ramsinks can be purchases in fancy packages like tweakmonsters, tin plated copper, the whole deal, for both normal ram chips and bga ram chips. I got some generic ones that I purchased from bigfootcomputers.com they sell a package of 8 heatinks that are big enough for bga, although I have normal chips these big ram sinks allowed for some extra area for heat to spread to. Again you dont have to go out and by sparkling new ram sinks, old 486 or p1 heatsinks can be given some surgery with a hacksaw and give you great results too. In my case the ones I bought were cut by the store and because they are quite larger then each chip I ran into 2 areas on the top side of the card where I could not fit the ramsink on the chip because of capacitators blocking the way. So I just cut the sink in half and it fit fine.
Getting back to the cooler, once you have your vga cooler you are going to want to remove the stock heatsink. ATi has annoyingly glued their stock cooler to the gpu so we have to get this thing off. There are a few methods of doing this. I will start with the method I used. unscrew the fan from the 4 corners of the heatsink. Carefully put the card in a antistatic bag, and then in a ziplock bag. Put the card in the freezer for about 25-30 min. Now remove the card and set it down on a soft surface like the foam from your motherboard box. Some people have used a credit card here but that did not work as well for me. I use a flathead screw driver to carefully life up with some might, on each corner. You will hear a little bit of cracking, this is the glue you have just brittled breaking apart. Work with the sides you can safely get at without endangering any capacitators or other parts of the card. Dont panic at this part just be cool, i was a bit nervous doing this to mine too. In addition, when you do this please becarefull that you are in fact lifting up the heatsink only and not wedging a flathead under the gpu. Other methods I have heard of is overclocking the card to a safe speed and looping the nature scene on 3dmark2001se so that the card becomes warm. Then you can remove the card and remove it like that. Others have said that you can use a hairdryer too. These methods somewhat scared me as heat will tend to damage electronics easier but they are respectable methods people have used, do what you feel comfortable with but i recommend the freezer trick.
Voila! your heatink pops off. Now get some Acetone (nail polish remover) and get all the glue off until you have a nice clean gpu. Next do a final cleaning with some rubbing alcohol. Next is where we attach the new cooler. the best way to do this is by using arctic alumnia thermal adhesive. You can mix equal parts of the two solutions you find in each tube and apply a thin layer to attach the cooler. Note: this stuff is PERMANENT. Tomorrow if you decide you dont want that heatsink on it, its not going to come off. Unless you want to rip the gpu out of the pcb with it. If you think this may be coming off your gpu in the future, what you need to do is buy an additional tube of normal arctic alumina, and dilute the mix of adhesive. This will make your mixture less permanent, yet give it enough tack to keep it attached. When ready use the applicator that comes with your adhesive and apply a thin layer, making sure to keep it ontop of the gpu. This stuff has a 'pot life' of 3 minutes which means you only have that amount of time for that stuff to start setting. So be efficient and dont apply the stuff and find out you forgot your cooler in the car, because when it hardens, it hardens. When applied, place your cooler on the gpu firmly, make sure its on there centred and that no corners of the gpu are exceeding the edges of the cooler. Also make sure that any edges of the cooler arent too close to the edge of the card, as when you plug it into the agp slot, the cooler may hit the slot, try to avoid this. Mine touches but it only touches the slot once the card is all the way in. Put a book on the cooler to hold it down nice and tight, or if you think you have still hands press on it. I left mine for about 10 minutes to set, it only takes about 5 but I like to be safe.
Next do the same to your ram chips to attach the ramsinks, but before you do clean the tops of the ram with rubbing alcohol to get rid of any dirt or dust. Be careful with your adhesive job here, try and keep every bit of adhesive ontop of the chip, and keep in mind that if you put a fair amount on right to the edge, when you press down on the chip stuff may come out the sides. You will know how much to put on. When all is done, let it set and flip over the card and do the same to the backside of the card. When its all dry make sure that everything is on tight. Now your ready to roll. So pop it in and fire it up. Make sure you plug in your heatsink fan too :)
Also one last thing. When diluting the adhesive arctic alumina is the safest thing to use. People have used arctic silver to do this, but it is conductive where as alumina isnt. The silver is ok for diluting the mix on the gpu if your carefull but I dont suggest this to dilute the adhesive for the ram chips. Any little bit of AS on the traces of the ram could short out the card.
Here is a picture of my finished product
http://www.negativespace.ca/setup/DSCF0115.JPG
I wish I had a helper to take pics as I did this, as I did not want the glue to settle while Im snapping pictures or something. iF anyone does this and take pics, PM me and ill host the pictures for the thread if needed.
I hope this helps!!!