How To OverClock Ati x300

[Amarkarian]

Hey, i have a dell 8400 3.4 and i am intersted in overclocking the stock video card, unfortunately the card comes with only passive cooling, i have bought a kit the cool viva vga cooler, but i am stuck on how to remove the heatsink. Is there a guide to doing this?

[chr0nicles]

uh yeah go to google and type ati heatsink removal and u should see links on how to do it... just make sure u are carefull when handeling the card because u dunt want ur card to be gone do u? :D

[Amarkarian]

Thanks For the help!

[felinusz]

The heatsink is attached via two plastic "studs" which pass through the video card's PCB. The "studs" are made so that they click into place once pushed through the mounting holes.

To remove the stock heatsink, you need to very carefully take a pair of needlenose pliers, and squeeze the retention part of each stud, while gently pushing it through the mounting hole. When the end that clicks into place is squeezed together and made to fit through the hole, the studs should easily slide out. Be careful not to slip with the pliers - it is quite easy to scratch your card, or knock off a surface component.

Once the studs are off, give the heatsink a very small and very gentle twist in each direction to loosen it from the core. Don't pull it directly upwards untill you can feel that it will come off without any resistance. Clean the ATi Mac Sauce (the white TIM paste they use) off of the core with some 99% rubbing alchohol, apply your new TIM, and install your silencer :).


As for actually overclocking the card, check out this program called ATiTool: http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

The X300 cards overclock like crazy (typically an easy 100 MHz+ on the core with stock voltage), you should have a lot of fun with it. I almost bought one of these cards myself :)