Help using Silver Epoxy to attach active mem cooler

[Emericana]

I have one of those thermaltake active mem cooling kits at my disposal and want to put it on my 512mb crucial 2100. Now i DEFINETLY do not wanna f this up cause it would be an extremly costly mistake. I was reading the instructions on the site and did not quite getthem. Can somebody answer a few questions i have?

1) they say to squeeze some non corrosive silicone onto the chip leads in order to prevent some adhesive from getting on it and shorting it. What is non corrosive silicone, how much does it cost andwhere can i get it cause it did not come with the kit i got when i bought the Artic Silver Epoxy.

2)Is this essentially what you do? you squeeze equal amounts of part a and part b onto a piece of paper, then you take the wand that comes with it and put it on the ram sinks quickly so it wont dry, then apply the heat sink?

Can somebody give me some help?thanks!

[Bull]

I don't recommend using Arctic SIlver Epoxy on any type of ram chips. I use Arctic Alumina Epoxy that way you don't have to worry about the traces. I have a dead vidcard becuase of it and I was pretty careful.

If you do it just make sure you don't put too much on because when you press on the heatsinks then some epoxy will probably get on the traces as with the silicone that is a good idea. You should be able to get any at a good hardware store.

As for mixing the epoxy take equal amounts of a and b and also an equal amount of Arctic silver thermal paste. This seems to work out best if you need to remove the heatsinks sometime later. It works good for me.

[AarontheJC]

dlind's got it. I use Arctic Alumina Epoxy on all of my jobs I do for friends. This stuff works great for me. If you want a semi-permanent bond, you add 1/2:1/2 Thermal compound:Epoxy (both parts are in this epoxy).

I've never put any epoxy on system RAM, though. It's such a big investment, that I couldn't afford to not follow the directions.

Here are the steps for Arctic Alumina:

1) Mix part A and part B in equal ratio 1:1 (half and half)

2) Stir with wand until mixed thoroughly.

3) Place a small dab on the chip center. Remember that you can always add more if you need to.

4) Spread a very thin layer over the chip, removing excess adhesive altogether. You want to cover as much as possible, but be mindful. Just like dlind said, if you put too much on, you squeeze it out and then it's all over your stuff. If this happens, don't panic. Just clean it off. You have time. Do be quick, though.

5) Place the ramsink (or heatspreader, if you really want to put this on your system mem) on.

6) Square it up. You only get one chance to make this look good.

7) Something I forgot. It's always a good idea to make sure your stuff is perfectly flat. Before you do any adhesion, you should use sandpaper to make the surfaces that will come in contact perfectly flat. If you have adhesive from that darned thermal tape that they send you with the active cooling, you need to clean that off first. Use Rubbing Alcohol.

8) Apply light, even pressure until cured.

Arctic Alumina takes about 5 minutes to cure from the time Part A hits Part B. This should be plenty of time so don't rush yourself. Make sure you have everything you might need right there at the counter with you before you begin. Give the memory another chunk of time, just to be sure. Over the next 24 hours, this bond will get stronger, so leave it to cure as long as you can stand it. Usually it's great after 15 minutes. Gently try to pull the heatsink and the chip apart. I had one come off at this point once and had to start over. A poorly mixed adhesive doesn't adhere very well.

Step 7 is extremely important. Do it to everything always. Don't mind the way I organized it. It should be the first thing you do. Step 7 should come before 1.

In real industry, they "wet out" their parts before bond. This involves three easy steps:

1) Apply a layer as normal.

2) Remove this layer (not completely, but mostly).

3) Apply a new, final layer of adhesive.

The first layer will remove anything that you happened to miss with the rubbing alcohol the first time.

I would exercise extreme caution with your 512MB, because that's a big investment and it would really suck to screw it up.

Rubbing alcohol is the magical cleaner that makes your problems go away fast. Always have a bottle around.

Good luck and let us know how you turn out.

[AarontheJC]

Forgot one thing.

If you EVER need to remove a cooler that is stuck on well. Put the whole card in a static bag and put it in the freezer for 15-20 minutes. Give it a light tug, and it probably won't come off. Give it a little more convincing (you might have to be a little rougher than you want to be) and it should come off. If you screw up the bond the first time, and are worried about it, throw it in the freezer for 10 minutes and get it off quick. After 10 minutes the bond is supposed to be something like 85% set, so be mindful of your time.

Once, I was putting a corb on Schmuck's GF2 and like a big dummy, I put it on so that it overlapped the AGP connection pins. Needless to say, it didn't fit the slot any more. I threw it in the freezer 15 minutes after bond and removed the orb by hand. It was no problem at all to remove the cooler at that point in time.

Be mindful of the bangs you put on your board, though. If you crack the PCB, or if you scratch a connector with a sharp tool (screwdrivers are the devil for this kind of stuff), it may not work afterwards.

Good Luck.

[Emericana]

yeah i am not going to put it on my ram using artic silver adhesive cause it costs to much money if i f up.

I wanna find a site that sells some frag tape that i can use to apply it cause that is much less dangerous. while it wont work as well as the artic silver, it still works better than no active cooler at all.

However, i am gonna use the silver stuff to attach a 80mm adapter to a SK6 for my friend.. i am sure that eventually i am gonna want to put another fan on my ti200 so i will use that to do that as well.....

thanks for your help tho.

[AarontheJC]

No problem. I'm going to post my 8500 cooling project as soon as I get around to getting my film developed (a week or so).

Tell me about the temps you get before and after the SK6. I was looking at them today. While I have a great Volcano that I love, I can't resist that beautiful copper shine of the SK6. I'd really like to know if I can drop my temps much more.

Someday I'll get around to getting some ASIII and some round cables... Then I'll be cooling for real.