[ShreddedWheat]

I just bought a Thermaltake Blue Orb to put on my Creative Labs Annihialator 2 Ultra board. I heard that to remove the heatsink requires prying the heatsink off the chip because it is glued down. Has anyone here had the experience of removing one or know anyone that has removed one? I don't want to ruin a $400 video card! Any tips on how to do it safely?

[outhouse]

ShreddedWheat (May 13, 2001 02:32 a.m.):
I just bought a Thermaltake Blue Orb to put on my Creative Labs Annihialator 2 Ultra board. I heard that to remove the heatsink requires prying the heatsink off the chip because it is glued down. Has anyone here had the experience of removing one or know anyone that has removed one? I don't want to ruin a $400 video card! Any tips on how to do it safely?

first not all VC have there HSF glued on does yours? if so put your VC in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer this makes the glue brittle so that prying it off is a little easier you must be carefull when doing this there is a thread going now about a girl who broke a transistor and ran it anyway and she may have fried her 21inch monitor so use allot of caution when doing this there are a few more tips on this in the tips section under video cards read that as well before you do any prying good luck. also I would ditch the orb and you can find a large HSF at a pc store that was ment for a proccesor then you can cut it down to size with a hack saw and that will wotk much better mine cost me 5 bucks [ask the guy which one are not selling well] after a little filing it will look sweet I even used my black sharpie and coloered in the spots where I cut it down and it looks like original equipment.

[UFF-DA]

I have the excact same card you dont need the freezer trick just pry it off it uses thermal tape. Then place the thermal compund on the chip thinly, and install the blorb using the pushpins, your done enjoy.

[Door Knob]

I pryed mine off with a butter knife. DON'T DO THAT. While I had no problems in retrospect that was a very violent thing to do to my precise card. And seeing as how you have an ultra I wouldn't take the risk. Do the freezer deal if you have to.

[Liquid_N2]

Never put presure on the chip (i.e. don't use a lever) if you can avoid it.

You could try twisting it off in a vice, or heating up a thin piece of wire (preferably with a non heat transferable handles) and then run the hot wire between the chip and the HS to melt the glue.

Just some other ideas - NOT TESTSTED - that is.

Don't do anything that your not sure of, you will have a job claiming on the warrenty with something like this.

[UFF-DA]

The fan comes off very easily on the Ultra trust me just pull on it. it only uses thermal tape after you pop the pins out on it.