4850 and ramsinks

[Nebulous]

Hey guyz, I need a quick answer here. As i stated before, I just purchased a 4850 from a member here, but the fan is borked. I've got a HR-03 R600 which I modded a tiny bit to use on my X1800XT. The 4850 has the same holes on the pcb and after careful searching found the HR-03 will fit.

Now the main question is the ram on the card. I have some ramsinks and plenty of thermal tape. The problem is they won't f-ing stick! I've cleaned off the ramchips with 90% alcohol and stil the thermal tape won't stick.

1) Does the ram need to be cooled on this card?
2) What else can I use to make the thermal tape stick ( besides crazy glue)?

I need an answer right quick guyz as I'm working on the card now.

 

[Nebulous]

C'mon peeps I need help here.

 

[ghost_recon88]

I had the same problem as you. Are you sinks copper? Copper ones tend to be heavier then the aluminum ones. Mine were copper, and no matter what type of tape I used, they wouldn't stick. Eventually I gave in and epoxied them on.

And to answer your other question, having some form of sinks on the RAM is a MUST!

 

[Nebulous]

Crap!

Well nope, not copper, and that's it for me on this project. Thx GR for that info. Guess I'll pack it in and see if I can find a stock cooler for it instead. Guess I won't be using this card anytime soon. SOB!

 

[ghost_recon88]

Crap!

Well nope, not copper, and that's it for me on this project. Thx GR for that info. Guess I'll pack it in and see if I can find a stock cooler for it instead. Guess I won't be using this card anytime soon. SOB!

Sorry to hear that One thing I'll tell you though, is in addition to RAMsinks you'd better have a good method of cooling the chokes and mosfets towards the end of the card. Without the thermal pads over them that the stock heatsink provides, your card will artifact upon boot.

 

[Nebulous]

Sorry to hear that One thing I'll tell you though, is in addition to RAMsinks you'd better have a good method of cooling the chokes and mosfets towards the end of the card. Without the thermal pads over them that the stock heatsink provides, your card will artifact upon boot.

Yeah I know. I had some special sinks for those, but since there's noway of attaching them other than crazy glue or thermal epoxy. I'm gonna see if i find a replacement stock cooler.

Thx for looking out

 

[benbaked]

Hey Neb if you're looking for some PWM sinks for your 4850, try the ones TR makes for the 8800GT sold here. TR says these will fit the 3870 cards as well, I was looking at the PWM of the 3870 and it looks close enough to the 4850 that these sinks should fit well.

edit: For a good thermal tape I've seen people use and recommend sekisui tape.

 

[chevro1et]

I have heard other people also suggest using an eraser or a product like goo gone to thoroughly clean ram chips, as sometimes (and apparently in your case) isopropyl just doesn't do the job.

 

[Nebulous]

Thx chevy, Ben, but decided to just wait for the stock cooler. Have one enroute. I'm sure with the massive airflow thru my case, the stock cooler will do just fine

 

[jason4207]

I have heard other people also suggest using an eraser or a product like goo gone to thoroughly clean ram chips, as sometimes (and apparently in your case) isopropyl just doesn't do the job.

Yeah, those chips are hard to clean. I scrubbed the heck out of 'em w/ isopropyl w/ no effect. But once I scrubbed w/ goof-off (still took some elbow grease). I was able to get them to stick. Actually, I still think some were coming off. What I did on those was to twist and press on the Ramsink w/ thermal tape on it. The tape would get any residue left (probably like the eraser, but I haven't tried that yet). Then I replaced the tape and it stuck. Was a real PITA.

I do highly recommend that you go w/ the HR03, though. You'll get much better results (much, much better!) than the stock cooler...especially w/ good case flow.

 

[Nebulous]

Well, I don't know what else to use to clean-off the ramchips to make the thermal tape stick.

Is goof-off safe to use? Will it leave any greasy residue?

 

[Spawn-Inc]

if it does, use isopropyl to clean that off.

i would use 1 drop of model cement or super glue to 2 drops of thermal paste.

or if you still have the stock heatsink then pop out the copper plate and use whats left to cool them.

(i can't find it but some one here did that with there ati card and used the water block on the core only and the stock parts for ram and mosfets)

to further show what i mean here is a heatsink for a core only block for a 8800GT

 

[Nebulous]

Last thing I want to do is hack up the stock cooler. Might need that for RMA purposes/resale. I also posted I did'nt want to use Crazy Glue or Thermal Epoxy

I'll wait for the stock cooler replacement, thanx-

 

[muddocktor]

Neb, the best thing I have found to use to clean the ram off thoroughly is xylene, which is a type of paint thinner you should be able to buy at a Lowes or a hardware or paint store. The stuff I use is actually a 50/50 mixture of xylene and isopropyl alcohol that I get from work (we use it testing oil based fluids to break down the oil/water emulsion). And it seems to be safe enough for use on the components as I have been using this for close to 10 years to clean stuff such as ram chips and heatsinks and processors with no ill affects to the electronics. But, it will affect certain types of plastics so be careful spilling it on plastic materials. It does not react with pcb's though. But with that I don't need Arctic Clean or other stuff since it's free for me.

 

[Conumdrum]

Have you tried Artic Clean? The two bottle set? I tried just alcohol and it was still slimy. Used Artic Clean and they stuck like champs. I could hold the card up with one HS.

http://www.petrastechshop.com/arsico.html

 

[Nebulous]

Ahh, food for thought. Thx Mudd I got lowes nearby and a Home Depot as well.

 

[Spawn-Inc]

sorry, i skimmed through it quickly. i think your best bet then is to try goo gone then isopropyl then the ram sinks with thermal tape. another thought would be to get regular double sided tape and just use that. it may block some heat but its better than no heatsink at all.

 

[Nebulous]

Conumdrum, hmm, you know I got some of that stuff and totally forgot all about it! I'll try that !

Spawn no worries bro, I figured that's what you did Thx for the tips tho.

*Edit*

Now I can't use the HR-03 either. The 2 ramchips dead center I have no sinks low enough for The pipes on the HR-03 curve right over them. I remember someone posted using pennies as ramsinks

 

[Nebulous]

Bah, you know this is more trouble than it's worth. Thx for the ideas tho fellas, but I'm just gonna scrap this project. I can't cool 2 of the 8 ramchips on the card so I'm just gonna forget it and stick with the stock cooler.

 

[ghost_recon88]

*Edit*

Now I can't use the HR-03 either. The 2 ramchips dead center I have no sinks low enough for The pipes on the HR-03 curve right over them. I remember someone posted using pennies as ramsinks

I had that exact same problem with my VF1000. They really did a ****-poor job of designing these cards layouts. In the end, I had to sand down 2 of my RAMsinks just so my VF1000 could fit. It's like they expect you to ether use the stock cooler, or a water block No love for any coolers anymore