Get rid of Radeon's wimpy heatsink!

[MustangSVT]

well, ive had problems with old heat sink (being so small) locking up games and applications when clocked over 190/190. after replacing it with a cyrix heatsink/fan combo it smooth at 205/205 with no artifacts. just my suggestion. i've used hair drier technique to remove the sink, but be warned that thing gets really hot really quick.. just 2 seconds would do the job. Good luck

 

[Mustanggt]

I like your username Now get rid off it J/K LOL

 

[Technonut]

Also gets rid of the Radeon's 5 year warranty I have not overclocked one, but the Radeon 64MB that I installed in a customer's system ran cooler than any other video card I have fooled with. I was actually able to place my finger on the rear of the core and keep it there. It was just warm. From what I understand, they really do not need the HSF at default settings. It was put there more for cosmetic reasons than anything else. Also from reading the posts at a Radeon support BBS and reviews, there is not much of a performance benefit when they are overclocked, at least where the 64MB version is concerned.

Have you ran benchmarks at default core/memory compared to it being overclocked? I am curious what your results were.

EDIT: Don't get me wrong about the warranty thing. I have cracked open my fair share of "classic" Athlons knowing that I would more than likely upgrade well before the warranty was up, but in the Radeon's case, I think that it will become a "keeper" in many people's systems for long enough that a 5 year warranty is worth considering not voiding. Even though the HSF may not really be "needed", it would be grounds to deny warranty service if found to have been tampered with. I am sure that ATI would be able to tell that the HSF was taken off, even if the stock one was put back on if sent back for a warranty RMA. I have heard of other card manufacture's denying warranty claims for the same reason

 

[MustangSVT]

SVT will kick GT's .. oh hehe nm ) i like the new Mustangs, that's all .
and for getting rid of heat sink issue.
I agree! it was almost cold when i touched it, unlike TNT where it was so hot i was wondering if it'll work with out fan for long. I agree that u would not need to do anything if u run it stock speeds, hell u probably dont even need that little fan. But i did have problems of locking up and artifacts at 190/190 or over with heavy usuage (from stock of 166/166) and my old Radeon did 205/205 fine without any modification, so for fun i just replaced it with an old Cyrix sink+fan combo and it runs without Artifacts and Lockups.
and all that overclocking does not improver performance dramatically as overclocking a cpu core, however in most programs i've tested, there was a 10% gain in most performance. And still the sink is cool to my touch. I think this core is really well made. But current problems with PowerStrip limits us to see real overclockablity of Radeon. i dont know if someone will do all this for 10% gain in performance, but i like to get max performance for my short $. and i dont think it'll have shorter life span or anything because there is no increase in voltage and there are adquate cooling done to the core and rams.

 

[Mustanggt]

Hey Technonut Can you give me the link to that Radeon BBS??

 

[oldfart]

Rage3D

 

[Mustanggt]

Thanks Oldfart

 

[Hawk]

Man oldfart, I saw you on the forum, didn't even know you were a visitor! Were you one before the Radeon?

 

[Vpham97]

Have any of you tried a blue orb HSF from 2cooltek.com on these Radeon?

 

[oldfart]

Hawk, nope. Not till I got my Radeon from you. I think I was one of your first customers.

 

[FarENheiT]

Hey whats up? I've been thinking I want to put a blorb on my Radeon. Right now, the HSF is bonded on there with thermal epoxy. There are no holes to screw a new hsf into the PCB or put pins in. So it looks like thermal epoxy is my only hope. Anyone know where I can get some of this? I've looked at the regular cooling sites I go to and none of them have thermal epoxy. I called radio shack and they're like, "Epoxy, you mean thermal grease?" "No, I mean Thermal Epoxy." "Ohhh, I dont think we have that!" I dont know if I want to mess with aluminum or silver epoxy, I dont want to short anything out...I tend to get messy with applying grease.

Also does anyone know how to apply thermal epoxy? Is it like thermal grease where you have to spread it on thin with a razor blade? Or do you just put a blob in the middle of the chip and mash the HSF on? Thats how it seems ATI did it with their current HSF.

Whats the "hairdryer method" to removing the HSF btw?

 

[MustangSVT]

Hmmm, maybe blue orb is an over kill for Radeon core, it does not heat up that much anyways.
but whatever works for ya ) i've used Cyrix heatsink and fan on mine. usuing those metal wires with plastic cover on it. Epoxy is not what i would like to use, because i dont want permanent fixture. (maybe remove the sink later). Hair dryier mathod? u just use it to make heatsink really hot then u put something flat between heatsink and core and turn it or life so u force sink away from core, usually the hair drier will make sink really hot and it'll come off almost effortless. However bewarned, those driers get really really hot really quickly so just hold it there for 2 seconds max. Dont want u to ruin your card. I've tried that string between core and heatsink but it added too much force then i would like to.. soi think hair drier method is the best? just my opinion

 

[Hawk]

The memory is locked with the core, so that whatever the memory is running at, the core is running at that speed, regardless what Powerstrip says. And the memory is also (usually) the limiting factor in overclocking on the Radeons, so I would find some Ram sinks instead of putting a gigantic CPU fan on the chip itself.

 

[MustangSVT]

Oops i guess i forgot to mention. I noticed Ram itself also got pretty warm too, so i just sliced up some old heatsinks and put them on with Thermal paste (they are pretty light anyways, and i don tmove my pc too much). and after playing awhile noticed that sinks got warm too. So it must be doing some good. I dont like PowerStrip, wish oneone made a good O\C program for Radeon.

 

[WetWilly]

MustangSVT,

If you're running your Radeon at 205/205, update your sig

 

[randomlinh]

i hate taking off HS's for video cards.. i killed my card w/ my first attempt (TNT1). Ugh... but my next two have been sucessful.

And has2cool has thermal epoxy.. it's a lot, but whatever. I use thermal tape for my purposes.. seems to work well, got my tnt2 at 180/200 before in q3a.. but i dropped to 180/180 just beacause i had some problems w/ something else.. but i never found out if that was related or not...

 

[MustangSVT]

Im wondering if there's much performance increase when i clock it 190/190 or 205/205. i sure dont see the difference. But when i clock it 215/215 it locks up soon, so it must be workin.