Graphics card heatsink mods

[c_hegge]

I recently aquired some arctic silver thermal adhesive and it's great stuff. I found some old 32MB video cards with tiny little heatsinks on them and replaced those heatsinks with bigger, better ones. They no longer get too hot to touch after only running for ~30 mins

In these pics, the original heatsinks are sitting next to the cards. The first card (the one with the green heatsink next to it) is an nVidia RIVA TNT2 and the second is an ATI Rage128 Pro.

[momaka]

Re: Graphics card heatsink mods

I have a few old cards with small heatsinks like that as well. They get insanely hot when playing old games. I usually put 40 mm fans on mine and run them at 5v, which is just enough to keep the card cool and the fan quiet. But you solution is definitely better.

[Rulycat]

Re: Graphics card heatsink mods

I've an idea for my Radeon 3870. The back of the PCB gets hot, I think perhaps if I aim a fan at it it should help cool the chip.

[AudioCraZ]

Re: Graphics card heatsink mods

Nice work. Have had to do that as well in the past. Might I suggest putting one of these next to it? Fairly quiet, and keep the vid card happy and cool.

[stj]

Re: Graphics card heatsink mods

can you clarify?
arctic silver 3 is a relativly thin paste for large chips.
arctic silver 5 is thicker and the best for cpu's etc.
arctic silver ceramic & matrix are ceramic paste for cost saving.

i dont know of any adhesive in the arctic range.

i do have thermal adhesive, but mine is japanese from Fujik.

[Rulycat]

Re: Graphics card heatsink mods

can you clarify?
arctic silver 3 is a relativly thin paste for large chips.
arctic silver 5 is thicker and the best for cpu's etc.
arctic silver ceramic & matrix are ceramic paste for cost saving.

i dont know of any adhesive in the arctic range.

i do have thermal adhesive, but mine is japanese from Fujik.

Well to be fair they've all been replaced with Artic Cooling MX-3, which is non-conductive and better in all aspects.

[ratdude747]

Re: Graphics card heatsink mods

on a thread somewhere regarding IWILL, it was said JB weld made a good thermal adhesive. low cost, too.

my problem with upgrading heatsinks regards damage to the chip from removing the old one.

[AudioCraZ]

Re: Graphics card heatsink mods

Arctic silver does make thermal adhesive. On Arctic Silver Website. Very good stuff. You can buy it on Newegg.

As for using jb weld... not sure, I know it doesn't transfer heat very well, and it will bond stuff to where you can't get it apart...

Funny side note, some guys brought my dad a block that they had used jb weld for the head gaskets..... Well, nedless to say, they blew bearing, and went to take the motor apart, and couldn't even get it apart with a sledge hammer, it had bonded really well.... LOL. I would say not to use it, because if you ever need to replace the fan again, you may not be able to get it apart.... LOL

[Colt45ws]

Re: Graphics card heatsink mods

Yeah, I used that arctic silver adhesive to put heat sinks on my wrt54g...
I actually took the 'sinks I put on it from old graphics cards like that one.
The stuff is conductive though, and hard to get off if you get it where it does not belong. I got a bit on the ram chip pins and it wouldnt boot until I managed to clean it off.

[c_hegge]

Re: Graphics card heatsink mods

Nice work. Have had to do that as well in the past. Might I suggest putting one of these next to it? Fairly quiet, and keep the vid card happy and cool.

With these heatsinks, the cards don't get hot at all. After running for a few hours, they feel slightly warm to touch. However, it might be benificial for a card that runs hotter. I can get small 40mm hamster wheel fans with brackets to mount them. I recon I could probably screw them to the sides of the heatsinks.

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...ducts_id=12456

[goodpsusearch]

Re: Graphics card heatsink mods

I got 2 geforce2 mx 200 cards for free.

The first came with its original black heatsink, the other without one:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...chmentid=15594

Both working...

I added a small fan at the first card, making it run completely cool and silent.

For the second card I used Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive to put a spare gold looking heatsink that I had. With that heatsink installed, the card gets warm but not too hot, so at the moment I don't think I need to add a fan.