good thermal adhesive for zalman ramsinks for my 7800 gt?

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MrMetal_53

[H]ard|Gawd
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Apr 21, 2006
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Well, long story short, it seems as though my 7800 gt has fried. I need to send it back in to XFx for an RMA. However, I have to get the Zalman vf-700 cooler off and replace the original fan.

1) What is the best way to get those zalman ram sinks off, so I can put the stock cooler on?

2) When I get my RMA'ed card back, where can I get some good thermal adhesive so I can re-apply the ram sinks to my card?

EDIT: Would this be good to use to secure the ram sinks to the ram chips on the video card? Or would I be better of getting some thermal adhesive pads such as the ones that came with the ramsinks for the vf-700?
 
that as adhesive stuff looks great. i was going to refer you to those as well. I haven't used them personally but would look to them in the future if I needed to change off my zalman ramsinks as well. The stock adhesive isn't too strong. You should be able to remove with some gentle twisting. If that doesn't work, I suppose you could try ethanol (or maybe acetone although that's a little more risky some say since it has more of a characteristic of chewing) on a qtip and soaking along the sides to get it going.
 
Alright, thank you for the input. I am just worried that if I used that themal adhesive from AS, if I ever had to RMA my card again, I woulnt be able to get the ram sinks off. So now I am thinkig that maybe I should look into getting some double-sided thermal adhesive tape, as per thet stuff that came already affixed to the zalman ram sinks. Where could I go about getting more of that stuff?
 
Don't use pads. might as well use double sided scotch tape. ;)

That AS Adhesive will work great.


On a side note, I thought this was pretty damn funny:

"Other Thoughts: dont be a n00b, i bought this thinking that its for cpus but IT IS NOT MEANT FOR CPU's head my warning fellow n00bs just because it cost more doesnt means its the right stuff get the arctic silver 5, NEWEGG AND UPS KUDOS TO YOU FAST SHIPPING"
 
smizack said:
Don't use pads. might as well use double sided scotch tape. ;)

That AS Adhesive will work great.


On a side note, I thought this was pretty damn funny:

"Other Thoughts: dont be a n00b, i bought this thinking that its for cpus but IT IS NOT MEANT FOR CPU's head my warning fellow n00bs just because it cost more doesnt means its the right stuff get the arctic silver 5, NEWEGG AND UPS KUDOS TO YOU FAST SHIPPING"
Click to expand...
haha I got a kick out of that one too
 
smizack said:
Don't use pads. might as well use double sided scotch tape. ;)

That AS Adhesive will work great.
Click to expand...

Why would it be bad to use pads? From what I understand, once I use the AS adhesive, it is pretty much stuck on there for good. If I needed to RMA my card again, I would be SOL, wouldnt I?
 
mrmetal_53 said:
Why would it be bad to use pads? From what I understand, once I use the AS adhesive, it is pretty much stuck on there for good. If I needed to RMA my card again, I would be SOL, wouldnt I?
Click to expand...

Depends on how you look at it I guess. I was referring to heat transfer.
 
Thermal pads should be good enough for RAMsinks. It's better to be on the safe side than to have another dead card that you can't RMA because you permanently attached the aftermarket cooler.
 
ok, so here is my next round of questions:

1) what is the best way to get the ram sinks off?

2) where can i get more thermal adhesive tape?
 
Heat up the RAMsinks with a blowdrier until they're warm(NOT hot), then grab them and gradually increase your pulling force until they come off.

As for where to get thermal tape, I really don't know. Try eBay.
 
Alright, thanks for all the help guys. I managed to get the ram sinks off just fine. Now I need to look for some good thermal adhesive tape. Does anyone have any suggestions?
 
here's a thought - mix up your thermal adhesive and then mix in equal amounts of AS5. this does indeed work, i've used this myself. it will hold the heatsink on, and you can easily detach it. the mixture of adhesive and paste will actually peel off.
 
Really? So I follow the instructions on the Artic Cooling site, except I mix in a little bit of AS5 too? Does that also help temperatures? How much AS5 do I mix in? Sorry for all the questions :D
 
yeah, I applied an aftermarket active NB cooler to a friend's motherboard using a mix of 50% Arctic Adhesive epoxy, and 50% Acrtic Silver 5. Keeps the sink on without issues, but allowed us to remove the sink when the board had to go back for RMA.
 
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