Replacing the heat sync on a graphics card

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jerryk
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Replacing the heat sync on a graphics card

Post by jerryk » Thu Mar 20, 2003 1:23 pm

My graphics card is a Nvidia GEForce 4 440 MX. I have noticed that it runs quite hot (50-55 and beyondC) and am concerned that the stock heat sink is too small. So I want to replace it with a Zalman unit. The problem is how do I remove the stock heatsink. It appears that the heat sink is glued onto the graphics chip!! Anyone know how to get this heatsink off without destroying the card?

Thanks,

Jerry

blakerwry
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Post by blakerwry » Fri Mar 21, 2003 12:10 am

if you can see epoxy or glue then it's not worth taking it off... but alot of the time it's just thermal tape (like double sided tape).

You can usually tell because the tape will have a little twist (you can rotate the heatsink a few degrees), while epoxy will have no give or take to it...

if it's tape you just have to use a combination of twist and pull to get the sucker off.

jerryk
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Post by jerryk » Fri Mar 21, 2003 6:22 am

Finally got the thing off. They glued the heatsink on. I had to use a lot of solvent to get the old glue off. But with the Zalman heat sync on the temps have dropped 15C.

jerry

Mirar
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Post by Mirar » Mon Mar 31, 2003 7:35 am

I see you already got it off, but I saw the tip of putting the card in the freezer before. It apperantly makes the thermal epoxy brittle and easy to crack. (Use a plastic bag so you don't get a ton of condense.)
Nota bene: I haven't tried it myself. My GF2 MX heatsink had neither thermal tape or glue.

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