8800GT Accelero ramsinks falling off

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 9:22 pm

I have an 8800GT with the Accelero S whatever.

Three of the self-adhesive ramsinks will not stay stuck. This looks completely awesome: Custom 8800GT/G92 Cooling Kit by iandh. $15 isn't bad either. Bolt-on is waaay more to my liking than this adhesive crap.

But, this card is getting a bit old these days.

Should I go for the new ramsinks? Or just run without the three until it explodes and upgrade?

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 10:24 pm

The website says that the ramsinks need first to have the coating removed from the vrm's and ramsinks. If you havent tried arctic clean system, really can't say if it was the sticker or the coating that caused the issue.

ever try the dual bottle cleaning system? solved all ram/mosfet sticker issues permanently for me. THings stick for 5+ years now.

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 10:52 pm

I did do the whole eraser deal. Never tried the AC clean stuff. $11 though. Gah.

flinx · Post by **flinx** » Sat Apr 03, 2010 2:11 am

One word: Cyanoacrylate

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Sat Apr 03, 2010 7:36 am

I don't think superglue is thermally conductive.

I'm going ghetto before I buy anything. The three that keep falling off are in a row, and a single cable tie might be all this takes.

flinx · Post by **flinx** » Sat Apr 03, 2010 8:58 pm

Actually superglue is used quite a lot when you want a more semi-permanent installation of a heatsink. There are other glues of course that are specialized for heatsink applications, but their benefits are questionable. Another option is to dab a drop of heatsink compound in the center of the chip, and then apply the glue along the edges. They all work.

Lawrence Lee · Post by **Lawrence Lee** » Sat Apr 03, 2010 10:33 pm

When I had a 8800GT/S1 I just threw a bunch of extra Zalman ramsinks on the VRMs. Never had a problem.

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Sat Apr 03, 2010 11:58 pm

Jay_S wrote:I did do the whole eraser deal. Never tried the AC clean stuff. $11 though. Gah.

once you do the cleaner, youll never go back.

I dont have a lot of spare cash lately but thats one item to get. It's fool proof and your paste and stickers will enjoy it.

Other method is eraser plus 91% isopropyl.

Other method: lemon juice on a q-tip then isopropyl that. This is a great system too that not many use.

arctic makes it easiest.

mentawl · Post by **mentawl** » Sun Apr 04, 2010 2:40 am

Eh, if the 8800GT is still fulfilling your performance needs, I'd go with the cheap and elegant bolt-thru ramsinks. Even if you planned to upgrade in 6 months or something, I might be inclined to get them, purely because they look pretty sweet >.>

Haych · Post by **Haych** » Sun Apr 04, 2010 4:06 am

I was having the same issue with the ram heatsinks on my Accelero Twin Turbo. Rubbing over the "adhesive" with isopropyl alcohol (and letting it dry off) seemed to help increase their stickyness, all but one of them stayed on with no issue. By the time I thought to try that though, I'd already ordered some Akasa thermal adhesive tape. It seems to work better and was cheap. Soaking the ram sinks in a glass with some hot water and a little dish washing liquid made it nice and easy to take the stock adhesive off, before applying the tape. If you try either method, be sure to clean of the ram chips with isopropyl, too.

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Sun Apr 04, 2010 6:10 am

Great advice everybody, thank you all.

mentawl wrote:Eh, if the 8800GT is still fulfilling your performance needs...

This brings up a related point. The 8800GT is borderline still good enough for me. I've been scanning GPU reviews for a few days and have determined that I'll have to spend a mint to get an appreciable performance boost. Nvidia is still recycling the G92 in the GTS 250. So for comparison's sake, my 8800GT is a slightly slower 9800GTX or GTS 250. The GTS 250 is still holding it's own at 1680x1050. I don't like spending $100+ without getting great gains, and it looks like I'll need to move to something like a HD 5770 to get them (roughly $150).

But will I appreciate the improvement at 1680x1050? It's not clear. So fixing the 8800GT looks like a better value.

I've currently got the three ramsinks re-stuck with their existing tape - it's still quiet tacky. I'm using a few small cable ties to keep them from falling off. This will hold me over for the time being. To fix this properly would require order something (bolt-through heatsink kit, AC cleaners, more thermal adhesive, etc). This PC can't be down for long periods - it's our main PC and my wife needs it all the time for her graduate work.

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 7:42 am

Eh.... 5770 is only thing I would do instead of what you have. It is a lot faster. Think of a 4870 card compared to 8800gt.

You could probably hold on to it though.

Jay_S · Post by **Jay_S** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 8:11 am

Reading reviews and shopping around it appears the HD5770 is the current value leader for 1680x1050. Looks like about twice the performance of my 8800GT at the same load power consumption. And WAY less idle consumption. I like that A LOT, and will keep and eye out for a sale on the MSI R5770 Hawk, especially after reading silentplummet's quasi-review here.

I (finally) completed Bioshock last night. My 8800GT handled that game beautifully. The only tweak needed was setting "Max pre-rendered frames" to zero in Nvidia control panel. Without this, the game stuttered everywhere.

I just bought Borderlands (currently 1/2 off through Steam). It should be finished downloading by the time I'm home tonight. It doesn't look too demanding.

mentawl · Post by **mentawl** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 12:23 pm

It's kinda funny, although you'd think Borderlands would be fairly lightweight on the GPU, it's actually one of the more demanding games out there. Hope it runs ok on the 8800GT