Removal of ATI Cooler...

[bigenuffumbrella]

I just bought an new ATI XT1900XTX and folks are right...it does sound like a leaf blower. I have purchased a new Arctic Cooler Acellero X2 for it, and installed it. (Which works great btw) However, I've gotten some newer, better thermal paste I'd like to try on the core instead. There is some kind of themal pad that sits on 8 tiny chips surrounding the core and even with all the screws from the cooler removed it is still holding on to it very tightly. Does anyone know of a good, SAFE (geez I spent too much $$ on this card) way to remove these pads?

Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

 

[D_o_S]

I just bought an new ATI XT1900XTX and folks are right...it does sound like a leaf blower. I have purchased a new Arctic Cooler Acellero X2 for it, and installed it. (Which works great btw) However, I've gotten some newer, better thermal paste I'd like to try on the core instead. There is some kind of themal pad that sits on 8 tiny chips surrounding the core and even with all the screws from the cooler removed it is still holding on to it very tightly. Does anyone know of a good, SAFE (geez I spent too much $$ on this card) way to remove these pads?

Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

I assume you mean the thermal pads on the memory chips? Those should come off without any problem, just pull them... although if you're using the Accelero, I'd leave them there, as a thermal pad will transfer heat through some distance, whereas thermal paste will not.

 

[bigenuffumbrella]

Thanks Dos...but...

Hey thanks DOS,

Ok but here's where we get to the part where I feel stupid. LOL. I might not have been clear enough in my first post, but the card has already been in the PC and these pads seem to be thermally bonded to the chips and the heatsink. When I originally put the Accelero on I forgot to put those pads on. (I was building the whole PC new and had parts everywhere). I went back to install it properly, was afraid that the thermal compond preloaded on the main chip wouldn't make a good seal (after separating it) , so I removed it and used Arctic Silver 2 instead (on the main chip--the center big one). Then I put the thermal pads on the 8 tiny chips and put it all back together. Now I find out, (I'm new to this OC'ing business if it doesn't show already) that the Arctic Silver is metalically conductive and I'm afraid someday it make ooze over and fry the card. So I'd like to separate them again, use something non-metalic like Shin Etsu instead of Arctic Silver, and put it all back together again.

Thing is...no these pads do NOT want to separate easily. I've already had the card out of the box since to try to separate them and it would take more than just a casual pull to get them apart. Do you know of any kind of solvent that would be safe to use in getting them off? And where I could find 8 new little pads to replace them with? Or...am I being needlessly over concerned about using the Artic Silver altogether and should I just leave it alone?

Thanks again for the reply from earlier.

Big E.

 

[markkleb]

First Use Arctic Silver 5, Go to their website and they show you how to put it on. Only a small dab in the center is enough. To remove the pads I use a razor very carefully to remove the pads.

 

[bigenuffumbrella]

Thanks Mark, where would be a good place to get replacement thermal pads? All I can seem to find online is the thermal tape for CPUs. Or, even though I'm using the Arctic Silver 2 would I be better off just leaving well enough alone? The heat difference isn't much, what I'm most concerned most about is can or could that Arctic Silver 2 ooze out and fry my nice new, now warranty-voided video card?

 

[zekrahminator]

that would be a "no" if you screwed your AcceleroX2 in right. And you didn't pay too much for that cooler...us X850XT (PE) users are stuck with the ATIsilencer5 that costs more then a good CPU cooler lol

 

[bigenuffumbrella]

So Zekrahminator, that "No, if you screwed your AcceleroX2 in right." ...are you saying I should just leave well enough alone and stop worrying about the Arctic Silver oozing? That it'll be fine?

 

[wevsspot]

I'm using Artic Silver5 on mine (highly conductive) and don't have any problems with it oozing over. You only need to apply a bb size drop right to the middle of your gpu and you won't have any problems.

As far as the thermal tape goes, that stuff that comes with the Accelero is more like construction adhesive. I almost never got my Accelero back off after the first installation.

You can order replacement thermal pads at PcToys.com

As soon as my new pads come in the Accelero is coming back off for a cooling mod. I've purchased a Vantec dual fan slot cooler that I'm gonna install right next to the video card. I'm pulling off the Accelero plastic casing and removing it's stock fan. I'm gonna have the cooling fans and heat pipes naked, soaking in cool air from the Vantech dual fans. It looks like it is about the same length as the card so it should cool power regulator heat sink also.

I'll report back on findings.

Stock performance of the Accelero is 43C at idle, running 100% fan and XT clocked at 650/1500 with minor voltage increase to gpu and memory. After three hours of FEAR card runs at 75C.

 

[bigenuffumbrella]

So Wevsspot, how did you manage to get those baked on pads off? What did you use? And HOW in the world did you get your card to run so cool? Mine idles around 50C and will get up to around 90C in the Fear demo, or after playing Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. What are you doing right or am I doing so wrong?

 

[wtf8269]

So Wevsspot, how did you manage to get those baked on pads off? What did you use? And HOW in the world did you get your card to run so cool? Mine idles around 50C and will get up to around 90C in the Fear demo, or after playing Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. What are you doing right or am I doing so wrong?

Reading his post I'd say it's that he has the fan running at 100%.

If you want to save yourself some time, I'm not so sure performance thermal grease would do so much. I used to think it would make a difference, but I've been using regular white thermal grease on my Opteron at 3ghz for about 6 months now and it runs cooler than my 3500+ did. Although since your r580 is a bare core instead of having a heat spreader it may make a difference. Just my $.02 though.

 

[xdaxxchampxx]

well i did some reading around and the gain from using AS5 over the stock compount that comes with the AC coolers is very minimal and definatly not worth the risk of putting on as5 on the card. I would say its prolly not worth taking it off at this point but if u realy want to try heating the card up for a while (using it) and then trying to take it off while its still a little warm it might help a bit. Also those temps are high but i assume that ur not running the fan at 100% to reach 90c with the AC cooler. mine used to reach 90c without the AC cooler with stock fan setting now with the AC cooler and 100% i only reach about 68c or so

 

[bigenuffumbrella]

OK Xdaxxchampxx, it's not the stock compound at the moment, it's Arctic Silver 2. I understand after a couple of days the temp. could drop 2 to 4 degrees C after it sets up. But I'm confused...where is the fan control for the AC cooler? It's plugged into the 1900 itself. Is there some mystery setting somewhere that controls this? I thought the thing would rev itself up as needed. Have I missed a jumper setting or a check box in the Catalyst tools somewhere?

 

[bigenuffumbrella]

Reading his post I'd say it's that he has the fan running at 100%.

If you want to save yourself some time, I'm not so sure performance thermal grease would do so much. I used to think it would make a difference, but I've been using regular white thermal grease on my Opteron at 3ghz for about 6 months now and it runs cooler than my 3500+ did. Although since your r580 is a bare core instead of having a heat spreader it may make a difference. Just my $.02 though.

How do I get the fan on the AC to run at 100%???

 

[bigenuffumbrella]

Reading his post I'd say it's that he has the fan running at 100%.

If you want to save yourself some time, I'm not so sure performance thermal grease would do so much. I used to think it would make a difference, but I've been using regular white thermal grease on my Opteron at 3ghz for about 6 months now and it runs cooler than my 3500+ did. Although since your r580 is a bare core instead of having a heat spreader it may make a difference. Just my $.02 though.

How do I get the AC fan to run at 100%?

 

[bigenuffumbrella]

AHHH The ATI TOOLS!!! You guys are the FREAKIN' BOMB!!! Holy COW!!! Maxed out with everything up AA/AF the whole works, smooth as glass Arctic Cool Fan only had to be brought up to 36% too keep the GPU temp UNDER 60C!!!! Holy Freakin' Cow!!! Thanks you guys I owe you one. Hope this thread helps someone else. The Accelero X2 riding on the 1900XTX with the ATI Tools Beta (for fan control) is THE way to go! Man oh man oh man....

 

[wevsspot]

Yes, ATI Tools. Allows you to create different profiles and such, as well as control your fan speed. It is an awesome little program. I've got both a 2D and 3D profile set up with mine, but in both cases I keep fan speed at 100%
I always figure the cooler the better, and the Accelero fan is so quite even at full speed that you can't hardly hear it. My case helps too. I've got a NZXT Lexa, extremely well thought out cooling (for an all air solution).

Still looking forward to my results once I strip the Accelero "naked" and use the Vantec Spectrum for air flow. The stock Accelero fan can only move like 9.8cfm, so I'm wondering what will happen if I can push that airflow up to 20-30cfm?

I think the other benefit will be that now the hot air coming from the Accelero sinks and heat pipes will be randomly dispersed throughout the case where it can be better picked up into the other airstreams inside of my case. That makes more sense than dumping it right back onto the m/b and out the side over the PWMIC.

 

[Steevo]

Or you can use Winflash to get your BIOS and post it for a modding and the use winflash to flash a modded BIOS back on.

Fan control.
Voltage tweak.

 

[bigenuffumbrella]

Or you can use Winflash to get your BIOS and post it for a modding and the use winflash to flash a modded BIOS back on.

Fan control.
Voltage tweak.

I'll do that Steevo. I'll have to play with the app to see exactly how it works and post it when I can.

 

[migrax]

I'm using Artic Silver5 on mine (highly conductive) and don't have any problems with it oozing over. You only need to apply a bb size drop right to the middle of your gpu and you won't have any problems.

As far as the thermal tape goes, that stuff that comes with the Accelero is more like construction adhesive. I almost never got my Accelero back off after the first installation.

You can order replacement thermal pads at PcToys.com

As soon as my new pads come in the Accelero is coming back off for a cooling mod. I've purchased a Vantec dual fan slot cooler that I'm gonna install right next to the video card. I'm pulling off the Accelero plastic casing and removing it's stock fan. I'm gonna have the cooling fans and heat pipes naked, soaking in cool air from the Vantech dual fans. It looks like it is about the same length as the card so it should cool power regulator heat sink also.

I'll report back on findings.

Stock performance of the Accelero is 43C at idle, running 100% fan and XT clocked at 650/1500 with minor voltage increase to gpu and memory. After three hours of FEAR card runs at 75C.

I bet that fancard is going to make all kinds of racket? Also those temps seem a little high don't they?

Uhhhh... guess I'll leave this so you know what a stoopid post looks like

migrax

 

[bigenuffumbrella]

I bet that fancard is going to make all kinds of racket? Also those temps seem a little high don't they?

Uhhhh... guess I'll leave this so you know what a stoopid post looks like

migrax

Um I'm not sure what this means...

But no the fan on the Accelero is almost completely silent even at 100%.