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removing heatsink from gfx card

Associate
Joined
26 Sep 2013
Posts
326
Location
London
Hi all,

as some of you might know, I have a reference 7970 and a 7990 running in my rig. I'm currently trying to mod the 7970 such that it will use a antec 620 instead of the reference cooler.

i got all the modding material ready. i'm now half way through the mod. I managed to take the heat sink off the 7970 and cleaned the GPU chip. one problem is that, some of the TIM got onto the transistor next to the core.

I read some older threads suggesting I shouldnt try to hard to remove them as i might end up damaging the transistor. leaving the old TIM on the transistor is fine as they dont conduct eletricity, only heat. my only worry is that, the stuff i read is from 2009, 2010. so material of the TIM and design of PCB might have changed since....

at the moment i use dry cotton buds. the wife got some surgerical spirit and acetone based nail polish remover. Neither says the purity of the content. Shall I try to use those to clean off the TIM or just leave them on there? Thanks!

Cheers. :D
 
Take off what you can. I sometimes use a cocktail stick "carefully" to lift any away and wipe.

But leaving it there will do no harm.
 
check label of nail polish remover some of it has all sorts in like fruit extracts and moisturizer etc
 
Thanks guys!

i managed to get rid of more TIM without the solvent. i pretty much secure everything last night (ram sink, antec 620 etc). hopefully the glue will dry out soon. i think i will give it until tomorrow, so it has a full 24 hours cycle to dry out. will post update once i got it up and running! :D
 
Ta Da !! :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D (errr...yes... there is no top fan for the cpu cooler)
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this image is upside down for soem reason...
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after some initial disappointment when i saw temperature shot up to 97oC, i realise the Antec 620 wasn't secure properly. once that's fixed, now even 99% load for an hour, it still stays below 50oC. :D:D:D:D and uber quiet too!

now need to do some cable management :D
 
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