Replacing Original EVGA 670 FTW Fan

[JosephDuffy]

Hi everyone,

I originally bought an EVGA 670 FTW, and replaced the stock fan with an Arctic Twin Turbo 2. I am now sending the card back via the Step-Up Program, and wondering how to put the stock cooling back on?

It's got black strips on that are sticky and cover (what I think are) the RAM blocks (the things the heatsinks from the 3rd party cooler went on). Do I have to replace these sticky strips? Obviously I'll be replacing the thermal paste.

I've taken a photo to show what I mean.

Spoiler

Thanks,
Joseph Duffy

 

[RavenXXX2]

Yes it needs the thermal tape on, they contact the memory and voltage regulators to the cooler.

They look to be in the correct areas on the cooler, just reattach it.

 

[JosephDuffy]

Yes it needs the thermal tape on, they contact the memory and voltage regulators to the cooler.

They look to be in the correct areas on the cooler, just reattach it.

Removing the thermal adhesive used to glue down the heatsinks to the RAM modules is proving a struggle, but thanks for the help!

 

[LtMatt]

Removing the thermal adhesive used to glue down the heatsinks to the RAM modules is proving a struggle, but thanks for the help!

Did you use the Artic glue that came in a tube like this? If so its permanent adhesive.

Spoiler

You will be able to get the heatsinks off with some of this.

What you need is patience, lighter fluid, soaking the pcb/vrm/vram chips in lighter fluid. Then gently wiggling them after a few minutes. I used pliers to grip the heatsinks. Make sure you push down with the pliers and wiggle gently side to side. Do not try and pull, otherwise the vrm/vram chips will come right off. You'll need a lot of lighter fluid and patience, but they do come off. Resoak as many times as needed until the heatsinks come off with gentle wiggling.

 

[EVGAdominik]

Hi,

matt is 100% right, with glue like this the RAMs get ripped off preatty easy and you need to take the time it needs to and be very gentle!!

 

[JosephDuffy]

Right, firstly, thanks for everyone's replies!

I've managed to get the heatsinks off by running the GPU for a while, removing it and then pushing/wiggling. Easy!

However, I've still got some of the adhesive left on the chips. What's the best practice to remove those? More lighter fluid, or the usual alcohol gel used for thermal paste?

EDIT: If I do use lighter fluid, how do you "soak" it? It doesn't feel like soaking the entire card is a good idea. Just use some lint-free cloths soaked in it and put it over the chips?

 

[EVGAdominik]

Hi, once the cooler is off you can use a rasor sharp for this. Everything that is then left should get easy off with alcohole, washing benzin, lighter fluid....
About the soaking, this is good how you did it....

 

[LtMatt]

Lighter fluid evaporates so quickly. If you want to speed up the process use a hair dryer. 15 minutes after soaking my 7970 pcb in lighter fluid it was inside my pc and running benchmarks,