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** Stock Cooler Removal Information **

rjk

rjk

rjk

Caporegime
Joined
8 Aug 2007
Posts
25,380
Hi Guys

Here is a brief overview of board partners takes on stock cooler removal.

This is in no way reflected by Overclockers UK and is only information provided by myself from personal experience.

Warranty is at manufacturers discretion.

I have never had a single issue with any stock cooler removal. if you don't break anything then there shouldn't be an issue with warranty.

The easiest way of thinking is that if the cards have warranty stickers over screws, these tend to be manufacturers that are strict with warranty on their products.

Brands I have personally owned in the past and removed stock coolers without issue:

Sapphire
Gigabyte
Asus
EVGA
MSI
KFA2/Galax
HIS
OcUK Own Brand


Brands that Are fine with it only if you are very careful and reinstall the stock cooler perfectly.
VTX3D
XFX


As a rule of thumb, if you have a sticker over any of the screws, then the company is generally a pain when it comes to stock cooler removal.

The truth is that most manufacturers now, especially ones that OCUK deal with are fine with cooler removal. They have to be in this day and age. It is a factor that we consider and always negotiate heavily on when working with new board partners.

some board manufacturers may publicly go on record as being against it but as long as you don't send your card back for a warranty claim with it looking like a bag of smashed crabs then you will be fine.


Common sense and technical ability to restore a product to its original condition is key here.
 
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Awesome to see Rich.

Pretty sure you can add Powercolor and Gainward to that list too.

Just a note on coolers with stickers over the screws, I can't speak for everyone but I'm fairly sure someone from MSI (@OCN I think?) said the screw stickers only served a purpose for the Asian market and served no purpose to the EU/US markets. So some MSI cards may have the stickers but you should be safe enough to remove them.

That said, go tech labs when possible, it usually works out you pay around £10 for someone else to go to the hassle of blocking the card plus the guarantee of zero hassle warranty.
 
Does this stand for replacing TIM and reusing the original cooler?

Sorry if that is a silly question. I have two Sapphire 290 tri x and would like to know if I have that option before the 2 year warranty runs out, anyway.


Would it be worth heating/removing screw stickers with a razor blade and saving/reusing... or can that subterfuge be dropped now?
 
I contacted MSI before as my GPU was getting louder and hotter, so I wanted to change the paste and this is the response I got

Dear sir/madam

Thanks for contacting MSI technical support.

Regarding your concern,hello.the first,you can check the FAN,if there has some thing in the fan.you can download the MSI afterburner to monitor,you can know the speed of the fan from the MSI afterburner.when the GPU is getting louder,the speed of the fan is high,it is normal.the second.you can contact with the seller to replace the thermal paste on the GPU.you cannot do it by yourself,you will lost your warranty.so you must contact with the seller.

Thanks for your cooperation in advance!

Best Regards,
MSI Technical Support Team
 
Disco_P said:
Sounds like you got in contact with Asian support :D

Scroll through Msi UK's Facebook page and there is definitely a post stating you can remove the cooler - though permalinking Facebook posts is nearly impossible.
Click to expand...

Screenshot? :D

Great post btw, nice to have the info
 
MSI UK's Facebook post regarding waterblocks and stock cooler removal

To be clear to those people wanting to install a GPU Waterblock on their MSI Graphics Cards...

In the EU (UK incl) if you install a Waterblock it will NOT void your warranty so long as you don't damage the Cooler or PCB in any way.

I would suggest to keep the cooler (and screws used) kept safe somewhere if you ever wanted to RMA the card to us or the place of purchase to keep your warranty intact.
Click to expand...

https://www.facebook.com/msiuk/posts/652634514773229
 
Martini1991 said:
Do XFX still have the stickers on their GPU's? All XFX GPU's I've had from AMD had stickers.
Click to expand...

iirc up until recently they were strict (and terrible) with warranty full stop. I'm fairly sure the terms gibbo set with xfx before restocking their products was to allow cooler removal on any xfx card sold by ocuk, as well as a fast turn around on any rma.
 
I can confirm I contacted MSI regarding this prior to me putting blocks on my 2 Ti's and the reply basically said as long as neither the cooler or pcb Were damaged and the card was restored to original condition prior to and rma it was fine. Good enough for me.
 
Martini1991 said:
Do XFX still have the stickers on their GPU's? All XFX GPU's I've had from AMD had stickers.
Click to expand...

Just thought I'd let you guys know, I sent a card back directly to XFX with the stock cooler re-attached with the sticker obviously scraped out. Apparently it doesn't matter as long as the stock cooler is re-attached correctly. Just waiting for the replacement from China now :D
 
Does anyone know Zotac's stance on replacing the Reference cooler with watercooling block.

No intention of doing it anytime soon was just wondering.

I think the card will be changed before the 5year warranty expires if I had to wait till it did :)
 
no i dont.

stock cooler removal is fine on ocuk branded cards as long as you put it back properly.
 
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