T-Rad2 installation Guide and Initial Thoughts

[sharpygsxr]

so i got my stock base plate removed for my little mod.

Damn those tiny tiny tiny screws ATI!

Anyway heres the baseplate removed.

Now as you can see the base plate still has the stock thermal pads on it for the VRMs so whats the concensus should i keep it as is?

The promising thing is that the plate feels very cool too the touch so i have high hopes for this giving better results than i currently have.

I plan to fit this back onto teh card then install the trad-2 on top of it, im hoping with teh 2 92mm fans this should provide the best of both world with stock cooling proven to be good for the vrms and the trads ability to cool the gpu.

Fingers crossed

 

[AtreuS]

That should work pretty well i would have thought. Should be interesting to see what happens.

 

[Firegod]

Hi peeps.

After some help here if possible from someone that has this installed on a 4870 1Gb please.

After reading about the VRM temps, I've been looking at buying better ramsinks to use instead of the bundled ones. I found these, after searching on google:-

Swiftech MC14 Copper sinks.
http://www.swiftnets.com/products/mc14.asp

Picture on this link (at bottom) shows them on a G80 card:-
http://www.swiftnets.com/products/mc21.asp

They are however, 14.5mm in height and I was wondering if some kind person could measure for me the distance between the vrm chips on the card and the bottom of the Trad2. From a guestimate... I think they'd just fit. However, getting them to go on the vrm area might be tricky as they are a different shape. Hmmm!

By the looks of things, these Swiftech sinks really work well though to conventional designs. Also, they come in a pack of 8 by the looks of things. I take it I should look at getting x2 packs if I were to purchase them?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Firegod]

Actually, I've just found a near identical product to the Swiftech, made by Enzotech, and it's only 9mm in height. Think we're on to a winner here. But I'd still love to know the height if possible please.

Thanks!

 

[DrSteve]

@ Sharpygsxr
I'll be watching with interest to see what sort of improvement you get with the new setup. Are you planning on fitting the plate as it is and removing ALL the stuck on heatsinks? As for the pad in the VRM area I would probably just leave the original stuff there and see what happens.

I'm still waiting for the new simks to arrive. Not sure if they will improve things but I thought I would give it a go. They look like this...

Just out of interest. Is there a bios for the 1gig card that gives a higher max core setting in CCC?

 

[rjk]

those heatsinks look mint

 

[DrSteve]

those heatsinks look mint

Yeah. They do look kinda good Lets just hope they perform as well as they look!

 

[Ice Rich]

so i got my stock base plate removed for my little mod.

Damn those tiny tiny tiny screws ATI!

Anyway heres the baseplate removed.





Now as you can see the base plate still has the stock thermal pads on it for the VRMs so whats the concensus should i keep it as is?

The promising thing is that the plate feels very cool too the touch so i have high hopes for this giving better results than i currently have.

I plan to fit this back onto teh card then install the trad-2 on top of it, im hoping with teh 2 92mm fans this should provide the best of both world with stock cooling proven to be good for the vrms and the trads ability to cool the gpu.

Fingers crossed

Interesting, hopefully you will see some good results. Please keep us updated.

 

[sharpygsxr]

will do mate, im removing all teh heatsinks that i applied the first time i fitted the trad 2, ill then apply the old stock base plate witha little thermal compound for the vrms as well as the pads.

Then install the trad over the top of the base plate and hopefully get a decent cooled vRM and GPU

Will try and get it done tomorrow as shouldnt be a long job

/DR Steve

Dont see any bios updates for the 1gb, just the 512mb card.

 

[sharpygsxr]

Ok fellas here goes, i have to be honest the mod had results way beyond my expectations, i have knocked easily 50C off my VDDC temps at load, GPU is a little lower at stock and load but its the VRM's which show the value of this mod.

Heres a few pics during the mod

Base plate installed, removed all the heatsinks i had applied the first tie with the Trad-2, also as you can see removed the sinks from the raised chips as i feel they will cool great thru the gap.

Few shots of the trad fitted back on and in the case

And finally the GPUZ temps for GPU and VDDC's after the 20min run on Furmark

[will update temps after 1hr of furmark / EDIT here ya go after 1hr stability test on furmark 1280x1024]

not quite the 50C drop but not bad considering before the mod my temps would be over 100C after the 20min run so im well chuffed now to clock the nuts off it!

Any questions etc feel free to ask and Rjko get that table updated lol

 

[lettuce]

Thats impressive

 

[DrSteve]

Excellent results! Now I'm not sure what to do!! The new heatsinks have shipped from the US.

How hard was it to remove the heatsinks from all the chips?

 

[sharpygsxr]

bit of a bugger actually as i had used akasa thermal tape at the start, the ones i had fitted on the raised chips i couldnt remove by pressure alone had to get the hairdryer to soften them up a bit.

The normal square sinks came off with a bit of wiggling about altho some required quite a bit of force. Good thing was they left no residue at all on the VRMs i imagine it would be easier if you did it after the card had been running a while so they were a bit warmer.

I did all the work from cold.

I honestly didnt expect as good results, altho im sure your heatsinks you have ordered will be a good improvement from the trad-2 sinks.

Simpel fact is the ATI base plate is one large heatsink and its obviously doing a good job with the vrms, combined with the trad for the core cooling and i think it was well worth the time doing the mod.

 

[RaveyDaveyUK]

@ Sharpy - Looks like yours fits ok...although I didnt complete the fit I did look at this but thought I would have clearance issues where the ends of the pipes over the gpu plate of the trad would touch the ATI plate....does that make sense?...???

I'm gonna give this a proper try tonight and as I'm a fat fingered fool I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[lettuce]

I would try this, but removed all the thermal tape that was on the heatsink already. How snuggly does the Heatsink fit to the actually GFX card?? Would applying a blob of Arctic Cooling MX-2 paste to each heatsink placement be enought to bond the heatsink and VRM's together, or would the clearence be to great??

 

[sharpygsxr]

the base plate is flush with the card altho inside behidn where the vrms are located theres indentations for the thermal tape applied. I dont think with the tape removed that the vrms would be in contact with the baseplate at all so it would prob overheat very quickly indeed.

For Ravey the trad-2 fit perfectly on top of the baseplate for me and left a decent clearance. Been playin gta4 all day today and havent seen my temps over 50 lookin forward to seein your results

 

[Ice Rich]

Great job sharpygsxr that's a nice mod!

 

[Clairvoyant]

Tempted to do this but Im crap at DIY in the house let alone on PC Parts. Building PCs is easy, moding them is a different story.

 

[lettuce]

the base plate is flush with the card altho inside behidn where the vrms are located theres indentations for the thermal tape applied. I dont think with the tape removed that the vrms would be in contact with the baseplate at all so it would prob overheat very quickly indeed.

For Ravey the trad-2 fit perfectly on top of the baseplate for me and left a decent clearance. Been playin gta4 all day today and havent seen my temps over 50 lookin forward to seein your results

Where would i get thermal tape that would be that thick then??, as the the akasa thermal tape is rather thin??

 

[sharpygsxr]

you could try a good 4 or 5 layers of the akasa tape, might give it enough width.