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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: sweetlilmre on October 10, 2007, 08:12:04 PM
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Hi,
I have a BVision card on the way and have read many dark tales of how hot these beasties get. Naturally I want to attach some heatsinks, the question is how?
Do you get something like double-sided heat sink tape? And if so, what is it called and where can I get it?
Any other suggestions? I have noticed that an old nVidia card I have has a free standing heat sink that seems to be stuck on some how.
Sorry if this is a noob question, I am one after all! :-D
-(e)
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I have used several vga cooling kits from TITAN. search ebay for them, there must be some...
they have self-adhesive blue heatsinks!
or get some vga ram heatsinks, like the "ThermalTake BGA1 Memory Heatsink" P/N: CL-C0026
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You can get thermal compound which will fix the heat sink to the chip surface.
The cheap version is to place a small amount of thermal grease in the center of the chip and a drop of superglue in each of two diagonal corners. If you glue it to all four corners, you'll probably never get it off again.
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Arctic Alumina Thermal Epoxy would be the preferred method, but that will stick them on permanently. It can be "cut" with the addition of thermal grease to make it easier to remove in future.
Crazy glue itself is so thin that it usually works okay to just use that, especially if it's just on an epoxy package not a metal topped package.
Also epoxies designed for high thermal tolerance have fillers that make them more thermally conductive than regular epoxy, so using a very thin smear of those, such as the commonly available JB Weld works good too. However, when I say thin, I mean thin, a transparent smear.
Any thermal interface works best applied as thinly as possible. It conducts heat better than air, but not as good as the heatsink, so always use the absolute minimum possible. Thermal pads usually fair poorly for this reason, they are too thick. Thermal tapes can be iffy, and are best avoided on anything but epoxy/plastic cases to heatsink interfaces. I beleive plain crazy glue and thin JB Weld applications have been shown to be superior to many thermal tapes.
Edit: BTW to remove stuck on sinks, such as the one on your GF card, there are two methods. Either heat with a heat gun and twist off, works best for thermal pads or thermal tape, or if epoxy, place in the bottom of the freezer for a couple of hours (makes it brittle) then twist off. Twisting is preferred as it is less likely to unseat the chip.
Edit2: another possibility is the type of electrically conductive epoxy sold to repair heated rear windows on cars. It's not as common as the conductive paint type, but have seen and used it. That works rather well as a thermal interface because it is silver filled. Again, use a very thin smear.
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I've secured various heatsinks (See my photos - Arctic Blizzard and C64 3D mod) by simply applying heat paste and "smudging" the heatsink into place. Whilst not exactly perfect, it does work, and it allows easy modifications without the risk of pulling IC lettering off.
Sometimes its a good idea (With this method) to use small blobs of hot melt glue between the heatsink and some neighbouring object, just to make sure the heatsink doesn't slide when hot, since hot melt glue (That is, the stuff that needs a few hundred degrees to melt:-) ) can usually be broken off when necessary.
Proper thermal glue is available, buts it’s about £35 a kit and non-removable.
So there’s:
Thermal paste (As above, usually a white paste)
Thermal contact pads (Foam pads, same idea as paste but a lot less messy - And they're reusable)
Thermal tape (As the name suggests, but I've never had any of it to use...)
Thermal glue (See Rapid Electronics and Loctite)
EDIT: The idea of using the thinnest layer of heat paste possible is OK (As in your case) so long as the two surfaces are perfectly parallel and flat (Getting heatsinks to bridge two components at different heights is a real pain). If they're not, great gaping holes are left where the component and heatsink are not in contact with one another. In this situation, making the heat paste layer thicker actually should improve things up to a point.
Hope that helps,
Hodgkinson.
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Hi,
Thanks to everyone for the (as usual) brilliant info.
I think I am going to go with the GFX card heat sink coolers as a first attempt and see how that goes. Less permanent, but safer for the moment!
Thanks
-(e)
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this one is 'prepared':
Cooler Master Blue ICE (SLC-S41-U1)
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If you don't give a flying f-f-ferret what it looks like, there's some plastic hobby/craft clamps been turning up in the dollar stores around here, that could be used to clamp a sink on with. Ideal if you want to try different stuff to see what works best before using an adhesive. I've used similar methods in the past. Have used rubber bands temporarily, but in a warm case they'll perish fast. Look around the card for holes when you get it, there's a possibility you could make a strap or brace that you could bolt through.
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I used ArcticSilver (http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_thermal_adhesive.htm) to change heat sinks on some of my gfx cards.