These MC14 ramsinks are driving me crazy!

[FrozenShinobi]

I take the tape cover off, put it on , 5 minutes later it falls. None of these ramsinks stay on my x1900 cards! How can I hold them down? Can I scotch tape rofl... taping them down to the pcb...would the scotch tape overheat? And yes I checked the tape it sticky, it's just not strong enough!

[creidiki]

I've had the same issues with mine.

Luckily I have about 16 inches of SEKISUI #5760 tape left, so I just replaced it with that... the SEK is strong enough to basically hang the card by the ramsinks.

Scotch tape is probably a bad idea, seeing as you dont know the electric conductivity of the glue used - you might short some traces.

[Shpoon]

I pushed hard for about 5 minutes each....then did a "wiggle test" (slight wiggle, nothing serious). 2 fell off, so I put tiny dabs of superglue in the corners....booted with them, a few thermal cycles, and nothings fallen off...if you can get them to just stay on when you say, shake the card, they should be fine...

[FrozenShinobi]

Hmm wouldn't that be permanent though?

[Shpoon]

Hmm wouldn't that be permanent though?

Superglue? I'm talking like, the tinest bit....I took a toothpick and put a tiny dab on, if needed, I can just pop it off.

[creidiki]

Even if you put too much there are commercially-available cyanoacrylate removing solutions.

I believe Trice uses Glue Gun glue on his. AS5 or Ceramique with glue on 2 corners. Me, I didnt buy tape not to use it :)

[Fuzzy_3D]

I second the super glue method.
That's what I do for all my un-mountable heatsinks. Just make sure you use the tiniest amount possible, and only on the two opposing corners.
The more glue you use, the more permanent it will be =)

[FrozenShinobi]

Hmm if it's that small it's probably not going to help, my motherboard is sideways now, not even upside down yet, and it only takes about 3 minutes for 4 ramsinks to fall off... 4 from each card. Can anyone recommend some thermal tape? I'm not sure if I wasnt it to be permanent though, I know arctic silver thermal adhesive will pull your ram chips off the card if you put the ramsinks on with it and try to pull the ramsinks off.

EDIT: Ok I guess I can try the super glue method but I don't have any right now. I guess if I am going to buy it I might as well get thermal tape instead. So will any thermal tape be good?

[creidiki]

Sekisui #5760

[syne_24]

thats odd, I just push my firmly and hold it for about a min and it sticks fine

[Sneaky]

they usually stick better after cleaning off the RAM chips with some lighter fluid (alcohol doesn't quite do the job i've found)

otherwise theres a slight oily coating on the BGA chips from the stock thermal pads that refuses to let the RAMsinks stick I've found



edit: I've also found that the MC14 thermal tape SUCKS

[Viktor]

I'm using my X1900XT card without ram-sinks since all my zalman fell of, will the clocks improve much with Mc14 sinks?

[chris.c]

I mixed 1 part AS5 with 1 part arctic adhesive (well, .25+.25+.50).

They adhere good, but not too good. I was able to remove them with a bit of force and re-apply to my new video card. I wouldn't recommend using straight arctic adhesive though, that stuff is strong.

This method is expensive and overkill (both in bond strength and TIM efficiency), but if you have some laying around, :toast:

[GrindBastard]

The Seksui is the "best", but i have a problem getting the zinks i have on my asus mobo of, so be prepared to use force if u need to peel them of in time...

Im using the Zalman sinks in black on my 1900xtx, they still hold on but the other blue ones ive used before fall of with the slightest touch, eventho i cleaned the ram surface with isopropylic alcohol...

i wouldent fear the superglue method, as stated u have to be carefull but i would use the same if i had no other options..

[jagt]

I mixed 1 part AS5 with 1 part arctic adhesive (well, .25+.25+.50).

They adhere good, but not too good. I was able to remove them with a bit of force and re-apply to my new video card. I wouldn't recommend using straight arctic adhesive though, that stuff is strong.

This method is expensive and overkill (both in bond strength and TIM efficiency), but if you have some laying around, :toast:
Yup, I've been using that method for years on all my cards, and it always works wonders. That tube of arctic adhesive was a good investment :clap:

[septim]

i find that the seksui tape is somewhat too permanent adhesion...

others use artic silver adhesive on the corners while artic silver 5 in the middle (as stated above)
or arctic silver in the middle with tiniest pin :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana: of superglue on the corners (also stated above)

i guess mounting em mc14 copper (heavier than aluminum) ram sinks would depend on what you have available locally...

[SiGfever]

Marci had a great reply in a thread that Maxxx was talking about adding to the "GPU sticky". He even has a diagram showing how to apply.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=119714&page=2

[Emmett]

When I put my zalman VF900's on my cards, the directions stated that
the ramsinks needed 24 hours or 'cure' time to stick effectively to the
chips, so i let the cards sit idle in thier boxes for 24 hours. used them for
months after, sinks never came off, and when i went to pull them off
to put stock cooler back it took some pretty good effort to get them off.

Emmett

[Shpoon]

Hmm if it's that small it's probably not going to help, my motherboard is sideways now, not even upside down yet, and it only takes about 3 minutes for 4 ramsinks to fall off... 4 from each card. Can anyone recommend some thermal tape? I'm not sure if I wasnt it to be permanent though, I know arctic silver thermal adhesive will pull your ram chips off the card if you put the ramsinks on with it and try to pull the ramsinks off.

EDIT: Ok I guess I can try the super glue method but I don't have any right now. I guess if I am going to buy it I might as well get thermal tape instead. So will any thermal tape be good?

You don't use much superglue, do you? That stuff is strong ;)

[davidzo]

before i used thermal tape from bergquist, i used superglue too.
just put a small drop in every corner of the chip and a little bit of thermal paste in the middle. its cooling is at least as good as using thermal tape and its a lot stronger.
on my radeon8500 i even glued my gpucooler with this method cause the card had any holes.

afaik swiftech also uses bergwuist tape, but the stuff which is on the mc14 doesn't look much like the one that i have. i have transparent 0.1mm glue foil. it is pretty expensive, but glues good and the heat transfer is not bad either. its a little bit like this thin special fibreless doublesided glue which u use for high stress glueing applications.

[Sparky]

When I put my zalman VF900's on my cards, the directions stated that
the ramsinks needed 24 hours or 'cure' time to stick effectively to the
chips, so i let the cards sit idle in thier boxes for 24 hours. used them for
months after, sinks never came off, and when i went to pull them off
to put stock cooler back it took some pretty good effort to get them off.

Emmett
Interesting, but I don't know if I could be without my computer that long :stick:
or, without it folding for 24 too :eek:

[JoeBar]

I immediately replaced the crapy tape on the MC14 with 3M's adhesive tape and never had a prob.

[Master_G]

I did all the RAM on my 1900XT, turned it over to install it and half of them fell off (after using contact cleaner on the chips first)
Just brushing the others trying to put back the ones that had fallen off made the others fall off, so i took them all off, scraped off the tape (which took forever) and used the AS5 + AS epoxy method.
When using this method be careful though as the stuff is very conductive, so i always put tape around chips so i can be sure none of the stuff is left on the card.

G

[Eastcoasthandle]

You can use some epoxy with some AS5 or the AS Thermal Adhesive. If you need to take it off use some Acetone (in the case the card is damaged and needs to be replaced).
You can find Acetone in the hardware store or Walmart in the paint section.
I had the same problem myself. The problem is the surface of the mem itself. I can use MC14s on the mosfets of my x1900xtx and have no problem but them mem is a different story. I theorize that those bandaids used on the oem HSF transfer some sort of oil or compound onto the mem cause them to be the way they are. Here's what I have observed, MC14s are great if their is full contact. I am able to up the ram quiet a bit but they are no better then using the bandaids if there isn't full contact on the memory. All I can suggest is that you use the adhesive on the tape backing if you know in the future that you will take them off the VC. Otherwise, go naked with the MC14s and take the tape off.

[Budwise]

youd be surprised how well Arctic Silver 5 by itself will work. Just put a small dab in the middle, push it on with a little pressure and the AS5 will sort of create a suction to the ram chip. They will slide a little but will not pop off very easy. After some time to cure the AS5 holds them on VERY well yet its a piece of cake to take em back off. Remember all the stories of people yanking their procs out of the socket cuz the AS5 cured so well? The same applies here except in ram chips its very useful to hold on ramsinks.

[Bad213Boy]

http://marci.over-clock.com/ramsink.jpg

Put thermal compound on first, leaving corners clear. Small-as-you-can-get-it dot of Arctic Adhesive in each corner. Sitck on to ram. When time comes to remove, gentle twisting motion is enough to crack the adhesive so they can be removed.

Sure twas Majormav that came up with this method back in 2002 or summat *shrug* - I remember we definitely used this method on Ti4600 cards, pre Radeon9700 days...

here's marci's suggestions