Tips on video card insulating

[sadcat]

I was wondering if some who already have phase change cooled their video cards would share any tips? I'm worried after reading Fugger's post that he is getting ice on the memory and agp slot. I thought the cold could be isolated around the gpu. I think I'll try an old card first to see if I'm going to have problems. Any help would really appreciated! Thanks, sadcat

[runmc]

I would definately conformal coat the card. Cover mem chips and solder points first.
I have a 1/4 inch thick piece of neoprene between my cooler and card(use whatever fits to make a snug air tight fit, but still lets the cooler and chip make good contact) I use dielectric grease between card and neoprene and around gpu.
I also put dielectric grease on the AGP plug, because mine form ice on the plug also.
Make sure and put a piece of 1/4 inch thick (or bigger) piece on top of the card, that goes out to the mem chips.

[sadcat]

Thanks, Ron I Have question about the lower photo. Is that wire a heater or to take temp? Or what? Also I was thinking about using the heater that is intended to go on the back of the motherboard anyway down by the agp slot. That should keep the slot warm without heating the card. What do you think?
Thanks again, sadcat

[runmc]

Originally posted by sadcat
Thanks, Ron I Have question about the lower photo. Is that wire a heater or to take temp? Or what? Also I was thinking about using the heater that is intended to go on the back of the motherboard anyway down by the agp slot. That should keep the slot warm without heating the card. What do you think?
Thanks again, sadcat

That's a probe... It's a must for monitoring what's going on with the temp. Of course it doesn't give you an accurate gpu temp, but it does tell you when the card stops getting colder.

Don't know about the heater idea, I've never messed with a heater.

[UsMarine]

I am getting a Mach II modded with 404 by herefishy

Sadcat how is that heater around the AGP working for you?

Also I already have ramsinks on my memory chips you think they will frost or drip water? Do I have to take them off and use neoprene?

[runmc]

You can get condensation on your sinks as well as the card. My suggestion would be to conformal-coat the card and only run your cooler in an air conditioned room with low humidity. I don't put conformal coating on the memory chips, so moisture can still get around and under them.

Watch out for that!!

[afireinside]

WOW! VERY nice job. Looks clean and professional

Where did you grt the conformal? I ordered some from dangerden and it smells and acts like model glue :|

[UsMarine]

Originally posted by runmc
You can get condensation on your sinks as well as the card. My suggestion would be to conformal-coat the card and only run your cooler in an air conditioned room with low humidity. I don't put conformal coating on the memory chips, so moisture can still get around and under them.

Watch out for that!!

Good to hear from you Run

Well I live in okinawa and let me tell you humidity he is a pain and I dont have A/C in my room but I have a fan hehe. This time of the year humidty starts to go away so hpefully it will be ok.

What kind of conformal coating do you use? Is that the spray stuff you put on the card? why dont you put conformal coating on your sinks?

And last but not least SadCat Do you mind posting a picture on how you monted the head to your GPU PLEASE Herefishy is doing mines like yours and he is going to send me a care-package of all the stuff I need to mount it because I live in Okinawa Japan so no way for me to get anything.

I will really appreciate it if you post a picture sadcat.

Thanks Again Guys

[CrashOv3r1De]

Here is all you need to know

Read the Bowman Article (w00t!)

http://www.phase-change.com/index.ph...s&id=25&page=1

[BMORIN]

Runmc, everything you do is always kept nice and tidy. Very good job.

[UsMarine]

Originally posted by runmc
I would definately conformal coat the card. Cover mem chips and solder points first.

Run I am getting my Mach II modded by Herefishy too .
He is sending me a care package will all the stuff I will need to get it up and running on my 9800XT.

Since we will basically have the same cooling maybe you can help us on the things he has to send me. Basically the things you had to use after you got the Mach II from him.

Do you conformal coat the whole card or just 3"? And you said make sure to cover the memory chips you mean the 8 memory chips only right? and What solder points are you talking about to cover?

Originally posted by runmc Make sure and put a piece of 1/4 inch thick (or bigger) piece on top of the card, that goes out to the mem chips.

I dont understand this one. Where do you put it?

I currently have ramsinks in my Card. Should I take them out and do what you did? What did you put on the memory chips to prevent condensation?

The block will sit on the card and I noticed it will sit on some resistors and some chips with legs right? wont that be hard to prevent air going in through there? How do you do that? Put di-electric grease on the resistor and chips which the block will sit on?

This will be a regular home use computer and also a overclocker and benchmarker please keep that in mind.

Once Again Thanks Runmc

Hopefully you can help me out through this one.

[runmc]

What I did on my newest card was to solder my wires on first and then conformal coat the entire card. If you don't solder first, you will either have to cover the solder pts. or scrap the conformal coat off before you can solder. Cover the eight memory chips, and the gpu. I also cover the end chrome mounting bracket and the vga plug. Conformal coat the rest. Do a couple of light coats. I would conformal-coat it in a dry ,humidity space.

Your going to need some neoprene for the top side of the card and the area between the evaporator head and the card itself. (1/4 inch works best for me) The neoprene will snug down on the resistors and other raised parts to seal out air. I also use dielectric grease between the neoprene and the card where it seals the evaporator. Make sure your evaporator still fits snug on the gpu after you put the neoprene between the card and evaporator.

You need to put a piece of neoprene on top of the card opposite the evaporator. I cut the neoprene to come out to the memory chips on the side, and the out just shy of the solder points in the front. I don't want to chance knocking my solder points loose. Take a piece of lexan or plexi-glass and lay it on top of the neoprene on the top of the card. If you make the mounting screws that hold the evaporator long enough, you can hold the plexi-glass and neoprene down snug with the bolts and nuts.

Leave your heatsinks on. You may want to tape them off before you conformal coat. (I'm not sure if the conformal-coat would hold the heat in the sinks or not)

In my opinion, your rig will not be suitable for daily, in and out use with the cooler on the graphic card. Due to iceing and your humidity problem, your going to have problems. I would definately put a light coating of dielectric grease on the vga plug, because ice will probably form on it if you leave it on very long.

You said earlier, the humidity was realy high and that you had no air conditioning. I'm afraid your going to have big problems with condensation. If you do all of the above it will help and you may get by.

Maybe someone else can add to my list.

This picture clearly shows the 1/4 inch neoprene between the evaporator and the card. You can also see the grease coming out.



Study the pictures....

[Stang_Man]

runmc, where's your power connector go from your 9800 ?

[Oc2theSkY]

Looks like the power connector runs next to the ram up to the psu to me.

[voirdire]

Originally posted by Oc2theSkY
Looks like the power connector runs next to the ram up to the psu to me.

Or through a hole in the mb.

[runmc]

power cord runs up beside ram and to the psu

no holes

[herefishy]

Hi, Run....

[runmc]

hey mark,

Can I go to DisneyLand with ya?? Please??

[Slickthellama]

i got some one day passes here, wanna trade them for that prometia run..

[sadcat]

Hi everybody! I'm back. I've had big problems but I'm running again. Somehow I killed my XT but I never saw a drop of water on it. Then to make matters worse, whatever I did, caused the motherboard not to post( no beeps). Being a sharp computer builder I knew no beeps meant a bad board. Two boards, three processors and one week later I tried to post with no video card and of course it beeped. Anyway I would add this to Ron's post : keep the conformal coating off voltage measure points. Or you will have to clean later. see ya,sadcat (more sad than usual)

[runmc]

Originally posted by sadcat
Hi everybody! I'm back. I've had big problems but I'm running again. Somehow I killed my XT but I never saw a drop of water on it. Then to make matters worse, whatever I did, caused the motherboard not to post( no beeps). Being a sharp computer builder I knew no beeps meant a bad board. Two boards, three processors and one week later I tried to post with no video card and of course it beeped. Anyway I would add this to Ron's post : keep the conformal coating off voltage measure points. Or you will have to clean later. see ya,sadcat (more sad than usual)

Sorry about all your troubles Sadcat, been there done that and will probably do it again. It's all part of it, I guess.
I sprayed conformal coat on my check point once. It freaked me out because it didn't dawn on me what I had done. I'm going like, "what in the world is wrong now, no voltage." How can this be??? LOL Had to scrape it off.

[Redwolf]

Oh nice

/sigh ..we're only human...

[wimpie007]

Hope you can still RMA that card...
Good luck with the next run...

[afireinside]

I still cant get over how clean your rig is run Whats cooling the GPU? Is it a modded prommie or a custom setup?

[runmc]

Originally posted by afireinside
I still cant get over how clean your rig is run Whats cooling the GPU? Is it a modded prommie or a custom setup?

thank you.. It's a custom vga cooler.