900mhz//2214//2250@50c,,GTS512mb....HoTRoD the Factory Heatsink/Stock Fan!!!!!!

[gOtVoltage]

GTS//MXII Mod.....How to HoTRoDMod your GTS512mb Heatsink for under $15.00 and 1hour worth of time.....



Ok Extremers.....Heres a mod I know youll like..

We all know the new GTS512mb overclocks great. Only exception is of the dreaded memory along with a heatsink that could use some help. Anyone who overclocks ,,knows that heat can turn that card into nuclear waste

Overall we will be adding Nylon washers to the spring screws and lightly hand lapping the Copper base...If you feel skilled enuff you can also high polish the copper base as well..It will allow better contact with Any thermal paste to the Bare Core on the GPU..I Only use MXII untill something better comes along!

Its a funny thing that i was expecting to see a seperate Shader GPU as on the older GTS's,,Wtf is it in the GPU//G92 now...Makes me fell robbed ,,you can not see a Shader Gpu anywhere,,and thers even a place where i believe it would of wnet too After a good run through ,,The 8800GTS512mb seems to be a GT with a dual Slot cooler...The only differance between the two cards is the Shader count and some Resitors//Pwm's//Caps.. So We all basicaly paid $100.00 for a dual slot cooler

Time for some Fun

Tools We will need tools and Paste MX-II and 12 x 2mm,,Nylon washers and 1000grit wet/dry Sandpaper! Polish is optional.

1x Pair Rubber Gloves//latect what ever..always use protection

1x ,,Small philips screwdriver = to remove springscrews and three screws on cooler.

1x ,,Regular philips screwdriver = to remove three screws on back plate .

1x ,,RazorBlade = for removal of old past and thermal pads.

1x ,,Clean soft rag or cloth/towel = to clean remaing paste pads using Denatured alcohal.

1x ,,Paste Cleaner or Denatured Alchohal = Cleaning of Old paste thermal pads.

1x ,,1000 grit wet/dry sand paper = to gently smooth copper base before polishing.

1x ,,Aluminun Polish//Mothers Polish Compuond// not Brasso! = smoother surface for thermal paste.

1x ,,Roll Blue painters Tape = so you dont dirty the card while lapping/polishing,,allow easy removal and dosnt leave residue behind.

12x ,,Small Nylon Washers = creates more tension on spring screws to close the memory gap by 2mm.

1x Needle nose plyers = to remove the four back plate screws that hold slot plate to the DVI connectors.


1st step Removing the heatsink

Remove the the Back plate. This consist of Four Dvi nuts and three philips retaining screws..""Do not remove heatsink shroud/cover..you dont need to mess with it at all!""

Next,,Remove the 12x SpringScrews starting from the four in the center working your way around the card . ""This will prevent cracking or warping of board and GPU!""

Finally,,Removing the heatsink,, hold card to where cooler is right side up//thats the pretty side Gently slide your fingers in between the board and heatsink//in the center of the GPU....""Do not twist heatsink"" You can break a capacitor off real easy doing it like that!....JustWiggle your fingers in and the pressure will dismount the GPU,, with out twisting or ruining the thermal pads! Disconnect the Fan connector being careful to not ruin the theral pads..we will be reusing them on the Pwm's only!

Here is a pic of what it should look like once its removed succesfully.



2nd Step Cleaning the card.

Using a RazorBlade remove the old thermal paste from the Heatsink Only,, Dont use razor on GPU!.""Dont press the blade into the copper,,gently slide it to remove paste!""



Next ,,Use the razorblade to lift the Edges of Thermal pads off the Memory Only.""Do Not Remove From Pwm's"" We are using the Thermal pads again for the PWM's so dont remove it, if you removed the Heatsink as i said above ,,The pads on the Pwm's should be nicely in its place on the heatsink or board Ive done three of these in a row..all heatsinks came off the same way

Razor under themal pads gently lift them off.



Leave these Thermal Pads Alone!!



Leave this Thermal pad in its place too!




3rd Step lapping and polishing.
Now clean up your card and heatsink with alcohal or thermal paste cleaner and a clean cloth.

Using 1000grit wet/Dry Sand Paper . You will sand in a circular motion using very little pressure ,,Sand the Factory sand lines//finish until the lines are gone. Now if you wish you can also polish the copper base and then reclean with alchohal...Polishing allows for a smoother surface and will contact the Bare CORE the best...I have proved this many times..This step is not for looks,,Just performance!

When done ,, The heatsink and card will look like Picture below.



4th Step Applying the Thermal Paste ,,MXII = best temps and is non conductive!

When you apply the paste ,,Spead a thin layer of MXII//not As5,,On all Memory Chips and GPU,,Then Put a Dot of paste the SIZE OF A BB in the center of each Memory Chip and GPU.Also make shure the Thermal Pads are in the correct place for the PWM's!

Correct method of applying the paste for this mod!



5th Step Remounting the heatsink.

This will be a little scary for first timers...Witn the card in the up right position you will plug in the fan and then gently set the HEATSINK down on the GPU...""Dont APPLY any Pressure while doing this""

Carefully flip the card over on its back and gently push down over GPU with out twisting...

Ok ,,Install the springscrews using the NYLON WASHERS .There are (Four GPU springscrews )and just make them snugg..use a (CrissxCross patern)...when snugging/tightning.

Now intstall the next( Four springscrews//theres two on each side of the GPU screws)that you just put in...Now snugg them up using a (CrissxCross patern)..

Next ,, Install the (Four springscrews for the memory) use a (CrissxCross patern) tighten till snugg...""DO NOT INSTALL the THREE FanShroud Screws yet!!!""

Finnaly ,, Give the heatsink a very slight nudge left and right,, Barely a twist OK...Now go over all the SpringScrews starting at the GPU and compress them all the way down in a (CrissxCross Patern)... This will fully seat the MXII and close the heatsink gap by 2mm,,with out causing harm to the GPU/Board..

You must use the NYLON WASHER's or this part of the MOD with MXII wont work and youll be Now install the three Fans Shroud Screws after the SpringSrews are fully tightened.. you will feel each spring screw stop fully compressed,,""DONT CRANK ON THEM""


The Screen below is with 100%stock heasink using thermal pads instead of MXII,,This is for comparing your Before and after Mod




MXII Mod propperly Done







Last Step Cut out and install modified Slotplate ..This is optional but if you want the Temps i have you must cut the backplate for more Airflow or buy a single slot plate from Petra's for like $5bucks or steal one off an old GTS like i did



Ok finish up by wiping all those grimmy finger prints and go bench!

Results Anyone



Stock Clocks 3Dmark06 Below..Not bad but i wanted more



OverClock @ StockHeatsink ,,Max oc below was the best i could do with out any mods,Because of heat build up @ the end of 3Dmark06 I could not keep the card 100%stable . Although it idled @33c and was still under 70c loaded..

Max Oc Stock heatsink// No Volt Mods or Heatsink mods!!! Not 100%stable but i managed to sqeek by on a cold run .

GPU//800mhz

Shader//2010mhz

Memory//2000mhz

Stock Fan set 100% Idle 33c @22c room temp.
Stock Fan set 100% Load 68c @22c room temp.




Doing the MX-II Mod and Lap,, allowed me to max everything out including the Factory Vcore and Vmem ...All three cards i Modded last night ran exactly the same..For the most part they are consistant with a volt limit around 820-830mhz on Air,Depending on Ambiant temp.

This ballgame only cost a piece of sandpaper,,some tape and 1/4tube of MXII..Thats fricken cheap!




Way better Stock Style cooling with a simple Mod..I also run the Fan @100% with this Mod!..all cards Clocked so easy to 800mhzStock,,when Modded they did 820/907 Max with out any Extra Volts. I also wouldnt bother with the Qimonda above 2250mhz,,Samsung does 2300+.This Qstuff heats up at that speed in very little time and fails/Squares and pixels,,After prolonged use it will be permanate failure with Ram above 2250mhz!

Your Results may vary ,, you will need to use MXII ,,Nylon Washers and Lap/polish heatsink with a a single slot bracket or moddify your dual slot braket,, For the results i have obtained ..


Volt Modded GPU,, 3Dmark06 @50c Max Heatsink Mod

@ 1.27volts max temp was 46c




Max Oc with Heatsink/Air was 907/2160//2250 and Water 950//2304//2250...There is very little gain to be had going from 870mhz to 950mhz+!






Happy Modding ,,

!gOtVolTage!

[gOtVoltage]

My final Oc on Air was 907//2160//2250...i have since sold all GTS's and am now Ocing a neat little 3870x2, It easily outperforms the GTS and it can be had for $383.00 at microcenter if you walk in.

I paid $359.00 Each for GTS512. Funny thing the ATI overclocks to 900+ stockcooler.What ever works best ATM is what i like...

[Mungri]

Nice mod!

In the past I have been advised to and have replaced the thermal paste on the GPU with AS5 which always gives me a few degrees off my temps. I was going to do this on my new card too, but you disadvise against AS5. Is it really too bad to use on just the GPU?

I decided to try zome Zalman paste on my 3870 because I had some lying around and had a seriously bad noob moment!

I took off my HSF, and on first inspection the stock paste was VERY badly applied. Only the bottom half of the GPU was covered, the top half had no paste on, and there were big clumps of paste on the chipstet die thingy around the GPU! There was actually more paste not on the GPU then there was on it lol.

So I cleaned it off with Tim clean, evenly applied my Zalamn paste, and reinstalled everything. Previously my max temp @ stock was 72 degrees. After testing my temp after putting on the Zalman paste went up to 75 degrees in less then a minute!

I thought, wow, seriously what crap paste and powered down to change it to sme AS5.

Turned out I had forgotten to plug in my GFX card fan ^^

My max temp at stock is now 70 degrees, at 801 Mhz it is 71 degrees (down by exactly 2 degrees from before - 72 / 73 degrees max).

Happy, and I used paste that was supposed to be used on a GPU.

So if you can, just use Zalman paste ^^

[Anavel0]

MX-2 is better than AS5, which is why most suggest it over AS5.

Is there a reason why you apply a thin layer of MC-2 on everything then add a glob of it again? Isn't that overkill?

[Mungri]

I'll have to add some to my next order, but I have three tubes of stuff already!

Half or 2/3'rds of the zalman tube left, a heck of a lot of AS5, and a whole tube of Asus paste, I have no Idea if thats any good though because I used my last bit of Geil copper paste on my Copper based Silent Knight II ^^

Too many thermal pastes and they last too long, thats the problem.

[Linchpin]

Great mod and excellent results there.

[xMrBunglex]

i'm guessing he added a lot of thermal paste instead of a little because there would otherwise be a gap between the heatsink and the memory chips. the stock solution has thermal pads, which are fairly thick. you'll need a good amount of paste if you want to fill that gap.

[gOtVoltage]

Nice mod!

In the past I have been advised to and have replaced the thermal paste on the GPU with AS5 which always gives me a few degrees off my temps. I was going to do this on my new card too, but you disadvise against AS5. Is it really too bad to use on just the GPU?

I decided to try zome Zalman paste on my 3870 because I had some lying around and had a seriously bad noob moment!

I took off my HSF, and on first inspection the stock paste was VERY badly applied. Only the bottom half of the GPU was covered, the top half had no paste on, and there were big clumps of paste on the chipstet die thingy around the GPU! There was actually more paste not on the GPU then there was on it lol.

So I cleaned it off with Tim clean, evenly applied my Zalamn paste, and reinstalled everything. Previously my max temp @ stock was 72 degrees. After testing my temp after putting on the Zalman paste went up to 75 degrees in less then a minute!

I thought, wow, seriously what crap paste and powered down to change it to sme AS5.

Turned out I had forgotten to plug in my GFX card fan ^^

My max temp at stock is now 70 degrees, at 801 Mhz it is 71 degrees (down by exactly 2 degrees from before - 72 / 73 degrees max).

Happy, and I used paste that was supposed to be used on a GPU.

So if you can, just use Zalman paste ^^

AS5 is actually great on the GPU....But its conductive and thats not good.Especially for how it will be used on the memory,When using it for such a mod The AS5 will RUN down the sides mc's.

Ive been using MX!! since it came out and have had Nothing but the Best results with up to 4c minimum over AS5 on FULL LOAD TEMPS..

IDLE can be some what the same depending on Ambiants and Idle fan setting.

[gOtVoltage]

MX-2 is better than AS5, which is why most suggest it over AS5.

Is there a reason why you apply a thin layer of MC-2 on everything then add a glob of it again? Isn't that overkill?

With this Mod the gap between the Mc's and Heatsink is .017mm.. The heatsink has lots of imperfections on the sqaures where the memory contact . I also wanted to make shure there was enuff..It will squish even and it does perform the job at hand . Id rather have ENUFF than NOT. Plus the Qimonda will croak fast with heat and Volts so i made shure this would work. Samsung will do 2300mhz easy if your lucky to get a GTS with it.

Great mod and excellent results there.

Thank you,, Its simple and Cheap and works, thats what matters right

i'm guessing he added a lot of thermal paste instead of a little because there would otherwise be a gap between the heatsink and the memory chips. the stock solution has thermal pads, which are fairly thick. you'll need a good amount of paste if you want to fill that gap.

The thermal pads are twice as thick as the amount of paste used..it looks like alot but it isnt really. The MX-II holds its form where the AS5 would seep and cause problems...

Also you must use nylon washers for the Heatsink to fit flush with the PCB to close the gap on the meory..This Mod will never let the heatsink droop overtime . The stock springs with out using washer will cause the heatsink to sag . Thermal Pads and Tim will slowly seperate allowing temps to rise over the life of the card.

Ive done so many of these now GT/GTS it only takes about 30minutes and i can sqeeze 850/900 with Gpu Vmod on Air 24/7
This same Mod should also work with the new 9800GTX GT GTS once there out..If specs are correct they still will use some form of G92 and G100 and simalar heatsink.

[Mungri]

The thermal pads that come on retail coolers are just a load of poo poo anyway.

Am I the only one that thinks it is inefficient for every single ram chip to be cooled by one big chunk of metal? Unless of course you coat them in MX-II.

Individial copper ram sinks would be far better then the stock solution, but I just hate stock coolers and want them off altogether ^^.

I'm happy that my current card was the cheapest 3870 around, and it came with a great zalman like cooler which is 10 degrees cooler then what people with a standard HSF get. I just needed to add my own copper ramsinks though because they had nothing on them.

I think I'm always going to buy cards which have good non reference coolers from now on, they look a lot better, are cooler, and save my money and hastle with having to do it myself, although that means less fun

One problem I initially had with your idea was thermal paste running onto the PCB, even if it is non conductive it still makes a mess. How well does MX-II actually hold its place and does it still run onto the PCB at all?

Cleaning goo of the PCB wouldnt be a very nice experience.

My last Nvidia cards I had were two Winfast 6800's in SLI:



These were basic DDR1 based cards and were the fastest available at the time which didnt require a power connector. However that custom heatsink on them turned out to be fantastic. They overclocked from 325/600 all the way up to 425/900 !!! The ram was actually Hynix DDR1 rated for 800 Mhz, so had loads of headroom. I cleared the stock thermal paste on both cards and replaced with AS5, and bios modded them to 400/800, and they were just slightly behind 6800 GT speeds.

I then got a reference cooled X1900 xtx based on the same theory that the ram was defaulted at 1550 Mhz, but rated at 1800 Mhz so should have had plenty of overclocking headroom. It turned out to be a load of poo poo ^^. The ram would severly artifact anywhere over 1640 Mhz, and I manually checked and googled the ram chips and they were samsung 1800 Mhz ones. I wasnt impressed, and the stock cooler was noisy as crap:


Bad Bad Bad in a Bad way card ^^

I changed the cooler to a zalman which was silent, but it didnt increase the overclocking headroom so I concluded it was just dodgy ram chips.

Then I got my 3870 just last week. On stock it reaced 800/1249, with ramsinks added it is stable at 800/1286, but despite the lovely GPU cooler which keeps it at 70 degrees as opposed to stock cooled 3870's which run up to 80 degrees, it is unstable over 811 Mhz. I'll need to Bios mod it to give it more volts soon:







My next great card in years since my Leadtek 6800's :p

Sorry, didnt mean to hijack your thread, I just love modded GFX cards ^^.

I'm just going to completely avoid reference coolers altogether now and only buy cards with nice heatsinks on them. I'm waiting for the 4870 now before deciding to buy one of them, or a second 3870 after its price falls, but I think a 4870 will be the best thing to go for (I have a P35 board purely for how great it overclocks, so I have to stick to ATI for now).

Oh, and I seriously regretted buying the X1900 xtx. It cost me £300 and was a load of junk. If I had waited a little longer I could have gotten 2x X1950 pros for less then what I paid for that. I had both an A8N-SLI which died due to running it at a 300 Mhz FSB all the time, and then an A8R32-MVP deluxe which I got with the X1900 xtx. I was planning on going crossfire, but X1900 xt's in crossfire would have been too expensive for the performance, as I said, I wish I had waited for the superior price / performance X1950 pros.

[gOtVoltage]

MX-II will not bleed make a mess like As5...matter of fact i use MX-II with superglue on exposed ram chips and pwm sinks when i use water.

The stock heatsink when done correctly will exaust ALL HOT AIR out of your case..Using a thermalRight or Zalman defeats that purpose unless .The inside of you case dosnt get hot from all the HOT air resurculating...

Now if Vendors would make a full sink that had fins above the Ram or cooling channels that would help...

The 3870x2 kinda has that but i gave it a little nudge in the cooling department.

Im Glad my 3870x2 runs cools with MX-II... Stock it was alittle hot even with 100%fan .

Now it stays cool @ 907/2200 ,,i have yet to see 50c under full load..I only changed the factory paste..No mods what so ever.

[Anavel0]

I got lucky when I put the HR-03 on my old X1900XT. I use a Lian-Li V1000 Plus II so it comes with a meshed hole right over the expansion slot area. Let all that hot air out. And as long as you had a fan on the HR-03 the air wasn't hot at all. Remove the fan, well that was a whole other story.

[ShArKo]

great mod........good for you man

Im going to try this on my 8800GTS the next month

[STEvil]

placing 1mm copper shims on the memory chips may help as you are relying on the flexibility of the PCB with this mod to allow the memory chips to contact the heatsink reliably.

Thermal interface materials do not effectively transfer heat when they are are thick at all.

[dinos22]

placing 1mm copper shims on the memory chips may help as you are relying on the flexibility of the PCB with this mod to allow the memory chips to contact the heatsink reliably.

Thermal interface materials do not effectively transfer heat when they are are thick at all.

Stevil
that's what i thought about as well

excellent guide nonetheless

[gOtVoltage]

placing 1mm copper shims on the memory chips may help as you are relying on the flexibility of the PCB with this mod to allow the memory chips to contact the heatsink reliably.

Thermal interface materials do not effectively transfer heat when they are are thick at all.

Actually compared too Tim pads MX-!! at less tha .018mm does very well..Also the PCB dosnt warp like what people think. The Nylon screws let you compress the Spring fully.

In no way do you Tighten the Springsscrews to where you use force.

You turn til spring is compresed it will be snugg.Thats it..

Placing copper shims wouldnt help that much seing youll need 2xPaste.004mm plua the copper.. Thats makes Three thermal barriers instead of ONE. ( Id rathe have just paste that is less than paperthin when propperly done.

Ive looked at several ways to do this Mod .My end result Gives better than Stock performance peroid. Ive had Stock cards fail from HEATED/Memory,, ALL the Modded STOCKHEATSINK cards ive done clocked over 830+//2100//2200 with OUT any Memory or OVEHEAT issues..

Note: Using copper isnt a bad Idea to fill the gap,,but it does add twice the amount of thermalpaste and thickness of copper. In all the PCB with mod sits better than stock...Remeber the Heavy As$ heatsink sags stock overtime..It contacts bad to begin with...If i had more time id mill the HEATSINK BASE(copper .7mm over the GPU) and call it the day ..Thus milling will close the memory gap by lowering the whole Heatsink.

Hence i wanted this to be a ((((SIMPLE MOD))))) for any one too do..I could have made it a lot harder(milling and drilling) trust me.

[Mungri]

I have good enough circulation in my case not to have to worry about requiring a noisy exhaust on my GFX card. As with the 3870 X2, the Dual fan all copper cooler that Gecube use beats the stock one like crazy. I use whatever keeps my GPU temp lower, heat inside my case is dissipitated brilliantly and is virtually silent -

Aerocool aeroengine 2 with a 14 cm front fan, 2x 12cm side fans over the GFX card and CPU, 12 cm exhaust and a PCI fan card. The fan card would need removing though if I end up with crossfire.

[tbone8ty]

what about the stuff that thermalright gives you?

what is that compared to?

[gOtVoltage]

I cant remeber off hand but i think its shinistsu..

The ThermalRight stuff works.....I just choose the MX-!! because it works and it gets lower temp under load than As5. Even after As5 is set for 200hrs.Also MX is easier to put on/clean/remove IHS.

[Demo]

Nice job! great clocks also!

[gOtVoltage]

Nice job! great clocks also!

thank you ... I will be researching the 260/280 now that the price has dropped..

I hope that its just crummy heatsink and or thermal paste to why they dont clock high yet.

[xMrBunglex]

thank you ... I will be researching the 260/280 now that the price has dropped..

I hope that its just crummy heatsink and or thermal paste to why they dont clock high yet.

if you're looking for big overclocks, you'd obviously be better off picking a 260 over a 280.

[STEvil]

Actually compared too Tim pads MX-!! at less tha .018mm does very well..Also the PCB dosnt warp like what people think. The Nylon screws let you compress the Spring fully.

In no way do you Tighten the Springsscrews to where you use force.

You turn til spring is compresed it will be snugg.Thats it..

Placing copper shims wouldnt help that much seing youll need 2xPaste.004mm plua the copper.. Thats makes Three thermal barriers instead of ONE. ( Id rathe have just paste that is less than paperthin when propperly done.

Ive looked at several ways to do this Mod .My end result Gives better than Stock performance peroid. Ive had Stock cards fail from HEATED/Memory,, ALL the Modded STOCKHEATSINK cards ive done clocked over 830+//2100//2200 with OUT any Memory or OVEHEAT issues..

Note: Using copper isnt a bad Idea to fill the gap,,but it does add twice the amount of thermalpaste and thickness of copper. In all the PCB with mod sits better than stock...Remeber the Heavy As$ heatsink sags stock overtime..It contacts bad to begin with...If i had more time id mill the HEATSINK BASE(copper .7mm over the GPU) and call it the day ..Thus milling will close the memory gap by lowering the whole Heatsink.

Hence i wanted this to be a ((((SIMPLE MOD))))) for any one too do..I could have made it a lot harder(milling and drilling) trust me.

I went to do this mod today and I found that the nylon washers were not enough to make the memory chips contact the heatsink reliably.

I used tin tape (would have used copper tape if I had any) and put 7 layers on the heatsink where each memory chip would touch.

Its not perfect but my overclock for the memory increased so it must have worked better than what the thermal pads were able to do.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...36#post3334436