I know a lot of people have gone aftermarket w/heatsinks for their 9800 Pros,
but I'd like to stick w/the stock solution. What I'd like to do is remove the
heatsink and shim then attach the heatsink directly to the GPU core using
Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive that's been diluted w/Arctic Silver III TIM. The
thing is the instructions for the Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive don't
recommend using it to attach to CPU's. Does the shim on the Sapphire 9800 Pro
have the same huge gap the Sapphire 9500 Pro's had?
-Bill (remove "botizer" to reply via email)

No. It hardly has any paste either from what I saw on mine. corners of the CPU were actually bare,
so I would recommend re- pasting (as you suggest) if you find heat a problem.

I wouldnt recommend using adhesive thermal compound though, or removing the shim btw. Whats your
reason for not using standard artic silver? Unlike some of the other stock coolers, which use
plastic clips to keep the sinks on the board, the Sapphires use high quality metal ones, which can
be reused, plus they dont use those awful gunky pads that actually stick the cooler to the cpu
(prolly because they dont use those push through plastic clips)...

so Im at a loss to know why you dont just use artic silver and then use the original clips to hold
the sink back on

S

Wblane wrote:
> I know a lot of people have gone aftermarket w/heatsinks for their
> 9800 Pros, but I'd like to stick w/the stock solution. What I'd like
> to do is remove the heatsink and shim then attach the heatsink
> directly to the GPU core using Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive that's
> been diluted w/Arctic Silver III TIM. The thing is the instructions
> for the Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive don't recommend using it to
> attach to CPU's. Does the shim on the Sapphire 9800 Pro have the same
> huge gap the Sapphire 9500 Pro's had? -Bill (remove "botizer" to
> reply via email)

I have a Powercolor 9600se. The day i bought it, its' heatsink was very much
moving around. Also I noted it kept crashing in some games, and upon
touching the heatsink, it was cold.
So I unclipped it, and saw that there was some dried out/cracked pale stuff
on the gpu. I removed it with a q-tip, dipped in nailpolish remover, and
applied some regular, cheap silicon compound, are re-apply the heatsink.
Now the heatsink becomes nicely warm when gaming. Hence it is more
effective.

So I would strongly suggest to just apply that arctic silver compound (not
adhesive) and use original heatsink. It should make a good bit difference.


"Wblane" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I know a lot of people have gone aftermarket w/heatsinks for their 9800
Pros,
> but I'd like to stick w/the stock solution. What I'd like to do is remove
the
> heatsink and shim then attach the heatsink directly to the GPU core using
> Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive that's been diluted w/Arctic Silver III
TIM. The
> thing is the instructions for the Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive don't
> recommend using it to attach to CPU's. Does the shim on the Sapphire 9800
Pro
> have the same huge gap the Sapphire 9500 Pro's had?
> -Bill (remove "botizer" to reply via email)

Wblane wrote:
> I know a lot of people have gone aftermarket w/heatsinks for their 9800
> Pros, but I'd like to stick w/the stock solution. What I'd like to do is
> remove the heatsink and shim then attach the heatsink directly to the GPU
> core using Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive that's been diluted w/Arctic
> Silver III TIM. The thing is the instructions for the Arctic Silver
> Thermal Adhesive don't recommend using it to attach to CPU's. Does the
> shim on the Sapphire 9800 Pro have the same huge gap the Sapphire 9500
> Pro's had? -Bill (remove "botizer" to reply via email)


I would only use thermal adhesive if I was completely sure I was not going
to remove the heatsink, and only if the heatsink could not be was not
mounted to the board. I would not want to hang a huge heatsink off of the
GPU, without mounting it to the board, as they can be quite heavy, the last
thing you want to do is pull the GPU off the board.

I suggest you use the standard mounting technique, with or without the shim,
using just Arctic Silver "TIM", not adhesive. If you decide that the gap is
too large, and would like to get the heatsink closer to the GPU by removing
the shim, be sure to check that the mounting is suitable, and when
tightening the mounting (if you can) be sure to apply the same pressure on
all corners.

I would use the adhesive for a small heatsink on the Southbridge, if there
are no mounting holes on the motherboard - that type of application. The
heatsink on your GPU is just too large and heavy, it's too easy to do
damage.

Ben
--
A7N8X FAQ: www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html
Questions by email will likely be ignored, please use the newsgroups.
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...

I was just thinking there might be a too-large gap between the 9800 Pro
heatsink and GPU (like there was and is on my Sapphire 9500 Pro). I'm going to
clean and apply just the Arctic Silver III Thermal Interface Material (TIM)
since that's what everyone here recommended. I've also added a much larger fan
to the heatsink (off of one of the old slotted Athlon heatsinks). I just tested
this setup today and no overheating so far -- except for my Nvidia Soundstorm
southbridge (Abit NF7-S v2.0). I'm going to have to use the some Arctic Silver
adhesive on that. Thanks for the advice everyone.


>I wouldnt recommend using adhesive thermal compound though, or removing the
>shim btw. Whats your
>reason for not using standard artic silver? Unlike some of the other stock
>coolers, which use
>plastic clips to keep the sinks on the board, the Sapphires use high quality
>metal ones, which can
>be reused, plus they dont use those awful gunky pads that actually stick the
>cooler to the cpu
>(prolly because they dont use those push through plastic clips)...
>
>so Im at a loss to know why you dont just use artic silver and then use the
>original clips to hold
>the sink back on
>
>S


-Bill (remove "botizer" to reply via email)

> I was just thinking there might be a too-large gap between the 9800 Pro
> heatsink and GPU

The stock heatsink is machined with a raised portion on the bottom that
makes contact with the GPU. The problem, if any, is when using an
aftermarket HS that isn't made this way.
The shim adds support to the HS because the little GPU chip is quite fragile
and it's easy to crack its corners. From what I understand, you could do
this by simple putting to much pressure on a corner of the HS if the shim
wasn't there. So, remove it at your own risk if you're using an aftermarket
HS, and you shouldn't have to remove it if you're using the stock one.

Gary


--
Tweaks & Reviews
www.slottweak.com

I fragged my 9500 Pro by putting too much pressure on the heatsink when
re-installing it. It would work fine for 2D but get some really spectacular
effects in 3D games.

What I don't like about the Sapphire 9800 Pro heatsink is how LOOSE it is. It
would seem to me the heatsink can't be making good contact w/the GPU if it's
that loose?

>The stock heatsink is machined with a raised portion on the bottom that
>makes contact with the GPU. The problem, if any, is when using an
>aftermarket HS that isn't made this way.
>The shim adds support to the HS because the little GPU chip is quite fragile
>and it's easy to crack its corners. From what I understand, you could do
>this by simple putting to much pressure on a corner of the HS if the shim
>wasn't there. So, remove it at your own risk if you're using an aftermarket
>HS, and you shouldn't have to remove it if you're using the stock one.
>
>Gary
>


-Bill (remove "botizer" to reply via email)

> What I don't like about the Sapphire 9800 Pro heatsink is how LOOSE it is.
It
> would seem to me the heatsink can't be making good contact w/the GPU if
it's
> that loose?

Common problem with many manufactureres

Asestar wrote:
>> What I don't like about the Sapphire 9800 Pro heatsink is how LOOSE
>> it is. It would seem to me the heatsink can't be making good contact
>> w/the GPU if it's that loose?
>
> Common problem with many manufactureres



I put an Arctic Cooling VGA silencer on my ATI 9800 Pro, using Arctic Silver
III, and an very happy with it's performance. Allowed me to overclock
considerable further as well.
--
Don Burnette