Artic cooler

[KerplunKuK]

I have ordered an artic cooler for my 9800 Pro. Will I lose the use of one
PCI slot with this? Are the supplied instructions easy to follow or is
there a good guide to follow?

Thanks

 

[Julian Richards]

I have ordered an artic cooler for my 9800 Pro. Will I lose the use of one
PCI slot with this? Are the supplied instructions easy to follow or is
there a good guide to follow?

Yes you do lose a slot but hadn't you already lost one with the
original fan anyway? Installation is simple enough although a little
nerve racking if you stop to think about the consequences of making a
hash of it.
--

Julian Richards
computer "at" richardsuk.f9.co.uk

XP Home
L7S7A2 motherboard
Powercolor 9800 SE 8 pipelines 438/364 with Omega drivers
1 GB RAM
10 GB + 80 GB HDs
CD+DVD/CDRW drives

 

[KerplunKuK]

Yes you do lose a slot but hadn't you already lost one with the
original fan anyway? Installation is simple enough

No I did not lose a slot. I have a network card below the VGA card, so it
does not take up much room. Would I still be able to fit the network card
in? It literally is 1.5cm deep?

 

[JLC]

No I did not lose a slot. I have a network card below the VGA card, so it
does not take up much room. Would I still be able to fit the network card
in? It literally is 1.5cm deep?

Nope.

 

[Sham B]

I have ordered an artic cooler for my 9800 Pro. Will I lose the use
of one PCI slot with this? Are the supplied instructions easy to
follow or is there a good guide to follow?

Thanks

The instructions are easy. The only things you can do wrong are
- overtighten the screws that hold the cooler on (you only need to tighten until the clip starts to
bend and the cooler seems firm, and not as 'far as it will go'), or
- attempt to remove the shim around the GPU (bad move)

You wont be able to use the PCI slot next to the AGP port after the artic is fitted.


S

 

[Mudfish\(Co30\)]

The instructions are easy. The only things you can do wrong are
- overtighten the screws that hold the cooler on (you only need to tighten until the clip starts to
bend and the cooler seems firm, and not as 'far as it will go'), or
- attempt to remove the shim around the GPU (bad move)

You wont be able to use the PCI slot next to the AGP port after the artic is fitted.


S

Arguably:

Putting an Arctic cooler on **without** removing the shim
is wasting your good money, unless you are one of the few
where too much solder paste was placed when mounting the
GPU on the board, in which case the top of the core and the
shim will be level and even. Otherwise there will be a nasty
gap between the shim and the top of the core which will remain
when you mount your Arctic Cooler, significantly decreasing
or negating the cooling efficiency improvement. Filling the space
with goo, goop or chuzz won't help much either.

The Arctic Cooler also comes with serious concentric machining
marks on the contact plate. I would read up on how to "lap" the
contact plate smooth to take these off and spend the couple hours
it takes to eliminate them as this will increase contact to core thermal
transfer efficiency.

Lastly, the top of the GPU, once you get your heatsink off,
will have a bunch of "flyspecK" sized SMT devices scattered around
on it. I suggest covering these devices with a thin film of gell type
superglue to protect them damage and also from potentuallty shorting
to your heat sink (if mounted without the shim).

Slip a razor under the shim and gently pry and it will pop right off,
pick your spot and be careful not to cut any traces of course.

The AC is a nice unit when properly installed. Good luck.


--

<{{ MudFish (Co30){('>

www.Co30.com
"Careful with that Axe, Eugene."

 

[killer bee]

What is this "shim" everyone keeps talking about ?

 

[jamie anderson]

Thank you for spelling Arctic correctly. The semi-literates before you were
shitting me.

 

[Mike]

What is this "shim" everyone keeps talking about ?

The shim is a square plate which fits over the GPU so it provides support when
fitting the heatsink... it trys to ensure the core is not damaged in the event
uneven pressure is applied to the core itself.

Some ATI 9800 Pro cards and no doubt other cards too have the shim fitted on the
high side so in effect the shim is preventing the heatsink from making a good
contact with the core.
The original ATI heatsink had a slightly raised centre which ensured good
contact, however the Arctic Cooler is dead flat so if the shim was slightly
higher than the core one may end up with a slight gap between the core and the
heatsink, and in such cases the shim would need to be removed.

On my 9800 Pro the shim is exactly the same height as the core so it was
un-necessary to remove the shim.

Regards

Mike

 

[Noozer]

Thank you for spelling Arctic correctly. The semi-literates before you were
shitting me.

But there is "Arctic Silver" and "Artic Silver"

Both exist and they are not the same thing.

 

[patrickp]

But there is "Arctic Silver" and "Artic Silver"

Both exist and they are not the same thing.

Do tell, Noozer. A quick search on "artic silver" just turns up pages
which pointed to arcticsilver.com, except for one, where an
"articsilver.com" link still points to the the Arctic Silver home
page.

patrickp

(e-mail address removed) - take five to email me

 

[killer bee]

The shim is a square plate which fits over the GPU so it provides support when
fitting the heatsink... it trys to ensure the core is not damaged in the event
uneven pressure is applied to the core itself.

Some ATI 9800 Pro cards and no doubt other cards too have the shim fitted on the
high side so in effect the shim is preventing the heatsink from making a good
contact with the core.
The original ATI heatsink had a slightly raised centre which ensured good
contact, however the Arctic Cooler is dead flat so if the shim was slightly
higher than the core one may end up with a slight gap between the core and the
heatsink, and in such cases the shim would need to be removed.

On my 9800 Pro the shim is exactly the same height as the core so it was
un-necessary to remove the shim.

Regards

Mike

Is this a manufacturer dependent issue, or are they all subject to
poor assembly ?

 

[J. Clarke]

Is this a manufacturer dependent issue, or are they all subject to
poor assembly ?

It's probably manufacturer dependent, but it's not "poor assembly", the shim
is a certain height, the chip is a certain height, with everything
correctly assembled the top of the chip is below the shim. Some
manufactures may use a slightly thinner shim, but that's a design issue,
not an assembly issue.

Since ATI makes their heat sinks specifically to fit the raised shim, it's
clearly intentional on their part.

 

[Killer Bee]

It's probably manufacturer dependent, but it's not "poor assembly", the shim
is a certain height, the chip is a certain height, with everything
correctly assembled the top of the chip is below the shim. Some
manufactures may use a slightly thinner shim, but that's a design issue,
not an assembly issue.

Since ATI makes their heat sinks specifically to fit the raised shim, it's
clearly intentional on their part.

I see. I wonder if the arctic cooling vga silencer rev 3 is cut to
fit properly.

 

[Wayne Youngman]

I see. I wonder if the arctic cooling vga silencer rev 3 is cut to
fit properly.

Hi,
I have just installed my rev1 ARCTIC VGA Silencer and had read a bucket-load
of stuff about the shim. After removing the stock HSF and cleaning the GPU
up I was pleased to see that the GPU was about 1mm *Higher* than the Shim,
so the ARCTIC cooler makes perfect contact with the core. My card is a
Sapphire Atlantis 9800.

Maybe it could vary from card to card though?
Did you check to see if you GPU is raised?

 

[KerplunKuK]

Hi,
I have just installed my rev1 ARCTIC VGA Silencer and had read a bucket-load
of stuff about the shim. After removing the stock HSF and cleaning the GPU
up I was pleased to see that the GPU was about 1mm *Higher* than the Shim,
so the ARCTIC cooler makes perfect contact with the core. My card is a
Sapphire Atlantis 9800.

Maybe it could vary from card to card though?
Did you check to see if you GPU is raised?

Just fitted my Rev 3 to a Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro and it fitted perfect
first time. Simple swap job after removing the cheap ass paste they use.

 

[KerplunKuK]

Thanks for all who offered advice. I am now sorted and running smoothly.

Thanks

 

[Dark Avenger]

Do tell, Noozer. A quick search on "artic silver" just turns up pages
which pointed to arcticsilver.com, except for one, where an
"articsilver.com" link still points to the the Arctic Silver home
page.

patrickp

(e-mail address removed) - take five to email me

There is Artic with aluminium particles for those who wish to
cheapskate on it.
There is Artic Silver 3 and artic Silver 5, where Artic silver 5 is
slightly better..but only slightly.

And Artic has of course to component based solutions to glue heatsinks
on other surfaces....

And Ceramique, with..you guess it ceramique as base. This stuff
conducts 0% while Artic Silver CAN conduct electricity if to highly
pressured! Ceramique is quite the stuff and it will get hard so apply,
put on heatsink and never touch it again!

 

[patrickp]

There is Artic with aluminium particles for those who wish to
cheapskate on it.
There is Artic Silver 3 and artic Silver 5, where Artic silver 5 is
slightly better..but only slightly.

And Artic has of course to component based solutions to glue heatsinks
on other surfaces....

And Ceramique, with..you guess it ceramique as base. This stuff
conducts 0% while Artic Silver CAN conduct electricity if to highly
pressured! Ceramique is quite the stuff and it will get hard so apply,
put on heatsink and never touch it again!

No, thanks, DA, but I know about Arctic Silver. Noozer was talking
about another product (?) called Artic Silver.

patrickp

(e-mail address removed) - take five to email me

 

[J. Clarke]

There is Artic with aluminium particles for those who wish to
cheapskate on it.
There is Artic Silver 3 and artic Silver 5, where Artic silver 5 is
slightly better..but only slightly.

And Artic has of course to component based solutions to glue heatsinks
on other surfaces....

And Ceramique, with..you guess it ceramique as base. This stuff
conducts 0% while Artic Silver CAN conduct electricity if to highly
pressured! Ceramique is quite the stuff and it will get hard so apply,
put on heatsink and never touch it again!

So you're saying that someone knocked off the entire Arctic Silver product
line and is selling it as "Artic Silver"?