Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer broken clip!

[Brian Pellham]

I killed my 9700 Pro! I followed the instructions, probably my first
mistake. "Step 9: Both screws should be fastened alternately up to the
rubber washer. The steel clip will bend correspondingly." I tightened the
screws down, waiting for the clip to "bend". I was rewarded with a loud pop
when the clip snapped right down the middle. Those clips DO NOT BEND AT ALL!
The shock or compression from the clip damaged my GPU. It may have been ok,
if I hadn't removed the shim. I pulled off the shim because of the GIANT
space between the GPU and cooler. In retrospect, I should have left it on
and suffered with suboptimal cooling. The reason ATI uses the shim is to
protect the fragile GPU from damage when they slap their own heatsink on it.

Moral of the story? Keep the shim, and do NOT follow the installation
instructions to the letter like I did!

 

[Lutrell]

I killed my 9700 Pro! I followed the instructions, probably my first
mistake. "Step 9: Both screws should be fastened alternately up to the
rubber washer. The steel clip will bend correspondingly." I tightened the
screws down, waiting for the clip to "bend". I was rewarded with a loud pop
when the clip snapped right down the middle. Those clips DO NOT BEND AT ALL!
The shock or compression from the clip damaged my GPU. It may have been ok,
if I hadn't removed the shim. I pulled off the shim because of the GIANT
space between the GPU and cooler. In retrospect, I should have left it on
and suffered with suboptimal cooling. The reason ATI uses the shim is to
protect the fragile GPU from damage when they slap their own heatsink on it.

Moral of the story? Keep the shim, and do NOT follow the installation
instructions to the letter like I did!

Sorry to hear about your bad luck.
I was thinking of getting an Artic Cooler also so I was wondering, did the
instruction intend you to leave the shim?
I looked at a link from an earlier post about removing the shim
http://www.overclockers.com/articles714/index.asp
with the stock HSF and I can see why it would be easy to break the GPU
without the shim. Maybe if the shim was used and then make a thin copper
shim the thickness of the gap and put it between the HS and GPU. You said
"GIANT
space between the GPU and cooler". What do you call giant, .1mm (.004") or
can you put it in terms of paper thickness?

Lutrell

 

[Brian Pellham]

The instructions say nothing about the shim...

As for the space between, I didn't measure it. The Arctic Cooler's mating
surface is huge, probably for compatability with all the cards it supports.
The side effect of this giant mating surface is that it WILL NOT touch the
GPU. I suppose you could squirt a bunch of Arctic Silver in there, but I
didn't want to use that much. The problem with thermal pastes is they are
not fantastic heatsinks or heatspreaders, they are only there to fill the
air voids. In addition thermal pastes are electricly conductive, and the GPU
is surrounded by surface mount devices. I didn't want to fry my card when
huge blob of hot runny paste comes oozing out because I used it to fill the
gap.

If I had it to do over again (I don't because I have a 9800xt on order, and
my Arctic Cooler isn't supposed to fit it), I would remove the shim
*carefully*. I used my Leatherman's pick to go under the corners of the
shim, a gentle twist and it popped right off. The thing that really killed
my card was following "Step 9:" on the instructions. Remember, contrary to
the instructions the clip WILL NOT BEND. I overtightened the clip causing it
to snap. I don't know if it was the crushing of my GPU from all the
pressure, or the shock of the clip splitting down the middle that killed it.

I consider my broken card to be Arctic Cooling's fault for giving false
instructions, but what can I do?

 

[OverKlocker]

Sorry to hear about your bad luck.
I was thinking of getting an Artic Cooler also so I was wondering, did the
instruction intend you to leave the shim?
I looked at a link from an earlier post about removing the shim
http://www.overclockers.com/articles714/index.asp
with the stock HSF and I can see why it would be easy to break the GPU
without the shim. Maybe if the shim was used and then make a thin copper
shim the thickness of the gap and put it between the HS and GPU. You said
"GIANT
space between the GPU and cooler". What do you call giant, .1mm (.004") or
can you put it in terms of paper thickness?

Lutrell

i left mine on because there was very little (if any) space between
the 2. i would suggest that you measure it with something guaranteed
to be flat and see how much of a gap is there. ie... if you can see
light all of the way across the core with the shim on, then remove it.
mine was close enough that a small amount of AS3 would work. i looked
at my boss's 9800pro and there was a definate gap between the shim and
the core, and the shim was lower. visabally enough that i could tell
just by turning the card sideways. i can't use the vga cooler in my
system though. it will not fit because i installed a heatsink on my
southbridge with AS epoxy and i do not want to dremmel 90% of the pins
off just to make the cooler fit. one other tip... if you can find some
good alum bga ramsinks (short ones) they help out, too

 

[Brian Pellham]

lol, I just read my original post. I contradicted myself

Bottom line, ymmv... If you have a huge gap pull the shim, if you don't,
don't... And don't overtighten the clip, especially if the shim is
removed!!!

 

[Sham B]

I read a few of the online reviews of the artic cooler before doing the mod,
and could see the shim on the images of most them. Very few of them
mentioned the shim, but it does say in the artic instructions to completely
cover the spreader, so thats what I did, and ignored the shim and it works
perfectly.

Although I realized that taking the shim off will give better performance,
its not as big an impovement as having the artic cooler in the first place,
so I left the shim.
I also stopped tightening the clip when the heatsink no longer moved on the
shim, rather than follow the instructions. If I had wanted/needed to get
the cooler closer to the chip, I would have been tempted to put a thin
square of copper sheet over the gpu chip, which seems a better bet

I have a 9500 pro by the way, and managed to get it up to 350/320 with the
cooler on the low fan setting (default is 277/270, so thats a 1.26/1.18
better performance - around 20% faster overall from default, going off the
clocks) . I havent tried it any higher or with the fast fan setting to be
honest, but powerstrip only goes up to 365 so I guess Im not that far off
the top end!

Also worth noting is that the artic does not directly cool your memory,
although because it vents hot air to outside the case, you do get a a better
fresh air circ around the card in general. Would be inerested to know what
ratios other people have got from the default (mine is of course 1.26/1.18)
using any non-standard sinks, particulalry what effect memory heat sinks
have (I havent got any attached, but have heard they dont do much - but
obviously, they are the weak link in my overclock).

S

 

[Brian Pellham]

Actually, I just looked at the pictures on the instructions... The pictures
are of a 9600 Pro without a shim. Look at the Step 3 pic, and closely at the
Step 8 pic. Arctic Cooling is a German company, maybe something got lost in
the translation!

 

[Lutrell]

(Snip)"

If I had wanted/needed to get
the cooler closer to the chip, I would have been tempted to put a thin
square of copper sheet over the gpu chip, which seems a better bet

S

"

This was my idea also with the shim in place and make a thin metal piece to
take up most of the gap instead of having all thermal paste. I was wondering
how big of a gap we are talking about?

Lutrell

 

[Sham B]

(Snip)"

This was my idea also with the shim in place and make a thin metal piece to
take up most of the gap instead of having all thermal paste. I was wondering
how big of a gap we are talking about?

Lutrell

Not much. I would guess about 0.1 to 0.2 mm in my case. I actually also
considered sanding the shim down with some glasspaper (with the shim still
attached to the board) until I started seeing scratches on the GPU spreader
(so then I would know the heatsink would be right on the spreader, plus it
would also get rid of all that gunk that ATI had left on the GPU).

On reflection this may have been by far the best idea, but in the end I just
couldnt be arsed... new toy to try out and all that

S

 

[One2Go]

lol, I just read my original post. I contradicted myself

Bottom line, ymmv... If you have a huge gap pull the shim, if you
don't, don't... And don't overtighten the clip, especially if the shim
is removed!!!

I looked at the bar and it will never bend. Too bad that you killed your
card but if you would have looked at the bar instead of the instructions
than you would see a U shaped bar that will never bend.

I tried to install it and found out it doesn't work with the AIW. Isent it
back and was told a new revision is coming out. The shim can stay if you
run it at stock speed. The reason why close contact witht the GPU is
desirable is because of the overclocking.

One2Go

 

[Chip]

I looked at the bar and it will never bend.

Strange - mine bent loads. I could see it bend as I tightened the screws.

I saw another post like this somewhere a few weeks ago and it turned out the
guy had got the clip the wrong way around! I wonder if that was your (and
Brian's) problem.

Regards the shim. Why bother farting about trying to remove it when you can
get perhaps an extra 100MHz with the thing still on. Its plain daft trying
to prize the shim off when there is absolutely no need whatsoever.

Chip./

 

[Chip]

I killed my 9700 Pro! I followed the instructions, probably my first
mistake. "Step 9: Both screws should be fastened alternately up to the
rubber washer. The steel clip will bend correspondingly." I tightened the
screws down, waiting for the clip to "bend". I was rewarded with a loud pop
when the clip snapped right down the middle. Those clips DO NOT BEND AT

ALL!

YES THEY DO!

Sorry to hear of your problem, but the clip bends exactly as described in
the instructions. I think you probably had the clip the wrong way around.

Chip.

 

[One2Go]

Strange - mine bent loads. I could see it bend as I tightened the
screws.

I saw another post like this somewhere a few weeks ago and it turned
out the guy had got the clip the wrong way around! I wonder if that
was your (and Brian's) problem.

Regards the shim. Why bother farting about trying to remove it when
you can get perhaps an extra 100MHz with the thing still on. Its
plain daft trying to prize the shim off when there is absolutely no
need whatsoever.

Chip./

I agree on the shim leave it on. But the bar is quite thick and its cross
section looks like |_| and I would never try to bend a bar shaped like
that.

One2Go

 

[Brian Pellham]

Umm no... I didn't move the clip at all from it's default orientation as
shipped.

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/en/support/faq/

Mine looked just like the checked picture.

 

[Chip]

I agree on the shim leave it on. But the bar is quite thick and its cross
section looks like |_| and I would never try to bend a bar shaped like
that.

Its a spring. Its designed to bend. But it won't bend if you have it the
wrong way up.

Chip.

 

[Chip]

Umm no... I didn't move the clip at all from it's default orientation as
shipped.

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/en/support/faq/

Mine looked just like the checked picture.

Well maybe yours was made of some special metal then. Because all the other
VGA Silencer clips in the world bend. Personally, I still reckon you had it
the wrong way up. More likely than the "special metal" theory ;-)

Chip.

 

[Brian Pellham]

lol, you're probably right (*sarcasm*). How could I have a snapped clip if
it bends? How does your U shaped metal clip bend anyway? Looking at it from
a structual standpoint wouldn't the sides of the >U< resist horizontal
bending? If you wanted to make a clip that bent properly wouldn't you make
it flat and out of spring steel? A flat clip made of spring steel could be
made to any thickness, and it's thickness would regulate it's holding
pressure.... Hrm... But I'm an idiot, what could I know?

 

[Brian Pellham]

Ohh I forgot to mention, I have the clip on my desk and the breaks in it are
in the sides of the U. If the clip was upside down the metal would have
folded as opposed to the fractures my clip exhibits.

 

[One2Go]

lol, you're probably right (*sarcasm*). How could I have a snapped
clip if it bends? How does your U shaped metal clip bend anyway?
Looking at it from a structual standpoint wouldn't the sides of the
properly wouldn't you make it flat and out of spring steel? A flat
clip made of spring steel could be made to any thickness, and it's
thickness would regulate it's holding pressure.... Hrm... But I'm an
idiot, what could I know?

All of this will probably soon be history. I ordered one of these silencers
but I have an AIW card and it won't wok for it. Got an RMA number to send
it back and the nice people from Overclockers said they should come out
soon with a revision of the silencer that also works on the AIW cards.
Hopefully they fix the spring issue.

One2Go

 

[Chip]

[snip]

Hopefully they fix the spring issue.

One2Go

What spring issue? I maintain that there is no spring issue. Brian manages
to (somehow) break his clip and you order a part that doesn't even fit your
graphics card and then you conclude that all VGA Silencers are defective?

I say again, the clip works just fine and it bends just fine. Mine does and
so do countless others happily installed. What caused Brian's problem, I
have no idea. But I can assure you, when you fit the clip properly, it
takes up the strain nicely and provides a nice firm pressure keeping the
heatsink in place. In fact when I installed mine, I couldn't help but think
how neat it all was.

Chip.