HD5850 After Market Heatsink: Component Heatsinks

[darunium]

Hey All,

So I'm running an HD5850 (ATI OEM) and decided to go with an aftermarket heatsink, the Scythe Musashi. The Musashi comes with VRM and component heatsinks that have an adhesive so they stick right onto the desired components.

I had planned on using the fan and GPU heatsink of the musashi, but using the stock cooling plate for the VRM and components, as per silentpcreview's suggestion (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article979-page8.html). Examining the components during install, this seemed like it would be a great idea, the stock cooling plate is a huge piece of metal pressed firmly onto, via cooling pads, the components of interest, and the musashi's dual fans should blow right onto it.

Unfortunately, I found that there is a clearance issue with the stock cooling plate, there is a corner of it that sticks up too high and pushes against the plates of the musashi, preventing the musashi heatsink from pushing onto the GPU.

SO, I installed instead the adhesive heatsinks that come with the Scythe Musashi onto the VRM and all the other components that contacted heatpads on the stock component heatsink (the big plate). I then installed the GPU heatsink and put the thing in the case.

Unfortunately, the adhesives on the component heatsinks that came from scythe were weak, so all of the component heatsinks fell off as soon as it was upright, except the VRM heatsinks, none of those came off. Since the VRM sinks were intact and the hassle of installing the GPU heatsink was done, I figured to just install it and see how it ran.

I should also mention I have a 200mm side fan blowing onto the video card.

With the GPU heatsink and VRM heatsinks installed, but no heatsinks on the other components (just their exposed caps being blown on by the Musashi fans), running Dragon Age: Origins at full settings GPU-Z reports the GPU temperature to be in the 30s, my VRM temps in the mid to low 40s, and 3 other unidentified video card temperatures reported in the high 30s.

So, while these GPU and VRM temps seem fine, are my other components OK? Are those being tracked by those 3 reported temperatures, or could some of them be getting hot without me knowing it? In terms of performance from an observer's view, the game runs fine except for the occassional freeze or stutter, I would say it freezes roughly once every 7 hours of use. The CPU is in the mid to high 40s during this gaming.

Is my current configuration then OK? Or do I really need to get heatsinks on those components? In the latter case, I might just file down the stock heat plate to accomodate the musashi, since that seems like the most effective solution, even though I fear it will make a potential return of the HD5850 if it breaks impossible.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[yh125d]

You should be fine, the mem doesn't really need a heatsink, though I'm surprised your VRMs are that cool running a game


Instead of filing the metal plate, you could bend, file, or cut some of the offending fins, depending on how many are affected

 

[MagickMan]

I looked at the Musashi when I was shopping for a cooler, but ultimately decided to go with what's in my sig. I really like the VRM-R3, it's a slick little design and that works well. I wonder if it would work with the Musashi.

 

[konakona]

You should be fine, the mem doesn't really need a heatsink, though I'm surprised your VRMs are that cool running a game


Instead of filing the metal plate, you could bend, file, or cut some of the offending fins, depending on how many are affected

right, as far as I know there are only 12 things that are covered by the heatplate:
8 VRAM chips and 3 + 1 VRMs (3 for the GPU, 1 for memory)

The thing is the stock thermal pads on the heatplate are not quite the optimal TIM. Some had success replacing that with AS ceramique (great heat transfer, electrically non-conductive), which I could not replicate on my own card. Could be simply cuz of my (supposedly) improper application of it, but AFAIK these TIM pastes need a certain amount of pressure to work their best.

Yet others were a bit more audacious with VRM cooling and used copper shims for even better results. One guy I saw bought 22 guage (0.025'') copper sheets to cut out shims himself. As per his advice, I checked my local hardware store only to find out they were out of stock

Now that I look at it again, these just might do the trick:
http://cgi.ebay.com/HP-dv2000-dv600...aultDomain_0&hash=item414e8aef90#ht_949wt_907
0.025'' = 0.635mm so these are not too far off. They already come at a pretty decently matched size, so hopefully no cutting necessary.

The only lingering question is whether I should do shims on the VRMs AND the memory chips or just the VRMs. I am not all too certain if the memory chips are of the even height as the VRMs are. That, and memory being not in as much dire need of cooling, makes me wanna leave them with just ceramique on them.

 

[MagickMan]

I wouldn't shim the RAM chips, they don't get very hot at all. Like you said, just use some Ceramique.

 

[darunium]

right, as far as I know there are only 12 things that are covered by the heatplate:
8 VRAM chips and 3 + 1 VRMs (3 for the GPU, 1 for memory)

AH, I may have misunderstood what I put heatsinks on, I put the fins that came with the musashi on the 8 chips surrounding the GPU, which it seems is NOT the VRM, but the VRAM, so that means the VRM is exposed.

Still, as I mentioned the temperatures reported by GPU-Z are mid-thirties for the GPU, mid to high 40s for the VRM, and high 30s for the 3 other recorded temperatures that are unidentified (are those the VRM)?


That copper plate idea sounds appealing, alot like the stock plate that game with the card, but I do worry about how to adhese it to the board, I could drill holes and just screw it in carefully like the stock plate was, with some Arctic Silver 5 (since that's what I've got around) for contact (it's claimed to be non-conductive, so hopefully that won't be an issue).

Still, if it's working fine as is, I'd rather just leave it be for now, I more fear that some temperatures are getting out of control but I just don't know it.

 

[zagood]

AS5 is capacitive and can still damage your card if you slop too much on and it gets on the PCB. With careful installation it would be fine. I prefer Ceramique for peace of mind, or just use the TIM that came with the Musashi if you have any left.