How to make thermal epoxy removeable?

[Melectricus]

Want to attach an old fairly heavy zalman gpu cooler to a gpu and want to remove it eventually.

I have heard about just using a dab of epoxy on the gpu corners and AS5 in the middle?
I have heard about mixing some AS with the epoxy but that just doesn't seem right?
Thin skim of epoxy?
Non 50-50 ratios of A and B epoxy?

I am currently using the zalman with thermal tape on an old vid card and it worked fine and I'm moving it to another cheap -working video card. But all I have at my disposal is thermal epoxy and paste right now.
Same goes for some BGA heatsinks.

What has anyone tried that works?
thanks

 

[Operandi]

I would put a small dot of thermal epoxy on each corner of the chip, then cover the rest of the chip with regular thermal compound.

 

[akira34]

I thought that the aftermarket GPU coolers typically used screws to stay attached to the card. That's the case with the Arctic Cooling units, which are made to use the existing holes in the video card. That way, NO epoxy is needed to secure the cooler to the card/GPU.

What card will you be connecting the old zalman cooler to? If the card is less than 2 years old, seriously consider getting a new cooler for it. The coolers are not that expensive, and can be removed easily since no epoxy is used to secure them.

 

[iamtrout]

You can mix paste and epoxy 1:1 for a non-permanent solution ( 1 : 1 : 2.......epoxyA : epoxyB : paste )

But do this at your own risk. I would try a few different formulations on scrap before doing this. Also keep in mind that adding paste means epoxy takes longer to cure, perhaps around an hour, so be wary if at first it doesn't stick in the first 20 minutes. It'll probably be stuck fast after an hour.

 

[Melectricus]

The zalman heatsink is this one. It is basically glued or taped on. The BGA's are typical also. The card I want to put it on is an older nvidia Ti 4200. The zalman came off an old nvidia gforce 3 that had lead a useful and productive life. I had an 80mm fan at low volts and bracket to blow air on the sink - was always cool - this is just a general purpose computer with only moderate gaming.

The reason I want it removeable is that I will be swapping around cards again this summer and would like to reuse it on a different card - even cheaper - and put the origional fan back on the 4200 for a cousin. ( he doesn't care about silent)

I have Artic silver 3, artic ceramic and artic silver 5 on hand. Which would work the best for mixing? I would like to put it together tomorrow, but ehhh.......
The ratios above is what I was curious about.

thanks

 

[Zepper]

Why not just buy some Arctic Silver Adhesive.
.bh.

 

[pelikan]

I'd drill and tap some holes in that sucker.

 

[Melectricus]

Shoot, I never thought of drilling and tapping, It'll mess up the pretty lines on the video card tho.......
really, thanks good idea.

Is artic adhesive removeable? eh doesn't matter all I have here is thermal epoxy.

 

[Big Lar]

You drill and tap the heatsink for cryeye, and use the holes allready in the card.

 

[Melectricus]

I was joking. I'm set on the drilling and tapping.