Installing Zalman on GF FX - How to remove heatsink?

[tracerbullet]

I've got the Zalman heatsink / heatpipe setup to hopefully go fanless on my video card, or at least have a really silent faan near it to help if needed. It's a BFG Asylum card: http://www.bfgtech.com/5900_redux.html if that helps.

It's got 3 plastic pins that are easy to remove. Next step appears to be... I don't know. It seems as thought the heatsink is glued to the chip. I see no other mechanical means of getting it to release.

Anyone tackled this? Are they all the same? Is there a good method to break the seal? I remember way back putting a geforce ddr card in the freezer and then prying it apart with a butter knife. I'd hate to wreck a perfectly good $200 card on a whim though.

 

[Abhoth]

You can try heating it up with a blow dryer and see if that will loosen it... worked on my northbridge.

 

[Nickel020]

I wouldn't try the blow dryer as thermal glue is deisgned to glue while being hot. Instead put the card in an anti-static bag, seal it tight and put it in the freezer for 20 minutes. That should do the trick as thermal glue gets brittle when cold.
Also are you sure the Heatpipe cools you FX well enough? The FX gets very hot and as far as I know the heatpipe shouldn't be used for them. You also won't have any cooling for your RAM anymore.

 

[tracerbullet]

Thanks.

They claim it's good enough for a 5600 and above by itself, and that a fan should be used for anything higher. I have a 5900 (non-ultra)... and I do have a 120mm case fan blowing almost right at it, and it could easily have a cardboard duct made to blow "really" right at it. I also have a fan controller device with thermocouples, and one of those stuck on it too.

Rats. I forgot about the RAM part.

 

[Mike99Pgh]

Zalman will cool that card just fine especially if you have a fan blowing near it. I have the zalman on my 9800 pro and it overclocks like a champ. Better than with the stock fan. I added the zalman OPC-1 fan and run that on the low speed (5V) side.

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: Mike99Pgh
Zalman will cool that card just fine especially if you have a fan blowing near it. I have the zalman on my 9800 pro and it overclocks like a champ. Better than with the stock fan. I added the zalman OPC-1 fan and run that on the low speed (5V) side.

having both, i can say the fx runs alot hotter than the radeon.

to the orginal poster, why would you be replacing the hs/fan? the bfg actually has a pretty good cooling unit. in fact, it's copper (which is party why the dang thing is so heavy), had dual fans, and extends to the memory. w/ stock cooling mine is running perfectly stable at 5950u speeds (475/950). thermal sensor on cards shows 66c at full load.

 

[tracerbullet]

Well, it's not to cool it better... I just moved out of an Antec 1040 case with a bunch of case fans and what-not, and into a Sonata, put it together this weekend. I'm really digging the 120mm fans, especially through the fan speed controller / temp monitor I bought with the case. And the PSU is pretty much dead silent as well. Only the video card and CPU cooler make noise now. And I already know what I want to fix the latter (thermalright 900 with 92mm on it), which leaves just the video card to "take care" of.

Sure, the card isn't exceptionally noisy, maybe even quiet compared to most. But, it's happened, I've been bitten by the "quiet bug". The video card is currently the noisiest item in the system, so... I'd like to get those fans off. Yes they are nice looking and well designed even. But since they are the noisiest thing in there and I'm bored I guess

***edit***

I'm wondering, hmm... what if I took the cover off of the original heatsink, and exposed the copper fins? Then put a bigger, slower moving (and hopefully equivalent amount of air moving) fan pointed at it?

 

[CaiNaM]

hmm.. interesting.. i thought the fans were pretty quiet heh.. although, i have seen 2 different styles of cooling on the bfg 5900nu...