VRM Heatsink Fell off?

[Floriante]

I have a HD7870 Video card, i installed Arctic Cooling Twin Turbo 2 cooler.

Everything was fine but today i saw that one of the vrm heatsink has fallen off.

So i have two question:

1) Is it safe to play games while the heatsink is gone?

2) What can i do to reinstall the heatsink? I live in Turkey and i dont see much options available.

Will a thermal pad work? Or i saw a Silicone Thermal Adhesive.

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/fujik-s...ease-like-4579

Is this ok?

 

[chimaxi83]

If you care about warranty and ability to resell, I wouldn't use adhesive. If you use it and try to take the heatsink off, you'll normally take the chip off with it.

This is what I use, they're sticky thermal pads. They work very well especially after cleaning the chips properly, and I use this to do the cleaning. Helps the adhesion immensely, in my experience. My heat sinks don't fall off anymore.

See if you can find something comparable that's available to you.

 

[Floriante]

http://www.firebal.net/asp/show_stock.asp?product=3830046996572

These things are as good as thermal glues?

And can i play games till i get this thing?

 

[chimaxi83]

You want them to be adhesive, because if they're just thermal pads, you'll have to rely on a mechanical means of keeping the heatsink on the chip.

Did your 7870 come with VRM cooling on the stock heatsink? You should be fine either way, as long as you're not overclocking much.

 

[Floriante]

Wait, i have an idea. I have just checked the stock cooler of my 7870 and i see the adhesive thermal pads which stick the large metal heatsink to all the vrm's

Here is the photo. My idea is to remove one little pad and glue the heatsink of arctic cooling. is this gonna work?

 

[KingFatty]

Is the heatsink part still sticky at all? You might be able to just re-apply it to the VRMs, except now you should apply more pressure and hold it down, and you can even heat it while applying pressure. Maybe, if you have a hair dryer and a screw driver, you can use the screwdriver to put pressure on the heatsink, then heat it with the hair dryer and it should stick on very well using that technique. Also use that technique on any other "stick-on" heatsinks with the sticky thermal pad.

I think the thermal pads from your picture above are not the sticky kind. Oh, when you heat up the heatsink, you'll notice the adhesive gets a bit easier to work with to really let you stick it on well.

 

[chimaxi83]

Yea those are just thermal pads, not adhesive. I haven't seen any of those pads be sticky in any of the cards I've worked with in the past few years, since they're held down by screws anyway. They'll stick for a few minutes maybe and then fall off.

What do those Arctic Cooling heatsinks come with for the VRM/RAM heatsinks? Glue? Sticky pads?

 

[blackened23]

Wait, i have an idea. I have just checked the stock cooler of my 7870 and i see the adhesive thermal pads which stick the large metal heatsink to all the vrm's

Here is the photo. My idea is to remove one little pad and glue the heatsink of arctic cooling. is this gonna work?

I don't think that will work.

 

[chimaxi83]

Do you have clearance to just put that bracket back on? Its purpose is as a heatsink anyway. Will the AC cooler clear it?

 

[Floriante]

No i will just remove a small adhesive thermal pad from the large heatsink and glue my heatsink with that pad.