PCA Forums

okay i have voodoo 5500 i want to remove the generic heatsink it has on the two gpu's. I was wondering do you guys think a pair of blue orbs will do much more better job of cooling them. I was wondering how do you get them off credit card or what is the best method to remove it.

thanks


David

The first thing you do is hold the card up to a strong light an try to see where the epoxy holding the heatsinks is and where it isn't. Usually the heatsinks are not glued on with much care and the glue is not distributed evenly. That often means that on the opposite side of where the glue is there may be a gap between the chip and the heatsink. That is where you want to pry. Of course, you need to do this for both chips.

If there is a big gap between the chip and the heatsink, I like to try to get a utility knife blade between the chip and the sink to see if I can pry with that. If not, then you will need a credit card and a single blade screwdriver or a similar tool.

The next step is to put the card in an anti-static bag and pop it in the freezer for about 15 minutes. After that take the card out, put the credit card down on the card and slide it as far as you can under the heatsink in the area where the epoxy isn't or where it is the weakest. Put your screwdriver in, make sure it is hitting the card and pry away. The sinks should pop off.

Take note that the GPU's on Voodoo 5's are BGA chips. This means that the chip itself is mounted on a pcb "platform" which has little solder balls underneath that bond the chip to the card and make all the connections. DO NOT, under any circumstances, slide a tool or a razor blade between that platform and the card itself. Also make sure that when pry, you are prying against the "platform" and not the card itself. BGA chips can come off or the "ball" connections can be damaged if you are not careful. Not prying on the "platform" increases the chances that you will pop the entire chip off the card.

Voodoo 5's have a bunch of big capacitors on them that are surface mounted. This means that the only thing holding the capacitor to the card is a little dot of solder. Take care when fooling with the card to not exert force against the sides of these big capacitors as you can pop one right off - I know..... (but I was able to solder it back on). The one near the power connector is particularly vulnerable.

I don't know how overclockable your V5 is. Mine was a bit of a dog and even after going to water cooling both GPU's, I couldn't jack it up that much. I say this because in the unlikely event that either of your stock heatsinks are stuck on with a mountain of epoxy and there aren't any weak sides to pry from, you may want to consider if the risk is worth the benefit. However, they are usually cheap with the glue so you can probably do it.

Good Luck

operation was a success he he he . it worked. now to try to overclock the sucker

thanks for the help

I have a visual of someone fitting a turbo charger to a Ford Model T......

lol lol funny FP. Hey my V5500 is still trucking fine it plays GTA3 smooth , and my framerate in CS is 90 so its still serving its purpose till the day comes that it can no longer run any games thats when i upgrade it.