[Kalian]

I have a watercooled system that i used for benchmarking that has 2 7800gtx in SLI. I'm all done with the testing and have pieced out the majority of the system.

However its time for me to stick a cooler back onto them and upgrade my regular gaming comp, but before i do that i noticed that at least half of the ram heatsinks have fallen off on each card.

Should i replace these? and if so is it safe to clean the thermal grease residue on the ram? If so what should i clean it with?

on regular cpu fans i normally use a thick cloth with a dab of alcohol. is that safe to do on a ram chip on a 7800gtx?

This is vital because once i stick the cooler on there and decide to replace the heatsinks first and they fall onto the fan it can get nasty.

funny as it is, i have never dislodged a ram heatsink from gfx card. Was the 7800gtx cheaply made and just overpriced??

Also if it helps, i was able to achieve scores of 12,000+ on 3dmarks on a 3800+ x2 athlon OC'ed to 2.61 at the core... at that time i was running the cards on a watercooled system and these heatsinks were missing.

[Advertisements]

Well ram sinks are generally not hugely important ram is one of the cooler parts, however they can benefit from ram sinks. You can clean them normally however a cloth isnt the best thing to use on such delicat hardware, cotton buds or wool is best, alcohol (acetone is better but it CANT TOUCH THE CIRCUIT BOARD, it does bad things) is easiest to use and get hold of.

Clean of the residue and use thermal tape(its what you use on ramsinks) as compound doesnt stick anymore now that people switch cards unless you use an epoxy but thats hard to get off.

So i would clean it all of with alcohol add thermal compound for the main cooler and use tape for the ram sinks(if they are the kind that can fall off when the cooler is fitted that is)

[warriorscot]

Well ram sinks are generally not hugely important ram is one of the cooler parts, however they can benefit from ram sinks. You can clean them normally however a cloth isnt the best thing to use on such delicat hardware, cotton buds or wool is best, alcohol (acetone is better but it CANT TOUCH THE CIRCUIT BOARD, it does bad things) is easiest to use and get hold of.

Clean of the residue and use thermal tape(its what you use on ramsinks) as compound doesnt stick anymore now that people switch cards unless you use an epoxy but thats hard to get off.

So i would clean it all of with alcohol add thermal compound for the main cooler and use tape for the ram sinks(if they are the kind that can fall off when the cooler is fitted that is)

[p-zero]

Was that score OCed gpus or no?
-P.

[Kalian]

Was that score OCed gpus or no?
-P.

nope. jes the cpu. and the ram was oc'ed too (ocz ddr400 platinum ram) but a friend did that for me.

Also thanks warriorscot. turns out thermal tape is already included with the new vga cooler. All i have to do is get some rubbing alcohol and wipe off all the existing residue and then stick on this giant one piece plate that acts as a heatspreader.

[warriorscot]

Just pure alcohol would do it doesnt need to be rubbing alcohol the non methylated stuff from a DIY shop is all you need.

[Kalian]

oh. i find it easier jes to go down the street to the local 99 cent store and grab me a quick bottle of pick me up. ^_^

[warriorscot]

lol, you can use alot of stuff, paint remover ive used once its quite effective, you get specific solvents as well but its not worth the hassle of getting them.