Bitcoin Forum

Can't get the arctic cooling memory heat sinks to stay stick with the thermal pads they provided.
I have some arctic silver ceramique laying around.. Pretty sure the stuff is somewhat permanent..
Would it be safe to use that to stick the memory heat sink on or is it probably a bad idea?
Could get new thermal pads I suppose but would have to wait for mail, so am wondering.

There will be to much space betwen (Dram)Chip and cooler without the pad.
Just set down the Memoryclock to the lowest possible and dont mind, the pcb can take a lot of heat.
Later you can install the Thermalpads if you got it.

To much space? The arctic silver ceramique would permanently stick the heatsink on.
It's a sort of adhesive, but permanent, it's basically a permanent adhesive form of Arctic silver 5, but made with ceramique.
It's a thermal paste, so it should do the same thing as the pads, there wouldn't be any space between.
Just don't have much experience with arctic silver ceramique, so am not sure if it's same to use on memory.
It was recommended by a friend to do this, I just don't know if he has much experience with GPU's in particular.

Ceramique isn't an adhesive. It is similar to AS5, but uses ceramics instead of silver and isn't capacitive. Are you sure you're thinking of the correct product?

I guess not.
My brother is a head IT technician for a local company and that is what he told me, I actually argued with him, but I was inclined to believe him due to his position in the field.

Guess my only option is to buy new thermal pads.
The card doesn't work without the heatsinks on...soon as one falls off it crashes.

Thanks anyway guys, sorry for my uninformed question.

They do manufacture an epoxy that would bond the chips permanently. I, however, prefer the superglue method. Use a dab of Ceramique on the center of the chip and a TINY dab of superglue on a corner of the chip. When you want to remove the heatsinks you need to gently twist them so as to snap the superglue bond and the heatsink comes off.

I'm talking a TINY dab. Basically squirt superglue on a paper towel so that the applicator nozzle is wet with the glue. Then poke the chip with that applicator. Apply too much and you'll tear the chip off when you want to remove the heatsink. Apply too little and it will fall off from gravity.

VRAM doesnt get nearly as hot as you think it does. Many mid-high range video cards dont cool the RAM at all. Take the sapphire extreme 5830's for example.
If you are mining, you should be underclocking the ram to increase your MH anyways, which even further reduces the need to cool your VRAM.

Either don't bother, or use thermal pads. Using thermal grease will have a very minimal effect.