Heatsink reflow?..

[ssateneth]

So I got 2 of these from ebay http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3354
They don't have voltage control, so they are stuck at 1.088v, but on the plus side, they clock relatively high (1015 and 1035). Unfortunately, one of the 5850's runs about 15C hotter than the other and won't clock as high as a result. From what I can tell, it is not bad contact between GPU and heatsink, but rather bad contact between heatpipes and the fins. I say this because the hot 5850's heatpipes are much hotter to the touch than the cooler 5850.

So... I imagine there is some sort of low melting point metal that joins the heatpipes to the cooling fins. Would it be dangerous to bake the heatsink in an oven in order to reflow the contact points? If not, what temperature should I bake it and and for how long? Also, I have some 60/40 "fine electrical rosin core solder". Would it be possible to use this somehow to increase the amount of contact between the heatpipes and the fins? I don't have any other materials readily available, but I can probably go to the home depot to get something if it would be better suited.

[1714192347]

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[P4man]

Baking it may well destroy the heatpipes. I once put a blowtorch on the heatpipes of a gpu cooler to heat up the copper to more easily bend it in to shape, suffice to say after that it performed miserably. I think you are better off getting an aftermarket cooler.

[Lethos]

Replace the entire cooler. Unless you really really good at doing this sort of thing (you don't sound confident), you'll more than likely break it or just make it worse.
It's not worth the hassle of potentially damaging it, beyond repair. After market heat sinks are often far superior anyway.

[AzN1337c0d3r]

So I got 2 of these from ebay http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3354
From what I can tell, it is not bad contact between GPU and heatsink, but rather bad contact between heatpipes and the fins. I say this because the hot 5850's heatpipes are much hotter to the touch than the cooler 5850.

Did you check the fan speeds? I used to own one of those and I found that one of the fans was very slow almost to the point of seizing resulting in very high temperatures.

[ssateneth]

So I got 2 of these from ebay http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3354
From what I can tell, it is not bad contact between GPU and heatsink, but rather bad contact between heatpipes and the fins. I say this because the hot 5850's heatpipes are much hotter to the touch than the cooler 5850.

Did you check the fan speeds? I used to own one of those and I found that one of the fans was very slow almost to the point of seizing resulting in very high temperatures.

Fans are fine.

[dreamwatcher]

You may be able to gain software voltage control in a couple of ways. I did a bit a research on this particular card and it seems that while Gigabyte is using a nonstandard voltage regulator, it is software programmable.

Some cards that do not have voltage control have regulators that are not software programmable, or the programming interface is so screwy nobody bothers writing software to program them outside the factory.


You could try these steps: (The first two are pretty easy and low risk)

1. Try using Gigabyte's own overclocking tool

2. People have had success using RBE to change the voltage table directly in the cards BIOS.


If you are truly adventurous :

3. Flash the BIOS to an ASUS 5850 (ASUS generally has completely unlocked bios) or to a 5870 (You will not gain the speed of a 5870 as the extra stream processors are cut at the factory, but it may unlock options that are currently locked)

I have done all the above to various cards and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I have yet to brick a card, but in the case of flashing always have at least one working available so you can boot and re flash a bad flash (with the bad flashed card in a second slot). Make sure to keep a copy of your current bios, so you can always go back.

[deepceleron]

So I got 2 of these from ebay http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3354
They don't have voltage control, so they are stuck at 1.088v, but on the plus side, they clock relatively high (1015 and 1035). Unfortunately, one of the 5850's runs about 15C hotter than the other and won't clock as high as a result. From what I can tell, it is not bad contact between GPU and heatsink, but rather bad contact between heatpipes and the fins. I say this because the hot 5850's heatpipes are much hotter to the touch than the cooler 5850.

So... I imagine there is some sort of low melting point metal that joins the heatpipes to the cooling fins. Would it be dangerous to bake the heatsink in an oven in order to reflow the contact points? If not, what temperature should I bake it and and for how long? Also, I have some 60/40 "fine electrical rosin core solder". Would it be possible to use this somehow to increase the amount of contact between the heatpipes and the fins? I don't have any other materials readily available, but I can probably go to the home depot to get something if it would be better suited.

The first thing to do would be to leave them alone.

The next thing to do would be to get some arctic silver, clean the GPUs and heatsinks with alcohol and reapply thermal grease, and swap the heat sinks between the cards.

If the problem follows the heatsink, then it might have been manufactured differently or have bad pipes (which have coolant in them to distribute heat).

[ssateneth]

So I got 2 of these from ebay http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3354
They don't have voltage control, so they are stuck at 1.088v, but on the plus side, they clock relatively high (1015 and 1035). Unfortunately, one of the 5850's runs about 15C hotter than the other and won't clock as high as a result. From what I can tell, it is not bad contact between GPU and heatsink, but rather bad contact between heatpipes and the fins. I say this because the hot 5850's heatpipes are much hotter to the touch than the cooler 5850.

So... I imagine there is some sort of low melting point metal that joins the heatpipes to the cooling fins. Would it be dangerous to bake the heatsink in an oven in order to reflow the contact points? If not, what temperature should I bake it and and for how long? Also, I have some 60/40 "fine electrical rosin core solder". Would it be possible to use this somehow to increase the amount of contact between the heatpipes and the fins? I don't have any other materials readily available, but I can probably go to the home depot to get something if it would be better suited.

The first thing to do would be to leave them alone.

The next thing to do would be to get some arctic silver, clean the GPUs and heatsinks with alcohol and reapply thermal grease, and swap the heat sinks between the cards.

If the problem follows the heatsink, then it might have been manufactured differently or have bad pipes (which have coolant in them to distribute heat).

I get the feeling you didnt read my post entirely. The contact between heatpipes and GPU core is 100% fine. The problem lies with the contact between the heatpipes and the cooling fins. If the heatpipes are hot and the GPU is hot (my situation), then there is good contact between GPU and heatsink. If the heatpipes are cool and the GPU is hot, then there is bad contact between GPU and heatsink. Regreasing the GPU core will do nothing for my problem, because thats not where the problem is, and you cant exactly shove a bunch of arctic silver/noctua/whatever you use into the cooling fins...

In any case, looks like I'll just have to suck it up, or maybe try other BIOS or see if gigabyte has OC software.

[deepceleron]

So I got 2 of these from ebay http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3354
They don't have voltage control, so they are stuck at 1.088v, but on the plus side, they clock relatively high (1015 and 1035). Unfortunately, one of the 5850's runs about 15C hotter than the other and won't clock as high as a result. From what I can tell, it is not bad contact between GPU and heatsink, but rather bad contact between heatpipes and the fins. I say this because the hot 5850's heatpipes are much hotter to the touch than the cooler 5850.

So... I imagine there is some sort of low melting point metal that joins the heatpipes to the cooling fins. Would it be dangerous to bake the heatsink in an oven in order to reflow the contact points? If not, what temperature should I bake it and and for how long? Also, I have some 60/40 "fine electrical rosin core solder". Would it be possible to use this somehow to increase the amount of contact between the heatpipes and the fins? I don't have any other materials readily available, but I can probably go to the home depot to get something if it would be better suited.

The first thing to do would be to leave them alone.

The next thing to do would be to get some arctic silver, clean the GPUs and heatsinks with alcohol and reapply thermal grease, and swap the heat sinks between the cards.

If the problem follows the heatsink, then it might have been manufactured differently or have bad pipes (which have coolant in them to distribute heat).

I get the feeling you didnt read my post entirely. The contact between heatpipes and GPU core is 100% fine. The problem lies with the contact between the heatpipes and the cooling fins. If the heatpipes are hot and the GPU is hot (my situation), then there is good contact between GPU and heatsink. If the heatpipes are cool and the GPU is hot, then there is bad contact between GPU and heatsink. Regreasing the GPU core will do nothing for my problem, because thats not where the problem is, and you cant exactly shove a bunch of arctic silver/noctua/whatever you use into the cooling fins...

In any case, looks like I'll just have to suck it up, or maybe try other BIOS or see if gigabyte has OC software.

I get the feeling you didn't understand my post. You suspect a flaw with the cooler; swap the coolers to confirm the flaw follows a possible bad cooler. My post isn't concerning the grease, just that you need some to do the swap properly and ensure a consistent amount is used.