Hi folks!
I've decided that my Zalman heatsink isn't making good contact with the GPU core, so I'm going to remove the protective shim...problem is...
how does one remove the shim on a Radeon 9700 vidcard? Do I just use brute force? Pry it off with a screwdriver? Use alcohol?
Thanks!
Question - How to remove the shim
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
Re: Question - How to remove the shim
If you visit rage3d.com and search the forums on "shim", you'll find many topics on this, with varying opinions. It's not difficult to destroy the tracer circuits when pulling up the shim, rendering your card useless.Gwailowen wrote:Hi folks!
I've decided that my Zalman heatsink isn't making good contact with the GPU core, so I'm going to remove the protective shim...problem is...
how does one remove the shim on a Radeon 9700 vidcard? Do I just use brute force? Pry it off with a screwdriver? Use alcohol?
Thanks!
On my 9800, I decided to take the approach of modifying the heatsink rather than the card. If you are handy with a dremel, you can notch out(lower) the sections of the heatsink which make contact with the shim. The shim usually leaves slight marks/impressions on the heatsink which you can use as a guide for grinding. Worked fine for me. Less risky to mod a $25 heatsink than a $200 card.
Fill the gap
I'd also suggest using a shim of alimunim to fill the gap between chip and heat sink. It will not be perfect, using having an extra interface to fill with paste, but a lot better than filling a big gap gap with paste.
I did this for the recessed metal piece in the top of GF4200 chip.
I do not know if there is anything that could be shorted out on the board that the ATI chip is mounted on - if there is one has to be careful and/or creative.
I thought about using somewhat thick aluminum foil first, but decided on using a piece of a single-use aluminum serving dish - easily cut with scissors.
Thomas
I did this for the recessed metal piece in the top of GF4200 chip.
I do not know if there is anything that could be shorted out on the board that the ATI chip is mounted on - if there is one has to be careful and/or creative.
I thought about using somewhat thick aluminum foil first, but decided on using a piece of a single-use aluminum serving dish - easily cut with scissors.
Thomas
The Zalman HP80C (or HP80A) doesn't require the shim to be removed on the ATI 9500, 9700, and 9800 video cards. The HP80C comes with the bottom machined so the center sit inside the shim and makes good contact with the core. The original HP80 was completely flat on the bottom and did require shim removal if it was higher than the core.
An easy way to check the contact area is remove the heatsink and clean all TIM (heat transfer goop
) from the gpu core and heatsink. Cover the gpu core (only) with a thin layer of TIM then hold the heatsink in place over the core in the mounting position. Remove the heatsink and check if it has a nice square pattern of TIM in the center. If it does, you're making good contact.
I would advise against removing the shim. It provides some core protection and the zalman hp80c shouldn't require it anyway. People have destroyed their cards attempting to remove it. I did remove mine recently to make better contact with the stock heatsink. Of course, I ended buying a GPU waterblock 2 weeks later that would have worked with the shim in place.
If you're going to remove it anyway, PM me and I'll discuss how I did it.
An easy way to check the contact area is remove the heatsink and clean all TIM (heat transfer goop
) from the gpu core and heatsink. Cover the gpu core (only) with a thin layer of TIM then hold the heatsink in place over the core in the mounting position. Remove the heatsink and check if it has a nice square pattern of TIM in the center. If it does, you're making good contact. I would advise against removing the shim. It provides some core protection and the zalman hp80c shouldn't require it anyway. People have destroyed their cards attempting to remove it. I did remove mine recently to make better contact with the stock heatsink. Of course, I ended buying a GPU waterblock 2 weeks later that would have worked with the shim in place.
If you're going to remove it anyway, PM me and I'll discuss how I did it.
Well, I've just removed the shim. Just inserted the tip of a small screwdriver (those small ones jewelers use) into a small gap in the corner of the shim and twisted. It actually came off pretty easily. Unfortunately, the artifacts I experienced before are still there, so I gave up and went out to buy the HIS IceQ card with VGA silencer preinstalled. It seems frustration can lead to bad spending habits.
Well, thanks for info anyway, much appreciated
Well, thanks for info anyway, much appreciated