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How do I remove the heatsink on a Creative Ti4400?



 
 
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  #1  
Old July 8th 03, 06:38 PM
Andrew Lee
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default How do I remove the heatsink on a Creative Ti4400?

Cheers for that John, I've just gone and ordered the Zalman cooler. Just one
other question - how do I clean up the chip when I've removed the heatsink?
Is there anything in particular I should use?

Andy.

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
I had the same thing on my Geforce 4460MX. If you look at the bottom of

the
black clip it has a little - tiny in fact - end which can be squeezed
together.

If you squeeze these together - your fingers will do it but pilers can be
safer and easier - and then push gently upwards they will suddenly fly out
with some force.

Be careful, when I say they fly out they fly out at speed and the first

time
I did this I was very glad that the clips were facing away from my face as

I
think they could cause a nasty injury to eyes and bits and pieces so be
warned. They are spring loaded.

Once you have them out it is very easy to see how they work, to pop them
back in and out but that first time it looks as if they are permanently
attached to the board.

Once the pins/clips are removed you need to carefully wriggle your fan. I
had to twist mine and ended up using quite some force to pull the fan off
the chip as it was stuck on strongly. Clean up the chip, apply some

thermal
grease and attach the Zalman cooler. Putting a Zalman VGA and Zalman 7000
CPU cooler in my PC were the best investments I have ever made.


J.

"Andrew Lee" wrote in message
...
Hi everybody,

I've just bought and fitted a Zalman Flower Cooler and 300W Silent PSU

for
my Athlon XP system. They've cut down on a fair bit of system noise, but
now, all I can hear is the whoosh of my Creative Geforce4 Ti4400 card,

and
it's already driving me nuts.

I haven't got the money for a new card (the Creative's only a year old
anyway), so what I'd like to do is get a Zalman ZM80A-HP silent heat

pipe
cooler for the card. The thing is, I can't work out how to remove the
existing Creative heatsink from the card - it's fastened onto the card

with
these two black 'pins' (for want of a better word) with not a screw in
sight. How do I remove the heatsink, assuming it is possible in the

first
place?

And once the heatsink has been removed, is the ZM80A actually compatible
with the Creative card? I'd be grateful if anyone with experience of
combining the two could give me a few pointers in the right direction.
Cheers.

Andy.






  #2  
Old July 8th 03, 06:53 PM
John Smith
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

First of all, make sure you get the rigth Zalman VGA cooler for your board?
I have the '50' and it just barely fits due to the position of my
Northbridge - even then I had to fix it without the risers. They have the 80
and the 80A for your card dependent upon the transistors on the VGA card and
also things like the location of the Northbridge, Memory slots on your mobo.

I think the 80A is the better model - it fits 'upwards' rather than
'downwards' - but you should double check Zalman's site.

For cleaning the chip you can buy special cleaner from the link below. Alot
of people use nail varnish remover.

If your card is a typical Geforce it will be a black rubbery material which
will mostly just pull off. I simply scraped the gunk off with my
finger-nails and then used the tip of a fine screw-driver to finish scraping
the stuff off until it looked nice and clean. After that I simply applied a
nice dollop of thermal grease to my VGA chip and leveled it off using a thin
piece of plastic.

There are 'nutters' who will use special fluid to clean off the chip, then
they apply thermal grease and then they clean it off again, repeat that 2 or
3 times because they somehow think this does wonders for connectivity
between the chip and the heatsink. They claim doing so makes sure
microscopic indentations on the top of the chip and heatsink are filled by
the thermal paste - of course, if they are microscopic how can they tell.
They never provide any engineering proof to back up their arguments anyhow.
Personally, I think they need locking up.

Get yourself some decent thermal grease - the two TINY packets that come
with the Zalman will not be enough. The gurus recommend Artic Silver. I use
Antec's thermal grease which also contains silver because silver is better
for heat conductivity. Make sure you get the grease as the grease does not
set solid.

You can order Artic Silver from http://www.overclockers.co.uk or you can pop
into Maplins to buy the Antec stuff - it is £8.99 in Maplins and the Artic
Silver comes in a variety of prices on OCers. PC World set a copper thermal
grease for about a fiver.

J.


"Andrew Lee" wrote in message
...
Cheers for that John, I've just gone and ordered the Zalman cooler. Just

one
other question - how do I clean up the chip when I've removed the

heatsink?
Is there anything in particular I should use?

Andy.

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
I had the same thing on my Geforce 4460MX. If you look at the bottom of

the
black clip it has a little - tiny in fact - end which can be squeezed
together.

If you squeeze these together - your fingers will do it but pilers can

be
safer and easier - and then push gently upwards they will suddenly fly

out
with some force.

Be careful, when I say they fly out they fly out at speed and the first

time
I did this I was very glad that the clips were facing away from my face

as
I
think they could cause a nasty injury to eyes and bits and pieces so be
warned. They are spring loaded.

Once you have them out it is very easy to see how they work, to pop them
back in and out but that first time it looks as if they are permanently
attached to the board.

Once the pins/clips are removed you need to carefully wriggle your fan.

I
had to twist mine and ended up using quite some force to pull the fan

off
the chip as it was stuck on strongly. Clean up the chip, apply some

thermal
grease and attach the Zalman cooler. Putting a Zalman VGA and Zalman

7000
CPU cooler in my PC were the best investments I have ever made.


J.

"Andrew Lee" wrote in message
...
Hi everybody,

I've just bought and fitted a Zalman Flower Cooler and 300W Silent PSU


for
my Athlon XP system. They've cut down on a fair bit of system noise,

but
now, all I can hear is the whoosh of my Creative Geforce4 Ti4400 card,

and
it's already driving me nuts.

I haven't got the money for a new card (the Creative's only a year old
anyway), so what I'd like to do is get a Zalman ZM80A-HP silent heat

pipe
cooler for the card. The thing is, I can't work out how to remove the
existing Creative heatsink from the card - it's fastened onto the card

with
these two black 'pins' (for want of a better word) with not a screw in
sight. How do I remove the heatsink, assuming it is possible in the

first
place?

And once the heatsink has been removed, is the ZM80A actually

compatible
with the Creative card? I'd be grateful if anyone with experience of
combining the two could give me a few pointers in the right direction.
Cheers.

Andy.








  #3  
Old July 8th 03, 09:35 PM
John Smith
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

No problem, best of luck. The 80A looks the best, most practical and easiest
to fit of all the VGA coolers. I only picked up the 50 because I wandered
into Maplins and it was half price. If I had payed full I would have gone
for the 80A.

You won't regret it.


J.


"Andrew Lee" wrote in message
...
I've ordered the 80A from Overclockers.co.uk, and I'm certain it will work
with my configuration (Abit KX7-333R mobo). I've got a tube of thermal
grease left over from the Zalman Flower Cooler, so I'll add that on when

I'm
applying the stuff.

Thanks again, your posts have been a great help :-)

Andy.

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
First of all, make sure you get the rigth Zalman VGA cooler for your

board?
I have the '50' and it just barely fits due to the position of my
Northbridge - even then I had to fix it without the risers. They have

the
80
and the 80A for your card dependent upon the transistors on the VGA card

and
also things like the location of the Northbridge, Memory slots on your

mobo.

I think the 80A is the better model - it fits 'upwards' rather than
'downwards' - but you should double check Zalman's site.

For cleaning the chip you can buy special cleaner from the link below.

Alot
of people use nail varnish remover.

If your card is a typical Geforce it will be a black rubbery material

which
will mostly just pull off. I simply scraped the gunk off with my
finger-nails and then used the tip of a fine screw-driver to finish

scraping
the stuff off until it looked nice and clean. After that I simply

applied
a
nice dollop of thermal grease to my VGA chip and leveled it off using a

thin
piece of plastic.

There are 'nutters' who will use special fluid to clean off the chip,

then
they apply thermal grease and then they clean it off again, repeat that

2
or
3 times because they somehow think this does wonders for connectivity
between the chip and the heatsink. They claim doing so makes sure
microscopic indentations on the top of the chip and heatsink are filled

by
the thermal paste - of course, if they are microscopic how can they

tell.
They never provide any engineering proof to back up their arguments

anyhow.
Personally, I think they need locking up.

Get yourself some decent thermal grease - the two TINY packets that come
with the Zalman will not be enough. The gurus recommend Artic Silver. I

use
Antec's thermal grease which also contains silver because silver is

better
for heat conductivity. Make sure you get the grease as the grease does

not
set solid.

You can order Artic Silver from http://www.overclockers.co.uk or you can

pop
into Maplins to buy the Antec stuff - it is £8.99 in Maplins and the

Artic
Silver comes in a variety of prices on OCers. PC World set a copper

thermal
grease for about a fiver.

J.


"Andrew Lee" wrote in message
...
Cheers for that John, I've just gone and ordered the Zalman cooler.

Just
one
other question - how do I clean up the chip when I've removed the

heatsink?
Is there anything in particular I should use?

Andy.

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
I had the same thing on my Geforce 4460MX. If you look at the bottom

of
the
black clip it has a little - tiny in fact - end which can be

squeezed
together.

If you squeeze these together - your fingers will do it but pilers

can
be
safer and easier - and then push gently upwards they will suddenly

fly
out
with some force.

Be careful, when I say they fly out they fly out at speed and the

first
time
I did this I was very glad that the clips were facing away from my

face
as
I
think they could cause a nasty injury to eyes and bits and pieces so

be
warned. They are spring loaded.

Once you have them out it is very easy to see how they work, to pop

them
back in and out but that first time it looks as if they are

permanently
attached to the board.

Once the pins/clips are removed you need to carefully wriggle your

fan.
I
had to twist mine and ended up using quite some force to pull the

fan
off
the chip as it was stuck on strongly. Clean up the chip, apply some
thermal
grease and attach the Zalman cooler. Putting a Zalman VGA and Zalman

7000
CPU cooler in my PC were the best investments I have ever made.


J.

"Andrew Lee" wrote in

message
...
Hi everybody,

I've just bought and fitted a Zalman Flower Cooler and 300W Silent

PSU

for
my Athlon XP system. They've cut down on a fair bit of system

noise,
but
now, all I can hear is the whoosh of my Creative Geforce4 Ti4400

card,
and
it's already driving me nuts.

I haven't got the money for a new card (the Creative's only a year

old
anyway), so what I'd like to do is get a Zalman ZM80A-HP silent

heat
pipe
cooler for the card. The thing is, I can't work out how to remove

the
existing Creative heatsink from the card - it's fastened onto the

card
with
these two black 'pins' (for want of a better word) with not a

screw
in
sight. How do I remove the heatsink, assuming it is possible in

the
first
place?

And once the heatsink has been removed, is the ZM80A actually

compatible
with the Creative card? I'd be grateful if anyone with experience

of
combining the two could give me a few pointers in the right

direction.
Cheers.

Andy.












  #4  
Old July 9th 03, 09:36 PM
Groove
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Andrew Lee said this...
I've ordered the 80A from Overclockers.co.uk, and I'm certain it will
work with my configuration (Abit KX7-333R mobo). I've got a tube of
thermal grease left over from the Zalman Flower Cooler, so I'll add that
on when I'm applying the stuff.


Just by way of reassurance, I put the 80a on my ti4200 a few weeks ago.
Deep joy to be rid of the nasty little fan, and the card is working/cooling
perfectly. Even after hours of gaming no lockups or artifacts. I'm 100%
happy with it so far. I have moved a case fan to the back of the box where
it will blow over the heatsink for the recent hot weather, but mainly it
runs without this fan perfectly well.

--
º~ dªv¡d ~º
  #5  
Old July 9th 03, 10:02 PM
John Smith
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

It's the other way round for me - prior to putting on the 50 I used to get
lock-ups on my card with the fan. Now, fanless but with the 50 I don't get
any - touch wood.

J.

"Groove" wrote in message
...
Andrew Lee said this...
I've ordered the 80A from Overclockers.co.uk, and I'm certain it will
work with my configuration (Abit KX7-333R mobo). I've got a tube of
thermal grease left over from the Zalman Flower Cooler, so I'll add that
on when I'm applying the stuff.


Just by way of reassurance, I put the 80a on my ti4200 a few weeks ago.
Deep joy to be rid of the nasty little fan, and the card is

working/cooling
perfectly. Even after hours of gaming no lockups or artifacts. I'm 100%
happy with it so far. I have moved a case fan to the back of the box where
it will blow over the heatsink for the recent hot weather, but mainly it
runs without this fan perfectly well.

--
º~ dªv¡d ~º




  #6  
Old July 10th 03, 02:10 PM
Andrew Lee
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

OK guys, I've fitted the cooler and got it up and running... the silence is
almost deafening! It seems to be OK so far, but I touched both heatsinks
after leaving the computer on for 15 minutes, and it seems a bit hot for my
liking (although not untouchable). I'm not sure if I'd trust it with
Half-Life 2 or any of the latest 3D games yet, but I don't play games that
often anyway.

Andy.

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
It's the other way round for me - prior to putting on the 50 I used to get
lock-ups on my card with the fan. Now, fanless but with the 50 I don't get
any - touch wood.

J.

"Groove" wrote in message
...
Andrew Lee said this...
I've ordered the 80A from Overclockers.co.uk, and I'm certain it will
work with my configuration (Abit KX7-333R mobo). I've got a tube of
thermal grease left over from the Zalman Flower Cooler, so I'll add

that
on when I'm applying the stuff.


Just by way of reassurance, I put the 80a on my ti4200 a few weeks ago.
Deep joy to be rid of the nasty little fan, and the card is

working/cooling
perfectly. Even after hours of gaming no lockups or artifacts. I'm 100%
happy with it so far. I have moved a case fan to the back of the box

where
it will blow over the heatsink for the recent hot weather, but mainly it
runs without this fan perfectly well.

--
º~ dªv¡d ~º






  #7  
Old July 10th 03, 02:34 PM
John Smith
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Personally, I don't rate the grease that Zalman provide and I use a brand
name thermal grease - and lots of it.

My 50, although much smaller than your 80A and on a much less powerful VGA
card, is only very slightly warm to touch.


J.


"Andrew Lee" wrote in message
...
OK guys, I've fitted the cooler and got it up and running... the silence

is
almost deafening! It seems to be OK so far, but I touched both heatsinks
after leaving the computer on for 15 minutes, and it seems a bit hot for

my
liking (although not untouchable). I'm not sure if I'd trust it with
Half-Life 2 or any of the latest 3D games yet, but I don't play games that
often anyway.

Andy.

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
It's the other way round for me - prior to putting on the 50 I used to

get
lock-ups on my card with the fan. Now, fanless but with the 50 I don't

get
any - touch wood.

J.

"Groove" wrote in message
...
Andrew Lee said this...
I've ordered the 80A from Overclockers.co.uk, and I'm certain it

will
work with my configuration (Abit KX7-333R mobo). I've got a tube of
thermal grease left over from the Zalman Flower Cooler, so I'll add

that
on when I'm applying the stuff.

Just by way of reassurance, I put the 80a on my ti4200 a few weeks

ago.
Deep joy to be rid of the nasty little fan, and the card is

working/cooling
perfectly. Even after hours of gaming no lockups or artifacts. I'm

100%
happy with it so far. I have moved a case fan to the back of the box

where
it will blow over the heatsink for the recent hot weather, but mainly

it
runs without this fan perfectly well.

--
º~ dªv¡d ~º








  #8  
Old July 10th 03, 04:49 PM
Groove
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Andrew Lee said this...
OK guys, I've fitted the cooler and got it up and running... the silence
is almost deafening! It seems to be OK so far, but I touched both
heatsinks after leaving the computer on for 15 minutes, and it seems a
bit hot for my liking (although not untouchable).


I assume you were careful to get the thermal grease on the heatpipe
fittings etc as per their instructions. One of the website reviews I looked
at mentioned a "bedding-in" period of IIRC 48 hours for the grease to
become fully effective. I don't know the truth of such a thing, but it may
be worth monitoring the temperature over a few days.


--
º~ dªv¡d ~º
  #9  
Old July 10th 03, 07:21 PM
Andrew Lee
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Yes, I took special care to apply plenty of thermal grease on the heatpipe
fittings. No crashes yet :-)

Andy.


"Groove" wrote in message
...
Andrew Lee said this...
OK guys, I've fitted the cooler and got it up and running... the silence
is almost deafening! It seems to be OK so far, but I touched both
heatsinks after leaving the computer on for 15 minutes, and it seems a
bit hot for my liking (although not untouchable).


I assume you were careful to get the thermal grease on the heatpipe
fittings etc as per their instructions. One of the website reviews I

looked
at mentioned a "bedding-in" period of IIRC 48 hours for the grease to
become fully effective. I don't know the truth of such a thing, but it may
be worth monitoring the temperature over a few days.


--
º~ dªv¡d ~º



 




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