Recommendations for thermal tape

[Virtual Infinity]

I'm thinking about replacing the hs/fan on the Gigabyte 7DXR board with a larger hs unit and no fan. Can anyone recommend decent thermal tape. I know thermal epoxy would be the better option for bonding a new hs but this is a bit too permanent for my needs.

Thanks for the help.

[jmichna]

Assuming you are talking about the CPU HS/fan assembly -- as opposed to a chipset cooler -- why would you even consider "thermal epoxy"? The epoxy might be used for bonding a smallish HS/fan to a chipset, but the thermal properties of the thermal epoxies are not nearly as good as thermal compounds like Arctic Silver II or III.

I'd recommend using AS-II or AS-III instead of tape too... same reasons... better heat transfer. The pastes are really not diificult to work with, and a 3cc tube costs about $8-10 (US) and will do dozens -- if not hundreds -- of CPU-HS/fan installations.

The Arctic Silver website has a tutorial on applying their product:
http://www.arcticsilver.com/instructions.htm

Just use an amount equal in size to about a half grain of uncooked rice, spread about on the cpu core with the point of a clean toothpick, and you'll have about the right amount applied. It will spread out and fill in the surface voids once the HS is attached to the cpu, and the computer allowed to run a couple days.
jmichna

[Virtual Infinity]

Sorry for not making it clear, but I meant the chipset cooler. I'm trying to reduce the noise from this PC because its driving me nuts.

Replacing the tiny 486 sized hs fan with a larger heatsink is one method i'm considering. However, having never used thermal tape before. It would be nice to know which one to go for.

Thanks

[Optimus Prime]

Originally posted by jmichna
Assuming you are talking about the CPU HS/fan assembly -- as opposed to a chipset cooler -- why would you even consider "thermal epoxy"? The epoxy might be used for bonding a smallish HS/fan to a chipset, but the thermal properties of the thermal epoxies are not nearly as good as thermal compounds like Arctic Silver II or III.

I'd recommend using AS-II or AS-III instead of tape too... same reasons... better heat transfer. The pastes are really not diificult to work with, and a 3cc tube costs about $8-10 (US) and will do dozens -- if not hundreds -- of CPU-HS/fan installations.

The Arctic Silver website has a tutorial on applying their product:
http://www.arcticsilver.com/instructions.htm

Just use an amount equal in size to about a half grain of uncooked rice, spread about on the cpu core with the point of a clean toothpick, and you'll have about the right amount applied. It will spread out and fill in the surface voids once the HS is attached to the cpu, and the computer allowed to run a couple days.
jmichna

i put some on the bottom of my HSF, to use the whole tube up

[jmichna]

Originally posted by Virtual Infinity
Sorry for not making it clear, but I meant the chipset cooler. I'm trying to reduce the noise from this PC because its driving me nuts.

Replacing the tiny 486 sized hs fan with a larger heatsink is one method i'm considering. However, having never used thermal tape before. It would be nice to know which one to go for.

Thanks

Understand now

My concern using tape is that it would not be "permanent" enough, and that at some point over time, vibration and heat would cause it to pop-off leaving the chipset with no cooling device, plus introduce the hazard of the cooler's wiring getting snagged by the cpu HS fan (depending, of course, on how things are layed out). Especially if you are considering upsizing the chipset HS/fan.

I guess I'd feel safer using the epoxy stuff... and, again, Arctic Silver makes a couple of these thermal adhesives too.
jmichna

[Virtual Infinity]

Thanks for the replies

I understand the concern with the thermal tape. Normally I would not use it but I feel that using thermal tape can be justified for a number of reasons:

1. The current manufacturers hs/fan is attached with thermal tape and not epoxy.

2. The size of hs I am thinking of using is not much heavier. In addition to this some board manufacturers have not used a fan (green meanie only) for the AMD761 chipset with no report of stability issues. eg.

http://www.tomshardware.com/mainboar...md_760-17.html

3. The non permanence of the thermal tape allows me to personally assess:
a) If the cooling is sufficient without a fan - in which case I might opt for Arctic Silver epoxy.
b) If the adhesion properties of the thermal tape are sufficient.

I realise that tape is not much better than a dry joint, but if its good enough for Gigabyte its good enough for me.

Anyway, can anyone recommend some tape manufacturers?

Cheers

Edit:

I just found this picture of the current chipset heatsink (top right). I think it clearly demonstrates just how thin the heatsink is.

http://www.micforg.co.jp/images/7dxr_interference.jpg

[reddeathdrinker]

Ah -you're wanting to change your Northbridge heatsink

Thermal tape is just plain pants for attaching heatsinks. If you want non-permenance, use ASII on the heatsink, but use a small spot of superglue on two of the corners (a really small spot)

That will hold the heatsink in place, allowing the ASII to transfer the heat away from the chip.

As to how well it works, I did my Radeon GPU using this method, and no amount of banging the case around dislodged the heatsink. But when it came to change the 'sink, a quick twist removed the heatsink.

[Virtual Infinity]

I've gone doen the superglue road once before and last time the heatsink fell off. I know the heat transfer's rubbish with tape, but it can't be worse than what's already on it. Thanks for the tip anyway.