thermal Adhesives!!, advise

[lukasz70]

hi, im looking for a thermal adhesive to glue on some of those blue thermaltake ramsinks cut to size onto my video card, (i have the tape that comes with them, but im not sure how good that is),

i need a cheap thermal adhesive, here is what i found http://becooling.safeshopper.com/16/35.htm?61
OR, http://becooling.safeshopper.com/16/98.htm?61

i would rather get the cheaper one, but is it any good? in comparison to the arctic aluminium and tape,
it says thermally conductive 1.7W/mK, but is that good? +i can mix it with some arctic silver 2.

the reason price is an issue is because with shipping and everything i would end up paying like $30cdn for arctic silver adhesive and paying that much to attach 8 ramsinks is just to much (im a broke university student )

[TerraMex]

I think you're safe in buy a cheap adhesive . If you mix it with a good part of Artic Silver then you'll have a good heat transfer and you can just take them off with relative ease in the future. Just dont use 100% adhesive.

I've been using Artic Silver Epoxy and Alumina , and its great. But i was a bit pricy (the epoxy). For what i've seen (and i've tested a few) , the difference between adhesives are in the 1ºC, maybe 2ºC. Alot depends on "how" you put it , thickness of the layer, flatness of the surfaces, pressure until its solid, and how high and even is the pressure between the two surfaces .

[lukasz70]

thx,
i just wanted to make sure if this stuff is ok to use, i mean there is 25 Grams of this stuff!!! for 5.99, Arctic aluminium has only 5grams and more expensive,

i hope that they ship to canada,

as for the 1.7W/mK, is that that good? i have no idea what it means, and i cant find anything like this on the arctic aluminum adhesive so i cant really compare the 2 of them,

[TerraMex]

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_s...l_adhesive.htm

"Superior thermal conductivity._ Greater than 7.5 W/m°K_"

Uuh. Big jump. 1.7 is waaay low by comparison.

If you really want to use that Epoxy , mix it with Artic Silver 2 or 3. 60 (AS)/40 (adhesive). I think it'll work .

[lukasz70]

yikes!
your right, i'll be mixing it with as2,

thx

[lukasz70]

k, im strapped for cash now, so i dont think i'll be buying the adhesives
so i gotta make due with what i have, its just how i use it that will make the difference, and here's what i have, AS2 and thermal tape,

here's what i want to do,

1. just use the tape alone
OR
2. for each ram sink, cut 2 strips of the tape that will go along 2 edges of the ramsink, and spread some as2 down the centre

what will work best?

also can i use as2 on normal 2100ram in between the heat spreaders instead of the tape (i had the heat spreader on different ram, and i want to re-use them now, but the tape is peeled)

[jtroutma]

I have used that cheap stuff for mounting Golden Orb to video cards, coolers to MOSFETS, and heatsinks to chipsets. I can say that this stuff holds and holds well. As for thermal properties, I have not really had a problem at all. Also when it comes to RAM chips, the thermal properties are not going to matter that much because they heat up gracefully, unlike CPUs that go 0-1000C in 2 seconds

If you are really worried about thermal properties, get the cheap stuff, make a very small batch, dab a drop of the adheasive on the corners of the chips and put AS3 everywhere else. The adheasive will hold the heatsink there and the AS3 will move the heat. I used this trick when mounting a Blorb on my nForce2 chipset; dabed 2 drops of epoxy on 2 corners of the chip and used AS3 in the middle. That HSF is NOT going to move and that chip does not even get warm to the touch, even with a Vmod and running @ 210FSB.

[TerraMex]

Or use some silicone.... the type plumbers use on bathrooms. Put as2 and a few drops of silicone on the corners and apply pressure. It should hold in place. Or , like a friend of mine did, put as2 and superglue the corners . I think he's crazy but heck, it worked.

[lukasz70]

thx guys, i know what to do now, i'll get some thermal epoxy (that cheap stuff off becooling) and mix it with AS2,

these picks really convinced me http://discuss.futuremark.com/forum/...=5&o=0&fpart=1

so i'll be putting on a blue orb on my card to go with the blue ramsinks

[lukasz70]

well i finally got my thermal adhesive, and i'll be using it in a few days, but i also emailed thermaltake about the conductive tape they provide, a few days later and they sent me a very nice reply

from steve at thermaltake

"Thermal pad and thermal tape are usually in range from 0.7 - 0.9 w/mk while
standard silicone compound/grease are approximately arounds 1 w/mk. In this
case, we suggest you use artic silver instead if you seek for ultimate
performance in overclocking your system."

i must say, i am very satisfied at their cusomter service