How to remove the Heatsinks on a V5 ??

[Steph3dfx]

Hi there,
there is a nice Voodoo 5 AGP coming my way.(Ebay)
Now I want to change the stock coolers with something serious, however I want to know how to safely remove the original heatsinks.
I have no plans about overclocking the card, just put nice and quiet coolers on it.

Thanks
Stephane

[Mikulaish]

Hi! I did this procedure several times. There is part of this thread: http://www.3dfxzone.it/enboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1813  that takes care of the heatsink removal part. However I would suggest a more simple way. Take a pencil (or some plastic rod that has about 0.5cm diameter). Place it close to the processor, suspend a screwdriver on it, and just pop off the heatsink. Than you have to wash off the remaining glue. For that use some kind of solvent (eg. acetone). It is going to take a lot of time, because acetone will only soften the surface of the glue and you will have to shave it off layer by layer. The heatsink will need a bit of convincing to come off, but don't worry, the processor is not gonna come off. I will also supply an engineering plan of the procedure. Regards. Alpar

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[Steph3dfx]

Hey thanks a lot, very informative stuff.
Can t wait to mod my Voodoo5 !!!

[ps47]

check here as well.

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

Well I actually got questions about the (safer) method of putting the V5 in freezer before removing the heatsinks:

(1) How long the V5 card should be put in the freezer (how many minutes, etc) before we can safely remove the heatsink?

(2) Also, IIRC some freezer got temperature setting of some sort. If that's the case, how cold we should set the freezer?

(3) Um, I may sound stupid, but I guess we should wrap the V5 card in plastic bag to prevent condensation, shouldn't we? But considering the temperature outside the plastic is colder than the temperature inside the plastic, will it actually cause condensation inside the plastic, instead of preventing it?

[.SLeEP]

Originally posted by Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman

Well I actually got questions about the (safer) method of putting the V5 in freezer before removing the heatsinks:

(1) How long the V5 card should be put in the freezer (how many minutes, etc) before we can safely remove the heatsink?

I have successfully removed the Heatsinks so far from one TNT2pro and one V5500 and kept both cards around 2hours in the freezer. At first I tried it with the TNT2pro and kept it in around 15minutes, but the heatsink wouldn't come off. Then I put it in again for a longer period of time (~2hrs) and then the heatsinks popped off easily without much force. Also almost all of the Glue came off, too. Just be quick with the removal of the heatsinks. This needs to be done as long as the card is still icecold!

(2) Also, IIRC some freezer got temperature setting of some sort. If that's the case, how cold we should set the freezer?

As cold as possible...

(3) Um, I may sound stupid, but I guess we should wrap the V5 card in plastic bag to prevent condensation, shouldn't we? But considering the temperature outside the plastic is colder than the temperature inside the plastic, will it actually cause condensation inside the plastic, instead of preventing it?

Yes I had both card wrapped in plastic bags, but you cannot avoid condensation on the card. in fact, as soon as you put the card out of the freezer, it will have a temperature of around -15°C and you will observe condesation on the card immediately. But never mind, simply wait a few hours (i.e. overnight) to let the card dry again, before you put it bakc into your PC.

[Mikulaish]

Condensation is far more dangerous than removing the heatsink at room temperature. This crystallization story is somebody's guess. My chemist opinion (Chemist by University degree) says that there is no so called crystallisation whatsoever at low temperature. The lower temperature might, and I repeat "MIGHT" increase the hardness of the glue, wich could help the glue to "break" in a very small amount. I think it is absolutely useless to cool it, because the heatsink can be removed easily without any cooling.(speaking from experience) BUT: try az you wish. The most important thing is not to suspend the screwdriver, putty knife or whatever on the pcb. You might cut some circuits by doing this. Regards. Alpar

[Steph3dfx]

I received my Voodoo 5 agp yesterday. Ran some test with Quake 3, tested ok with flying colors.
Now I took my courage and started my moding V5 project.
I carfully removed the two damn stock cooler and cleaned the chips, time spent 2 hours.

I didn't use the freezer strategy nor your recomendation Mikulaish
I didn't want to place anything on the PCB.
I finnaly use a common knife with round edges (the type that doen't cute anything).
One of the GPU had a big gab between the heatsinnk and the chip, so it was fairly easy (The glue was badly applied)
I inserted the knife between and pulled carefully while holding the V5 firmly and flat.
The other GPU was another story because the heatsink was closer to the chip with no gap. So I use the knife as plateau on the bottom edge of the chip (near the PCB), then placed a small screwdriver between the chip and the knife and I was able to POP it off.

In the meantime today I bought 2 Vantec copper cooler kit today, and ram copper heatsink kit should arrive anyday from HK (eBay)

Thanks for your input.
I will post pictures this evening

[Voodoo5]

@Steph3dfx,

Good to hear your 5500 mod is coming along nicely. Getting the factory applied epoxy cleaned off the gpu's is typicaly the most time consuming part of this modification.

Take your time and do a good job

Will be waiting for you to post some pics when its done