How to make thermal pad stick for R9 290X VRM's?

[mrsweet1991]

Hi All,

I've cut down some heatsinks and I peeled one half of the thermal pad strip and placed it along the VRM's, then I peeled the other side off the thermal pad and placed the Heatsinks on top (before popping the heat sinks on top I applied pressure alog the thermal strip to bed in). But the adhesive pad does not stick at all, I have to be careful because there's components behind and in front and if that heat sink moves much it may bridge a connection.

Update

So after some inspiration from Nukemaster, this is the masterpiece I constructed all from an Age 6 construction kit and two motherboard offset screws.

 

[nukemaster]

Thermal pads do no stick.

You would need an adhesive and that would require more work because it is thin and bridging would be an issue for sure.

If you have holes in the card you may be able to bolt the heatsink.

Another option would be if the card has a stock VRM plate attaching the heatsink to it.

Something like this bit of overkill.
http://cdn.overclock.net/2/21/216a4b44_330xoya.jpeg

 

[mrsweet1991]

Thermal pads do no stick.

You would need an adhesive and that would require more work because it is thin and bridging would be an issue for sure.

If you have holes in the card you may be able to bolt the heatsink.

Another option would be if the card has a stock VRM plate attaching the heatsink to it.

Something like this bit of overkill.
http://cdn.overclock.net/2/21/216a4b44_330xoya.jpeg

Looks like an awesome mod to be honest, see I wouldn't mind using thermal glue but the problem is once the stuff has set I've heard you'll probably have to pull the chip off as well if you ever wanted to remove the heat sink and I wanted to experiment with different heat sinks to find a really good temperature drop before I commit with thermal glue. I'm wondering if I may be able to run some sort of cable to or something through the heat sink gaps as on either side there are screw holes that I could do a loop back on...

 

[nukemaster]

People do lots with tie wraps and even rubber bands and bailing wire(clearly insulating it is required).

I see you got some images. For testing some kind of string may work. Please note that these pads may have better conductivity when compressed a bit more.

Edit.

Yeah you can pull chips right off the board after thermal glue is set. It is made to stay for ever. Many thermal tapes stick quite well too.

Glad you like the VRM cooler image above It also has a fan on it for that extra cooling power.

 

[mrsweet1991]

People do lots with tie wraps and even rubber bands and bailing wire(clearly insulating it is required).

I see you got some images. For testing some kind of string may work. Please note that these pads may have better conductivity when compressed a bit more.

Edit.

Yeah you can pull chips right off the board after thermal glue is set. It is made to stay for ever. Many thermal tapes stick quite well too.

Glad you like the VRM cooler image above It also has a fan on it for that extra cooling power.

You've never come across such a professional job 😉

Highest quality materials

Support Bar

And an award for the biggest boj job you'ver ever seen

 

[nukemaster]

Looks good. How are the VRM temperatures.

The G10 fan should help too.

 

[mrsweet1991]

Looks good. How are the VRM temperatures.

The G10 fan should help too.

Hi,

To be honest it never made a fat lot of difference, because the metal strip was flexing when fixed down with the screws around 2 of the heat sinks in the middle weren't secured because the metal bar was bowing. If I remember correctly VRM was around 70 Degree's I think. My computer popped off again though so I assumed it wasn't doing any good and removed it.

However the computer popped off again after removing the VRM cooling, and I've just found out after all this time that the PSU fan doesn't work... I did actually post back on the 11th April asking if the stock R9 cooler would be over heating the PSU and everyone said it's very unlikely as the PSU can withstand big temperatures and so forth so I gave that a miss and have been working on cooling this R9 lol.

 

[nukemaster]

Well 70c is not all that bad for a VRM. The mosfet's can take that without any real issues.

Many users just go the fan route. I went with the old cooler because I like overkill and wanted to go fanless. I added the fan(70mm gelid, hope it lasts longer than the one in my media center[5 months for that one].) because I found that the heatsink was still getting quite hot.

Like most Nvidia reference cards, I have no VRM monitoring so can not say how hot it was getting. My case also has "bad" air flow(120mm out for the video card's and 120mm out for the cpu, no intake at all and only rather small vents to get air in) so any help I could get was good.

I can see the bar warp because of the way it is made. If you have it sideways it would work, but that would require a 90 degree bracket to attach to it and mount on the holes on the card.

Something like this very crude paint drawing

Or having a way to have a bar sideways on top of the current setup would work too.