Joe said:
Hello,
I just bought a Powercolor Radeon 9600SE, and the heatsink seems to be maybe
not exactly "loose", but "moveable"; can anyone tell me if this is normal
for these video cards? Thanks.
Regards,
Joe
Is the heatsink held on with push pins, Joe? In that case, thermal contact
with the GPU is made with thermal compound (not adhesive) and a little
movement is normal. If the heatsink's not held on with push pins, it's
attached with thermal adhesive, and there should be no movement. In this
latter case, if there is any movement, the heatsink is not making good
thermal contact with the GPU and you'll quickly get serious overheating
problems.
If it's attached with adhesive, you've got two choices: either RMA the
card - if you want to maintain the warranty on the card, this is your
option - or knock the heatsink off (usually easy, anyway; if it's "moveable"
it should be very easy), clean off the heatsink and chip, and reattach the
heatsink with a good thermal adhesive, such as Arctic Silver (that's
adhesive, _not_ compound).
One word of warning - factory attached heatsinks are usually fairly easily
knocked off. If you reattach it yourself with a good thermal adhesive, it
won't be: for this reason, many people mix some thermal compound in with the
adhesive so it makes a less effective bond. You may decide to change to a
different heatsink, or use a different cooler that involves removing the
heatsink, in future so you may want to leave your options open in this way.
HTH patrickp
