How strong is thermal tape?

Behemoth69 · 21-April-03, 04:30 PM

I want to attach an alluminum cpu cooler to my vid card. Im going to have to attach it using thermal tape, since it has no screw holes, and i dont want to use epoxy, unless it can be removed easily.

Jonny English · 21-April-03, 06:26 PM

'moth, if you mean by "thermal tape" the patch of compound covered by a bit of tape that you find on standard CPU coolers, then no - it doesn't have any adhesive qualities.

Epoxy resin is pretty much permanent - you can get it off, but it'll destroy the components you try to remove it from in the process.

If your video card does have holes for a heatsink to be mounted on it, why can't you drill the heatsink to match ?

I'd be concerned about the extra weight on the video card, and the strain that's going to put on your motherboard.
I think your going to have to look at some sort of bracket to hold the cooler in place.

IronSerif · 21-April-03, 06:29 PM

I heard that it's pretty strong. I'm not too sure if will hold a cooler or not, but everyone says that the thermal tape that comes with memory cooling kits are really strong and are hard to get off.

Behemoth69 · 21-April-03, 06:30 PM

Im meaning the stuff you can buy from 3m that is adhesive, with good thermal transfer abilities. Theres no holes in my vid card, thats why i just cant drill holes into the hs. As for weight, i was worried about that too, but i've seen it done many times before, so id just place it onto the card (putting something no condctive between it of course) and seeing what happens lol

Knight2040 · 21-April-03, 06:34 PM

yeah i have 2 on my voodoo 5500 and they have stayed on there for a year now and it was pretty difficlut to remove when i decided to liquid cool the voodoo and put some water blocks on there. now make sure the gpu is FLAT cuz i had a voodoo 4500 that has some residue of thermal expoxy and the blue orb fell off about an hour later i put it on.....that didnt work out too well other then that yea its pretty strong. But remember i only taped an orb style cooler on my vid card and not a cpu cooler

putwig · 21-April-03, 09:34 PM

I used frag tape to mount my HSF on my northbridge with no difficulty.

Dimazz · 21-April-03, 09:41 PM

I used the tape before and i mounted a blue orb on with it, fell off in about 10 min. So i got the epoxy which works well. Ive read somewhere about how to get it off. If i find the like ill post it.

21-April-03, 04:30 PM		#1 (permalink)
Behemoth69 Apex Techie II	How strong is thermal tape? I want to attach an alluminum cpu cooler to my vid card. Im going to have to attach it using thermal tape, since it has no screw holes, and i dont want to use epoxy, unless it can be removed easily.

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21-April-03, 06:26 PM		#2 (permalink)
Jonny English Etiquette & English Gentleman	'moth, if you mean by "thermal tape" the patch of compound covered by a bit of tape that you find on standard CPU coolers, then no - it doesn't have any adhesive qualities. Epoxy resin is pretty much permanent - you can get it off, but it'll destroy the components you try to remove it from in the process. If your video card does have holes for a heatsink to be mounted on it, why can't you drill the heatsink to match ? I'd be concerned about the extra weight on the video card, and the strain that's going to put on your motherboard. I think your going to have to look at some sort of bracket to hold the cooler in place.

21-April-03, 06:29 PM		#3 (permalink)
IronSerif Lead Pimp Writer? Hell Yeah!	I heard that it's pretty strong. I'm not too sure if will hold a cooler or not, but everyone says that the thermal tape that comes with memory cooling kits are really strong and are hard to get off.

21-April-03, 06:30 PM		#4 (permalink)
Behemoth69 Apex Techie II	Im meaning the stuff you can buy from 3m that is adhesive, with good thermal transfer abilities. Theres no holes in my vid card, thats why i just cant drill holes into the hs. As for weight, i was worried about that too, but i've seen it done many times before, so id just place it onto the card (putting something no condctive between it of course) and seeing what happens lol

21-April-03, 06:34 PM		#5 (permalink)
Knight2040 Apex Techie Lite	yeah i have 2 on my voodoo 5500 and they have stayed on there for a year now and it was pretty difficlut to remove when i decided to liquid cool the voodoo and put some water blocks on there. now make sure the gpu is FLAT cuz i had a voodoo 4500 that has some residue of thermal expoxy and the blue orb fell off about an hour later i put it on.....that didnt work out too well other then that yea its pretty strong. But remember i only taped an orb style cooler on my vid card and not a cpu cooler

21-April-03, 09:34 PM		#6 (permalink)
putwig Dr. Hydro Pimp	I used frag tape to mount my HSF on my northbridge with no difficulty.

21-April-03, 09:41 PM		#7 (permalink)
Dimazz Sk8-Hoe-r	I used the tape before and i mounted a blue orb on with it, fell off in about 10 min. So i got the epoxy which works well. Ive read somewhere about how to get it off. If i find the like ill post it.