Can I harm my Video Card (Nvidia 1660 something-or-other 6GB) by putting Kaptop tape on the bare solder to stop short circuits?

[illavbill]

Id give you more specifics, but my motherboard has been screaming at me since the evening before a GIGANTIG upgrade to one of the most important programs/systems that our company has.  I said F-it, powered it down and plugged in an old laptop into my third monitor that's not used for the work PC over VGA, and I'm using a Logitech K400r KB and M510 mouse.  I thank god have AMD and a Cooler Master Storm Stryker - the white one I think is the name of this monster of a case (I put locking 360* spinning 1/2" casters on it making moving it a breeze.  There is a large cutout by CM behind the CPU that's like 9x6 so plenty to remove / reinstall the bracket behind the CPU when I get around to it.  I REALLY MISS My main PC, and gaming all that, but I work in IT for a VERY LARGE company and have been computer'd out for the last month or so.  Things are getting better now (Things that I told management and the project manager plus bringing up in meetings that this needs to be done x way or all this stuff will stop working)  I got told to STFU in management speak I'm still salty cuz I had to and am still fixing the fallout as it requires coordinating with multiple of our customers and other companies it's been hell.  However, I need to shoot some Nazis and Demons in the new Wolfenstein and Doom.  

 

I have a bunch of 120 or 140 mm fans in here moving air, but it's silent I love it.  My EVGA 280mm AIO running my OC'd FX 8350 (hate away) at 4.5GHz and I have the RAM cranked up a LOT, but pretty sure all I did was up the Multiplier and sped the ram up, I've never had a crash.  I make plenty to get a net system, but this runs everything I need fine... plus I like buying a nice AMD mobo and using it for as long as I can and upgrade it as far as it will allow. I have a great paying job, but I like buying used parts at times when they're old, not ever video card, hdd, or power supply.  I drove 45 minuts to get this huge discontnued case for $75 with a 240mm AIO I don't need, but I'll put it to use in my workshop to keep the dust/saw dust out of my case as much as possible.  I got the mobo and a junk 3.2 4core AM3 w/ a 120mm AIO for like $120 and the motheboard was still sellig new at Fry's.  I went to Fry's on Black Fridy and bought a few Samsung SSDs when they first really came out and we worth it and got a 760 2GB video card I think... I know it was 700 series and 16GB of Patriot Viper 1866 2x8GB kit (6 years later I found the exact same model and timings on sale at newegg... might as well make it 32). I had to upgrade the processor because the other was too slow so I got the 8350 on ebay for ilke $50 or 60 and the second new Wolfenstein game lauhed at my puny 700 series card, so I bought the 1660 6gb which released like a week before.  I had a workstation at home I rebuilt and put the 700 series and maxxed the ram out for my friend who doesn't game and recouped most of the card cost.

 

Anyways, the EVGA 280mm AIO appears to have had it's pump stop working and with a 5 year warranty, I'm going to RMA it and I'm not going to pay $150 plus shipping to just get one send to me right away, so I'm going to put it in the original box and wait a few weeks.  I jus bought a cheap cooler didn't want to go Noctua because if I did I'd want to get the best I could and one that would work and let me OC when I finally upgrade to a Ryzen and this would have been very close to the cost of my EVGA 280mm AIO..  I have the original Cooler Master V8 on my dead AM2+ machine that just needs a new power supply, but its in this awesome Lian-Li case, but w/o and access port to behind the CPU so it stays together.. for now. I forget the processor I have in it, but it's the again most the M2N-SLI-Deluxe will take with Maxxed out RAM, SSD, and two 8800gtx SLI'd together I bought new stupidly for $550 each ouch!.

 

I just grabbed a cheap tower cooler with okay reviews that was on Amazon Prime free shipping I got it next day, sweet!  Note this was right around x-mas so things were all out of stock or taking 3 weeks to ship (blah x3) and at that time I was only 1 week into the upgrade fallout (Gotta love operations/ management DEMANDING things be done with a small team, around the holidays, and 2 months shorter than the vendor or we were comfortable with, but no choice!!!). 

 

At that time I just wanted to get my PC running so I could game again because with COVID I now work from home and that's one of my few legit escapes even though it's just swapping monitor inputs, and grabbing my Razer peripherals and putting my Dell ones away. 

 

However, then work happened.. I had 3 weeks of pure hell where I didn't work under 68hr/week I'm salary so it just happened, the most time I tracked was 78hr in 1 week.  All because the higherups didn't listen to me about one specific VERY important thing, I was told to STFU multiple times, but in manager speak.  Of course I got stuck fixng it, well I got assigned to fix it, the issue is a long painful fix that requires multiple people, departments, and companies.

 

I was so computer'd out that a laptop I took out of the Trash/Recycle box, and fixed years ago by adding my own battery, max RAM,  ssd, and drive holder made me content enough with the wireless keyboard and mouse it felt like a real PC and it was sitting on a build in pogress under my desk LOL.

 

Life is slowly gettting back to normal work amounts, I got my first COVID shot, the upgrade issues are very frew and far inbetween now so I'm going to get my main system working again, but I would likee some advice, if someone doesn't mind sharing.. I'm going to go the slow RMA route.

 

 

SO FINALLY, MY QU ESTION NOW and plans... (SO SORRY ABOUT THE RANT I HAD TO GET IT OFF MY CHEST, ugh).

Months back when I was first playing with OCing my system, I was told the mobo version I have doesn't like voltages being messed with with and it can kill or damage the VRMs so i just went with speeding the RAM up and upping the multiplier.  I never got over about 30* with light browsing at 4.5GHz constant and solid, never had the system crash once.  Gaming it would get to like mid 50's I think and you could hear the fans.  I'm bothered that the NorthBridge and Mosfet heatsinks don't seem to be very secure.... loose really, I took a small fan from an am2 board designed to hook onto a NB heatsink and plopped it on mine.

 

I'm going to carefully remove the plastic spring loaded barb fasteners and see what the compound looks like under there and see if there is a way to secure it better.  I bought 30 of these re replace the stock ones with I'll test with the ones I can see the barbs through the space build into the case behind the CPU area and carefully compress/push them out.  I'm not sure if they're thermal pads or a thermal compound.... either way they're getting upgraded and more secure.  I got all this stuff when I was first going to OC my processor, but was too lazy to get around to it, but the PC is sedated and ready for surgery.

 

I have two brand new tubes of thermal grease/compound/whatever you want to call it, and I'm unsure which to use, I'm leaning toward the MX-4 for the CPU when I get AIO back, but Arctic Silver 5 hasn't ever done me wrong.

 

I got the thermal compound for the CPU, but it's seeming like he NB and MOSFET heatsinks need to be fixed better securing and compound.

I also have double-sided thermal transfer tape so I can fold it up and use it to support parts of the heatsink just hanging out in the air.

 

 

 

 

I wanted to play it extra safe, so I bought two sets of 10mx10mm copper heat sinks and a roll of double-sided thermal adhesive tape, the stuff shown above (25m x 10mm x 0.20mm), it should be able to hold the heatsinks to the VRMs just fine with a 10x10mm piece each.  I just put a piece of the thermal transfer double-sided tape on one of the heatsinks and the whole thing including the tape weighs 4.44grams.  

 

I'm planning to put these on the VRMs to cool them off a bit.  There are a few other hot spots I want to put it them on too.  If the NB and MOSFET heatsinks aren't attached by thermal foam I should be able to upgrade to better hold downs and thermal compound.  If they have pads on them to transfer the heat, think I should put a single layer of the double sided thermal tape on the chip and stick the heat sink to it? Maybe cover the whole back of the heatsink so it doesn't touch and short out.  If these barb attachments don't work, I can always go the trieed and true method and get nylon nuts and bolts as I've done in past projects.

 

To replace my AIO while it's being RMA'd I bought a cheap, literally under $40 Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black edition it has 4 heat pipes that touch the heat spreader of the CPU and they're pretty dang flat, not perfect, but I'm not lapping them i can barely tell there are 4 separate heat pipes, they did a great job at the factory flattening/lapping the surface.  The cooler comes with only a single fan and it's RGB a single fan that's RGB, and while my case and peripherals are all RGB'd out I'm NOT wiring RGB for a single sinking fan.  Always, it comes with hardware to mount a second fan on the other side of the cooler, so I'm removing the RGB and putting two identical fans on there, in push/pull config.  I have 3 fans pushing fresh air in the front of the case to the hit the intake side of the cooler and it'll exhaust out the other side directly into a 140m fan,  Since i'll be removing the 280mm radiator on the top of the case, I have to other fans I'll be putting in it's place to exhaust warm air out of the top.  It has filters under the case too and with the casters on, it can pull fresh air in there if it has the need to.

 

My Biggest concern, honestly is a copper heatsinks tape failing and the highly conductive metal shorting out my video card.  On the EVGA GEFORCE GTX 1660 XC, here are no RAM chips visible on the back of the card.  The PCB ends and then there is a good 4 inches of just heatsink extending out.  I think i'll be safe if I were to take my Kapton tape and put a layer over the spots with bare solder so if one falls it won't kill my card.  I don't think the heat insulation properties are great enough to cause problems especially with that fresh air going through the case.

 

I am wondering if I can pull off leaving it at 4.5 on air, I know I should be able to for basic computer usage, probably not gaming though.

 

An recommendations?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Has anybody done anything similar with Kapton to stop shorts?

 

[kddjfdnfjsojhfidhvdhudhvi]

YOU WOULD NOT HARM IT

[mariushm]

wall of text ... not gonna read that.

 

There's a small risk of chips overheating, if you cover them in kapton tape. The package surface no longer gets a bit of airflow over it, helping with the cooling ... but if those chips are so hot to the point that lack of natural air convection would kill them, they needed heatsinks in the first place.

 

[illavbill]

Those copper heat sinks would be stuck to my VRMs with double-sided thermal transfer tape .2mm thick because my mobo is known for those failing if you mess with voltage while OC'ing. I'm just upping multiplier and running ram at 1333 mhz I think.  Anyway the NorthBridge and Mosfet heatsinks seem like they're pretty crappily held on maybe here is a thermal foam in between,'

 

My worry is the very conductive copper blocks (they weigh exactly 4.44g with the 10x10mm of tape, falling off of the VRMs and landing on the flat surface... my video card.  There is no ram on that side and a gigantic heatsink with two fans on my card that should dissipate all of the heat it quires. I wouldn't put layers and layers or wrap the thing, just one layer over the exposed solder points,

 

Other question is MX-4 or Arctic Silver 5 for my CPU, I've used this stuff I think from Antec was a grease, with a nali polish style applicator, worked great for me, but benchmarking sites said otherwise.  Perfection for CPU coverage, super thin coating, and I've heard MX-4 is better, but I'm unsure it sure was more expensive haha.  Do you know how north bridges are typically built for their thermal interface between the chip and heatsink?  Foam, Sticker, glue, glob of paste?

[illavbill]

9 hours ago, mariushm said:

wall of text ... not gonna read that.

 

There's a small risk of chips overheating, if you cover them in kapton tape. The package surface no longer gets a bit of airflow over it, helping with the cooling ... but if those chips are so hot to the point that lack of natural air convection would kill them, they needed heatsinks in the first place.

 

i was half asleep when I read your reply, but yeah, the chips on the back of the EVGA GTX 1660 XC appear to just be resisters and other small surface mount devices.  I have a coffee mug heater thing you plug in.  I think i'll grab one of those heatsinks, put a 10x10mm piece of the thermal double-sided tape on the bottom of it , stick it to the heating part of the coffee cup / warmer / candle melter lol....and put the coffee mug heater on it's side maybe I should add some weight and see how strong it really is..  I have like 25M of the stuff LOL.  I've only got 20 of the copper heatsinks with a whopping sq CM of space on the base.... so I need let's say a total of 25cm of the tape if I were to mount all of them counting for extra overhang etc.  

 

I know!, I have 1/8" and 1/16" or 1/4" thick 4 foot pieces of aluminum.  I'll stick something many times heavier than the ~4.5g of the heat sinks, then use my 80s-early90's eat/paint stripping gun - it's freaking nuts might as well be a blow torch LOL.  I'll mount the aluminum in a vice wrapped in junk leather and it it doesn't' fall I probably won't even put any Kapton tape across part of the exposed solder.  I think the double-sided take will go to like 180C before the stick beomes an issue.