Hot or cold, removing the stock heatsink

[Lonemagi]

Just ordered some ramsinks and arctic alumina, going to beef up my radeon 8500le. Im also gonna add on a copper cooler for the gpu, and I am wondering to the best method of removing the stock one. I have heard 2 ways of doing this:
1 run a graphic intense game till it gets hot, remove the card, and the glue is softened.

2 put it in a ziplock bacg and place in the freezer (or spray canned air upside down on the heatsink) then pry the bastard off.

I have heard that placing a credit card btween teh gpu and sink wil allow you to twist a flathead screwdriver to pop off the sink.

Is this safe? and what method works better, hot or cold?

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[error_911]

well dude, I replaced the stock on my Chaintech GeForce4 MX440 (I OC the core stable from 270 -> 340 and the RAM, without RAMsinks yet, from 305 to 340 - though I have a 120mm 104cfm fan in the window) with a ThermalTake Crystal Orb... Basically, I had no problems whatsoever since the stock was kept in place with push-pins and plain white thermal paste was used between the GPU and heatsink, though I still did need to pry a little bit with the use of a credit-card wedged-up beside it and a little phillips-head screw-driver pushing underneath, while trying to minimize contact with the GPU. whether your GPU is glued-on or simply has paste, the thermal interface material is meant to withstand extremely high temps, therefore removing it while hot would most likely not change a thing, and I personally do not like the idea of sticking a peice of my computer into the freezer and "snapping" of a peice of it, its just unsettling... just do it when its room temperature or whatever, i don't think you gotta do anything special

<b>Moore's Law:</b> <i>Processor speed doubles every 12 to 18 months.</i>
<b>OverClcoker's Law:</b> <i>My processor went that fast 12 to 18 months ago.</i>

 

[Lonemagi]

yeah, unfortunatly there are no pin holes on this card, that would make my life easy. Its glued on, and quite well at that.

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[error_911]

well in that case, i would actually recommend a flat "Gillette" style razor-blade (the type you would use to clean glass and sh*t)... just slide-up the credit-card to the side (basically to avoid damage to the board and GPU) and just slide the blade under the heatsink nice and slow, just rocking it back and forth to kind-of wedge it off... just be nice and slow, and try to angle your blade upwards and away from the GPU... foloow you blade with the credit-card... it will help leverage the heatsink off as well as (like i said) protect the card... good luck, or actually, have fun

<b>Moore's Law:</b> <i>Processor speed doubles every 12 to 18 months.</i>
<b>OverClocker's Law:</b> <i>My processor went that fast 12 to 18 months ago.</i>

 

[Crashman]

Hot doesn't usually work because most often they use an Epoxy based compound, epoxy doesn't melt, it burns!

OK, so cold DOES make the epoxy brittle, you can try it if needed, I've never had to.

<font color=blue>There are no stupid questions, only stupid people doling out faulty information based upon rumors, myths, and poor logic!</font color=blue>

 

[NE_Corridor]

I've have stuck both a voodoo3 and a radeon 9000 in the freezer for about half hour and slid a junky CD (mobo cd that I didn't need anymore) underneath to pry the heatsink off. I had no problems.