Heatsink removal on an ATI 9000

[i_am_kali]

Hi,
it's a n00bish question, but how do you remove the heatsink on an ATi radeon 9000 when the glue is applied? it's somewhat irratating considering I want to run the card at an extreme speed without much chance of overheating, but the chances are that, with this heatsink I won't be able to push above 320-330 without dangerously high temperatures.
regards.

[spectre440]

most ATI sinks use pins that "expand" after they're pushed in and hold the heatsink in place.
get a pair of nice thin "bottleneck" tweezers and gently apply a modest amount of pressure to the pinks that hold the sink in on the back of the card. be very careful not to damage the card. when they "compress" gently push them out.

if you've already done that and your problem is that the TIM (thermal interface material) is holding the sink to the card itself then first of all try to very gently swivel the sink a bit a few degrees to either side without applying too much force. try to make the sink move a few milimeters in each direction at a time, that usually breaks the TIM "bond" between the sink and the card. if that dosent work, try getting hair dryer and turn it on low and try warming up the sink a bit. usually the thermal pad will soften a bit and allow you to manuver it a bit and release it.

also, just so you know, the 9000 is quite an outdated card by today's standards. you might be able to overclock it and get a bit of an increase in performance and gaming, but if you're looking for something that'll "haul" today's games; you seriously need to consider getting a new card.

someone else will probably correct me if im wrong, but i dont think that the 9000's are even directx 9 and pixel shader 2.0 compatible.