question about heat sink on arcade boards

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I have had one of my heat sinks fall off of one of my chips. is that heat sink very important and if so, how can I put it back on. would any glue or adhesive work. Or does it have to be a special type of bonding material. Or were can I obtain another one with the chip en-tacked to it.


thanks in advance
 
In general, heat sinks will be less important if you operate your games in a climate-controlled environment (indoors), and for relatively brief periods of time (an hour or two or three, vice all day long--as for one making money).

Most heat sinks I've run across are pretty secure, soldered and/or screwed in place. Perhaps you should share a little more detail, like what board you're talking about (a power supply PCB, game PCB, if so which game?), and which chip is in question (type, location, ID etc.). The only situation like what you describe I've seen is on Atari's bit slice processors (2901s?), which run pretty warm, some people have fitted little adhesive heat sinks.
 
Or those little ones on the high speed RAMs on Pac boards - 2125's, I think?

Ususally it's not that big a deal, but you can stick them back on with a drop of glue.

-Ian
 
I am sorry it is the one on the playchoice 10 board. I just assumed the all heat sinks on any board were about the same. Like I always say "the assumptions is the mother of all f$ck ups". Lol I can give you the right chip when I get home. But it the only one with the heat sink I think.


Thanks in advance
 
it is the one on the playchoice 10 board

I'm not familiar with PC10s, but I looked at a photo of one, and it looks like the only heat sink is on a 2C03B @ 3H. That's some sort of video processor IC.

Perhaps someone with PC10 knowledge can let us know if it's prone failure if not heat-sinked (sunk?).

You might leave it on for an hour or so and (carefully) touch that IC to see if it is noticably warmer than others.
 
does anybody know what I can attach this heat sink back on with. I would rather put it back on to be safe than sorry later. Just need to know what to use. Don't know if there is special glue, adhesive, tape, etc.


thanks in advance
 
I think it is just there so it wouldn't overheat if left on all day in the arcade, because that chip doesn't make that much heat.

To put it back on you need to use thermal paste. They have some at RadioShack. Also try to clean off the old stuff before applying the new.
 
I think it is just there so it wouldn't overheat if left on all day in the arcade, because that chip doesn't make that much heat.

To put it back on you need to use thermal paste. They have some at RadioShack. Also try to clean off the old stuff before applying the new.

Thanks Rory and to everybody else that put their input in. I will go get in when I get off work.
 
Let us know how it works for you. I'm quite curious.

The "heat sink paste" I'm familiar with is more of a "paste" in the sense of "gooey substance" rather than in the sense of "permanent adhesive." But I've never bought the Radio Shack stuff.... can't wait to hear.
 
you can't just use thermal paste as it won't stay stuck, unless there's an adhesive thermal pad on it also.

there is a thermal epoxy that arctic silver puts out, it works extremely well and is normally used in home PC's. i'd use that over anything else it's only about 10$ i think from just about anywhere online.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_thermal_adhesive.htm

if a chip has a heatsink on it originally i would put it back on, it's there for a reason and would cause more of a headache/damage in the long run without it.

btw i use arctic silver 5 on all my PC heatsinks that have a mounting feature, if you do a search there isn't anything that compares.

i didn't see any arctic silver adhesive on radioshacks website, but it's worth looking into seeing if they have it i guess if you can't wait.
 
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Yeah, you'd definitely need a thermal epoxy, not just normal thermal paste. Thermal paste is good for transferring heat when the heatsink is attached some other way. The epoxy is thermally conductive, but also has strength. They also make thermal adhesive pads (basically like double-sided tape, but thermally conductive).

For the Pac boards, I typically replace any missing ones with some self-stick heatsinks meant for PC RAM chips... like this: http://www.pchub.com/uph/laptop/622-31688-7720/UPH-Heatsink-Cooler-Desktop---Fan-Heatsink.html? . I don't remember where I got them, but they were really cheap, and they actually work pretty well.

DogP
 
Thank you everybody for the reply's. I will end up getting the Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive, but get the 2 sided tape kind to just in case of emergency's. Thanks again everybody for the your input it helped me out alot.


thanks
 
A common mod for Commodore 64's was to stick little heat sinks on some of the chips - a couple of them ran pretty warm. A drop of superglue was used for that, although I have no idea of the heat transfer abilities of that sort of adhesive. Seemed to work though.

-Ian
 
that's what i said lol :D
Opps, Sorry. I was looking for an off the shelf solution for the guy.
I use to make my own with powdered silver/ ceramic powder / diamond powder it's too expensive to make it for one heatsink and chip. I was trying to find something that was widely available and something that was affordable and cheap.

Smiles.
 
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