How To Replace Heatsinks Without Ruining The X-clamp Options

[joh123]

Hi,
I own an RGH Jasper and since I have taken out the DVD drive, I'm planning to change the heatsinks. I will put a 1st gen CPU heatsink on the CPU and a 2nd gen CPU heatsink on the GPU. However, I want to leave the original X-clamps. The question is - how should it be done? Do I have to take the clamps off, replace the heatsinks, put the clamps back? Or can the sinks be removed without removing the clamps and leaving the "bolts" where they are?

JTAGgers, RGHers, how have you done it?

Thank you in advance!

-edit-
Well, I checked some pictures and it seems that the clamps must be taken off in order to release the heatsinks. I thought that maybe one could use a hex/allen ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_key ) to release the heatsinks without taking off the x-clamps..

So - how do you do it without damaging the x-clamps and how do you put them back on?

This post has been edited by joh123: Mar 27 2012, 09:07 PM

[Jumpy_Beans]

Yeah you'll have to take the xclamp off to get the heatsink off.
The easiest and pretty much only way is to put a small flathead screw driver in the outside of the xclamp by the bolt. Then just push down a little bit and kind of pry it toward the outside to unlatch it from the bolt.
The only way I could see that you would damage the xclamp would be if you bent it while it was off.
Hope this helps.

[joh123]

Hi, this is pretty much what I did when I was fixing an ex-RROD Xenon I had some time back.. but in that case I never put the clamp back on.. how about putting it back on? Will it hold firmly?

[Jumpy_Beans]

Yeah it should hold just fine, put it on the reverse way you took it off.

[joh123]

Um, so the lever that I start taking the clamp off from (with a flathead) will be the last one to fit when putting it back?

Any vids or tutorials with pictures anywhere, I wonder?:S