Changing thermal compund on Graphics Card

[kerussm]

Hi I've got a Zotac GeForce 9800GT AMP! Edition, and I wish to put some thermal grease on it, but is one problem: I don't know what is that white thing on picture ? It is a lot dirty. My question is, can I throw this out, and put on this places Arctic Cooling MX-2 ?




Many thanks for help!

[sswilson]

Unfortunately, those thermal pads are typically a lot thicker than standard tim would be, and thus tim cannot be used to replace it as you would not have proper contact between the two surfaces.

[kerussm]

I see... So I have to buy something like PHOBYA Thermopad 0,5mm or 1,5mm? These pads from graphics card have 0.9mm . Something on the middle so which one I have to buy? 0,5mm or 1,5mm ? Graphics card was used 3 years, thermal grease was like a rock Maybe in this card was 1,5mm and after 3 years press force make it thicker? I'dont know Help?

Look:

[dandelioneater]

Originally Posted by kerussm

I see... So I have to buy something like PHOBYA Thermopad 0,5mm or 1,5mm? These pads from graphics card have 0.9mm . Something on the middle so which one I have to buy? 0,5mm or 1,5mm ? Graphics card was used 3 years, thermal grease was like a rock Maybe in this card was 1,5mm and after 3 years press force make it thicker? I'dont know Help?

I think you would get the 1.5mm pads because with the mounting pressure the old pads would have been compressed over time. If you buy pads that are too thin, there won't be sufficient contact/pressure to conduct heat from the chips.

Also, from my experience, don't use a blob of TIM instead of pads, bad things happen when one does that, as I found out.

[kerussm]

Originally Posted by dandelioneater

I think you would get the 1.5mm pads because with the mounting pressure the old pads would have been compressed over time. If you buy pads that are too thin, there won't be sufficient contact/pressure to conduct heat from the chips.

Also, from my experience, don't use a blob of TIM instead of pads, bad things happen when one does that, as I found out.

Thanks for answer, but I don't understand what You mean "don't use a blob of TIM instead of pads" ?

[dandelioneater]

well i had a radeon 3870 card and i wanted to install a waterblock on it. So the waterblock didnt come with any pads so i used paste instead. In order to fill in the gap i had to add a thick layer of paste so the vrm's/memory chips would touch the block. In the end the paste just oozed all over the place and the chips just overheated.

[Dragonstongue]

You can get all kinds of sizes, thickness, types of thermal pads, .5 to 2.0mm if what I have seen for sale, but it is better to go a little thicker as they will compress over time, however not to thick as they will not effectively transfer thier heat they way they should, even a thin pad with a touch of thermal paste under/over the pad will work, just make sure not to put to much, if the pads you have are .8, they more then likely were 1.0mm to begin with not 1.5 that is a very large difference really, the thinner the better, less getting in the way of heat transfer.

if you really wanted to be a little crazzy and could cut some aluminum or copper the size/thickness you need, you could get some non conductive thermal paste and a drop of crazy glue and attach it where you need it, it transfers heat very very well(metal to metal with no air to get in the way) a good paste for this would be MX4, you could also use the MX4 on the gpu core,ram chips,vregs etc, it works very well, is easy to clean, and best thing is it is non conductive or capacitive so no worries even if it does ooze a bit(but if it does, you put way to much or in the wrong place) Course if you do this, make 100% sure you want it here, as it more or less becomes permanent this way(unless you got the CG or model glue that has the remover stuff with it) to make sure it sticks real well, clean with rubbing alcohol 75% or better, I use Qtips, works well. I think this would be the best cooling you could get. Course, a thermal pad would be alot easier :O

Frozencpu has alot of different thermalpads, pastes etc, NCIX might, and newegg surely does, best of luck :)