arctic silver - Page 2

Heres the scoop.

m170's 68/78 cards have pads that are about 1/4" thick. Removing them would result in a gap and your heatsink will no longer make contact with the GPU and it will fry. Even if you put AS5 on it, the gap is too big.

The solution if you want to AS5 is to remove the heatsink.. apply AS5 to the GPU core, flip over the heatsink, remove the pad, apply AS5 to the heatsink, put the pad BACK ON and then put the heatsink back on the GPU. You have AS5 on both sides of the pad.

Unless your skillfull and can make a copper shim to fill the gap, this is your only solution.

thanks drinkmore. do you know if there is a place to buy a copper shim that will fit or one that can be modded to fit? that pad sounds like it's not getting the job done.

btw, i just bought my torx screwdriver at home depot. it included the driver and four heads (sizes 1-8, one on each end) for $6.

now i've got a project to do tomorrow.

Hehe.

Not sure where to buy something like a copper shim. Im sure if you look around at some of the PIMP my computer websites that are abound, you might have some luck. Sorry I can't help.

That is pretty cheap. I paid 13 bux for mine at RatShack because HD didn't have any sets below 25 bux.

Umm, are you really suggesting that he re-use the stock thermal pad(those thick blue things) by putting AS5 on it??? Seriously?? That's the worst idea ever. You're not ever supposed to use two different thermal solutions, ie a pad and a paste, or even two different pastes. If there is too much of a gap for AS5 to fill then you need to use a copper shim. Re-using the thermal pad with AS5 on it not only is not going to work, it'll probably make your temps worse!

I don't know what it looks like on the 7800GTX, but on my x1400 the core of the gpu is right up against the heatsink(no gap) with just a thin piece of metal foil attached to the heatsink but the memory has a pretty big gap between it and the heatsink(I'm not sure why but my cards have never had thermal pads on the memory, not sure why). I used copper shims(.025") between the memory and the heatsink(with AS5 on both sides of the copper shim) and just AS5 on the gpu core. The core of any gpu should be right up against the heatsink, there shouldn't be any gap. Usually the memory is the part that hs a gap because the chips aren't as tall as the gpu core.

Either way, if you really want to lower your temps, and there is actually a gap between the gpu core and the HS, you need to use copper or some other kind of metal that wil transfer heat well. Re-using the thermal pad is a no-no, it's just not going to work even with AS5. If you're going to go through the effort to take everything apart, do it right.

I beg to differ sir.

I did it and noticed a temp. drop. In all honesty, my temps never rose above 80/81.

umm...

When I put AS5 on my 7800GTX I don't remember one of thoes blue thermal pads. Whatever it was on my GPU I removed it, cleaned it, and put AS5 on the sync, and a thin layer on top of the GPU. I screwed it back down and I was done. My temps are about 60 after playing WoW for 20 minutes and stay there for hours on end. Granted my GPU fan runs at High speed to maintane that temp.

Tis probably why your temps are that high. There is a gap inbetween your heatsink and GPU core. Might want to take a look at it

OK then... How is it that this thread.

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=80879

Says nothing about a copper shim, or thick blue thermal pad. I followed the guide like probaly everyone else who put AS5 on their GPU did.

My apologies. I did not look to see you had a 9300.. the video card pictured is a different layout than the one in an M170.

so the 9300 doesn't have a thermal pad but the m170 does?

Would be interested to find out. I know my 68 did and I looked and swore the 78 had one as well. So I did not fool with it.