thermal paste for video cards?

thanks....  going to apply to the videocard and cpu....

 

 

AS 5 worked great for me.

It would be more successful used in conjunction with the full heat mod following:

http://www.bay-wolf.com/8500videoheat.htm

stu

if you just go slapping thermal paste on it wont stuff collect on it and cause worse heat problems over time?, not an informed assumption at all just wondering....

---

@mikers85 wrote:
if you just go slapping thermal paste on it wont stuff collect on it and cause worse heat problems over time?, not an informed assumption at all just wondering....

---

You use thermal paste between the hot surface (GPU, CPU, Memory Chips) and a heatsink. The paste itself does not cool the chips its purpous is to efficiently transfer the heat to something else that can disapate it.

ok, I got two questions please.... 

if I remember correctly, there was this white squishy pad above my video card when I replaced it...I think that is acting like a thermal-like paste now on the Quadro....  do I remove that and use only AS5 or do I use both in conjunction?

regarding the Baywolf video card mod....  that card is not the same one listed in his instructions....  can I still apply this to my Quadro card?

thanks...

 

 

Message Edited by brooklyn8200 on 08-04-2004 01:30 PM

Thermal paste is used to fill in small microscopic gaps (hopefully just microscopic) between the core of a processor and the heatsink. Since no core and not heatsink are perfectly flat, a thermal paste/tape/pad must be used. Thermal Tape/Pad (generally wax) is the most common for OEM machines because they are cheap abd easy to use and provide much larger margin of error on imperfect heatsinks.

So, the white squishy pad most liekly was the thermal pad. If you wish to use AS5, you need to make sure you remove all traces of the old thermal pad. Use rubbing alcohol or acetone to remove it; might even need to use a razor blade. It is NOT a good idea to mix types of thermal pads/wax/tape/paste. When applying the AS5, apply as THIN a layer as you possibly can, but still enough to make full contact between the core and the heatsink. Again, the reason is because the thermal paste is meant to fill in gaps, not be the primary heat transfer material. IIf you don't have practice/experience doing this, apply a VERY small amount of paste to the core. Use a straight edge (credit card / razor balde) to evenly spread the paste over the core. You want no more than about a sheet of paper thickness. Then, apply the heatsink. Then, pull the heatsink off and see if there is full contact. This will be indicated by a perfect sqaure (or the same shape as the core) of paste on the heatsink. Any large gaps in paste on the heatsink means the paste is not touching the heatsink and thus you would have serious overheating problems. Once you have practice with getting the right amount, just apply the thermal paste, and attach the heatsink.

As for the copper shim. This procedure should apply to any video card. You may need a smaller/larger peice of copper per your application.