Thermal paste for G73JH GPU

Hello for everyone.
I've noticed that Asus stock GPU thermal paste degrading very fast. Since I recieved my G73JH(April). At same conditions temps got higher for 2C. So, I am considering to change Thermal paste on GPU. Problem is that, I can't find any other brand than Arctic silver here. We have AS5, AS ceramique, AS Matrix. Which one of them would you suggest?
to member of forum that changed thermal paste on their GPU: could you, please, share experince about methods of applying, Thermal paste brands and temperature drops?
I've seen forum members publishing their repasting results in different threads. I think it will be nice, if we will gather all that stuff here as reference for others.
Thanks!
Update1: For those users who are planning to redo thermal paste I found those 2 interesting liks. So, for seeker of perfect TIM application look here and here

 

I used IC Diamond 7 because that is what Ken Lee at GenTech uses. I had some Arctic Silver on hand but I looked up some benchmarks that showed ICD7 was clearly out performing AS5. I don't work there or sell it. That's just what I saw on the interwebz.

I used the BTO Tech video as a guide to disassemble the laptop. I found it to be excellent. I was a little confused on a couple of points. To get the keyboard out, you need to insert the screwdriver in the slots at the top of the keyboard. The trick is to tilt the handle toward yourself so that the tip is angled toward the screen. That way you get past the tab and you can pop it out. The BTO video shows the guy doing that. Also, the cables with metal connectors and black cloth like tap on them have a thick clear tape like tab that is taped down to the motherboard. You lift this tape like tab and peel it up off the motherboard and the stationary portion of the metal connector. Then it slips right out of the socket. This is best done with tweezers. The other thing I wasn't sure about was the tiny white plug in the upper right portion of the motherboard. They say to gently pry it up. It is delicate. The socket it is plugged into is white and the thing you need to remove is white. Don't pry up from the motherboard. I gently pried on the socket before I realized that is not where it comes apart. The rest of it is explained really well in the video. Heck, it's probably all explained well in the video, but those are the things that I didn't understand perfectly until I had done them myself.

 

Hopefully this will give you an idea what the paste is like... at least on my laptop. It is very thick and sticky. It would remind you of play-dough or plumber's putty.

Also, you can get a good look at the thermal pads. Mine looked to be made from a soft rubbery material. They looked like they were making excellent contact and the memory chips looked very clean so I left that part alone.

 

Thanks for sharing your experince with us, Jody. That will be extermly helpful for those who will decide to repaste their GPU. How do you apply themal paste is it "credit card" or single dot metod?

 

single size of pea then press heatsink down.

Jody/Chastity you showed both sides of the gpu there. Did you only paste the side with the copper metal??

the other side the clear rubbery stuff, is that the thermal pad?

 

IC Diamond 7 web site said to make a pea sized dot 5 to 5.5 mm in diameter and then install the heat sink so that's what I did. I cleaned the crap out of everything with alcohol and q-tips. Then I put the pea sized portion right in the middle and reinstalled the heat sink.

 

Thanks gyus! Very useful info.

 

I just got the repaste work done two hours ago.

Before repasted, the GPU idle temps (DispIO/MemIO/Shader) were 64/74/68 C (ambient 28 C), and Furmark stress test could have last for only 1 minutes before shutdown.

Having carefully ripped apart the notebook and applied the IC Diamond 7 paste, now I have idle temps of 54/60/56 C; Furmark stress test holds stable at 82/90/85 C. I'm quite pleased with it.

 

Congrats and welcome to the repaste club.

 

is there a detailed step by step guide for accessing the CPU and applying the paste?

 

repaste club...

I'll join this in a few days.Now waiting 4 the pasting stuff...

 

Yes.Just google for BTOTech g73 disassembly take apart guide

 

Pretty much the other guys detailed everything about quantity of paste, and such with IC Diamond. For Arctic Silver 5, I would do a thin line down the long middle of the GPU, about 3/4 the length of the gpu, centered. This would emulate the technique they use for CPUs. Should give a pretty comprehensive cover. ICD7 would be a small ball, squeezing about as much of 1/2 the width of a human finger pinky nail. This should equate to a small pea, or 1/2 a kernel of corn.

With all the repasting going on, not only will we have Club Repaste, we can also have Team IC Diamond vs Team Arctic Silver 5 / <insert paste name here>

 

Thaks Chastity for advice.BTW what are guys think what paste will be better AS5 ASC or AS matrix?

 

This is a benchmark I looked at before I ordered ICD7...
IC Diamond Thermal Compound Review Overclockers Tech

ICD7 was one degree cooler than AS Ceramique. AS Ceramique was one degree cooler than AS 5. I'm not sure that Ceramique is OK for aluminum heat sinks. The contact portion is copper, but the sink is mostly aluminum. There was one compound that I found that was even better than ICD7 but it was not compatible with aluminum so I steered away from it. I didn't think a compound that corrodes aluminum should be inside the G73.

 

I really love ICD7 now. It simply transmit heat like hell... When playing Starcraft II, the maximum MemIO temperature now is 83 C while I could have hit 107 C before repasted quite often.

 

I'll also vouch for ICD7. However, keep in mind that this particular thermal paste does stain the CPU die quite noticeably which may affect the resale value if you plan on selling your CPU at a later date.

 

Only problem with ICD7 is it's a pain to get off everything, fingers,GPU, CPU , once its on it likes to stay on.
But I still love the stuff, I've also had good results with MX-3 it's almost just as good and much easier to work with.
They say ICD7 is much easier to work with when it's soaked in warm/hot water for a few minutes before use which is true but be careful once you remove the tube from the water you dry it off really well, when I used it for the first time after soaking the tube and removing all the hardware I starting squeezing the plunger(whatever you call it!) some water was trapped inside it and I almost pooped my pants when I seen a drop of water come out,luckily with my cat like reflexes I moved fast enough to not get any inside.
Just be careful people.

 

Team Arctic Silver 5 checking in

Only an hour into the 200 hour break-in period, but some preliminary checks with HWiNFO32(except for the Furmark run)...

Idle Pre-repaste (23.9C ambient)
Thermal Diode 61.0C
DispIO 54.0C
MemIO 62.0C
Shader 60.0C

Idle Post-repaste (26.7C ambient)
Thermal Diode 57.0C
DispIO 51.5C
MemIO 57.5C
Shader 57.0C

Heaven Benchmark ~20minutes (26.7C ambient)
Thermal Diode 87.0C
DispIO 77.5C
MemIO 87.5C
Shader 87.5C

FFXIV Benchmark ~20minutes (26.7C ambient)
Thermal Diode 93.0C
DispIO 80.5C
MemIO 92.5C
Shader 93.5C

Furmark ~20 minutes XTreme/PostFX/1920x1080windowed (26.7C ambient) Furmark temp plateaued at 95C - a bit better than the 108C/109C it was pushing before I shut it down the other day.


Need to check idle again tomorrow morning when it's cool in here again.

Going to play some BFBC2 in a bit to check that out.

Only a few weeks of break-in period left

 

Nice! The bad thing of AS themal pastes is curing time. Wihich method of applying thermal paste you used? Which AS TIM you think will give best results AS5, ASC or AS Matrix?

 

Ugh...I opened up the bottom of my g73jh when I got it back from RMA due to the screen not turning on and finding my temps raised about 4-5C to find the GPU overflowing with thermal paste. I could actually see it without removing anything except access panel. Gonna redo it sometime within the next 2 weeks using ICD7.

 

It seems that the ICD7 club is outnumbering.

 

Just looked through reviews of TIMs and decided to go with Arctic silver Matrix. It's renamed TIM-Consultants TC Grease 0098. Showed pretty nice results in most reviews, 1C lower than ICD7. Will post results next week when I will arrive home and repaste mine.

 

I'm guessing you're seeing one the pads that are on the memory...it would take quite a bit of paste on the GPU to see it from the access panel.

 

Hi guys, I am also the proud owner of a G73 since a couple of weeks and found this forum very informative. Thanks everybody.
And aye, mine needs ‘re-pasting’ too. I’ll do it ones I am home. Still at sea at the mo here. I found this test on tinternet: 80-way Thermal Interface Material Performance Test | Thermal Interface Material,Thermal Paste,Heatsink Compound,80-Way Thermal Interface Material Best Thermal Paste Heatsink Compound Cooling Performance Comparison Benchmark Tests

Very interesting stuff I would say although this 80-way comparison is over a year old now. But have a look how little of the paste is needed if both surfaces are properly lapped. Amazing !! And very well explained by the guy.
Good luck disassembling, pasting and assembling everybody.

iemie

 

doesn't really matter what kind of paste you use, the application of it is the key, plus all the good ones are only 1-2 degrees of each other if applied right.

 

I can agree with that, but I will qualify it by saying that you're talking one or two degrees difference in premium TIM products. I wouldn't spend that much time carefully removing and repasting the GPU and use the standard stuff that comes with a new CPU or anything like that. I'll agree that AS5, ASM, ASC, ICD7, and similar are all within a degree or two if applied correctly.

I considered this when I did mine. I had a tube of AS laying around that was still good... hadn't set up in the tube or anything. I also had a fairly new bottle from Zalman. However, I decided it was so much work to get to the GPU that it was worth a few bucks and waiting a few days to get an additional two to three degrees.

 

Hello and welcome iemie! Could you please post here after repasting yours? Share your experience and temps before and after.

 

I was looking the web in search of best way to apply thermal paste and found those two intresting links. Take a look Benchmark Reviews: Performance Computer Hardware Tests and Applying Thermal paste - OverclockersClub Forums - Page 2 Updated first post with these 2 links.

 

Hello Tim and thanks for the Welcome and for the links. I sure will share my experience and results here, I promise. But don’t hold your breath coz I won’t be able to re-paste for another 6 or 7 weeks or so due to work and stuff. But ones I get round doing it I will gladly share my experience with everybody here.

iemie

 

I thought I would mention for those applying IC Diamond 7 that it's a little difficult to put the pea sized 5mm dot right in the center of the chip with that syringe. The stuff is thick so you have to push pretty hard. Anyway, I missed the center so I "scooted" the pea to the middle with one of the jeweler's screwdrivers that I was using to disassemble the laptop. I didn't smear it or anything... just pushed the whole dot of paste over. If you run into that, ICD7 is thick enough to move it around a little if you need to center it better.

 

Thanks for sharing Jody.

 

Well hopefully after tonight i'll be a happy IC7 customer too Paste is going to be delivered today so will keep you guys updated.. (i'll try to make some pic's of pea itself to show how much i've put on it)

 

Thanks markklok! That will be greatly appreciated. And Welcome to the forums!

 

Little noobish question... But you have to put the peadrop on the gpu chip itself right.. not on the heatsink..

Kinda already know it's nr 1 but just to make sure...

 

i put a pea on the heatsink... idling at 54 on 700/1000 down from 81 degrees

 

IMO there is no difference where you will put drop. Just be sure to apply it in the center to spread Thermal paste evenly.

 

Warning a wall of text with possible grammatical errors

Here's my experience with Disassembling & repasting of the Asus G73
(will post the pictures when i get back from work)

__________________________________________________________

On the left side of the table i placed my G73 and on the right my old laptop with the video of the disassemble (YouTube). So after each part i pressed stop and unscrewed everything what was said in the tutorial.

until getting the keyboard off everything went smooth as silk. (basically unscrewing a lot of screws.. TIP (already said in the forums but will suggest it again... Get A Magnetised screwdriver !!!! )

ok the keyboard. (was not looking forward to this part) with a thin screwdriver i pressed all the 5 points (top of keyboard) and got it up a bit.. Here I made a small mistake.. top left corner where the ESC button is I deformed it a bit cause I pulled it too hard..
So while hitting al the 5 point… try to not pull too hard on the 1st corner but go evenly to the middle. At that point you could see the tape if you looked between the laptop & keyboard.. Just put your fingers right besides it and gently pull it up by wedging your fingers… End result… little bend corner but otherwise perfect shape keyboard.
Btw I removed all the tape.. cause its not necessary.

After removing the keyboard you need to pull out the small ribbon cables… On YouTube it was not quite clear to me that you need to pull a small hinge upwards before you could easily remove the ribbon from its socket.. So with the hinge down I pulled it out gentle.. but had to use more power then necessary. (Later I found out how it worked so from this point on the ribbon cable where easy as it should be

After removing the bracket below the keyboard and the topside of the casing there was the motherboard.

Unscrewing everything and plugging all the cables out what was being told on the video I went a little bit too far… as I want to pull out the left power connector of the system FAN.. with my fingernails I gentle tried to push it out.. and and and… a corner broke of…. Heard rate at this point went threw the roof and I was like OMG OMG OMG NOOO.
The yellow power wire in the connector was loosened so I had to take out the connector.. put the wire back in (as good as I could) and put the whole connector back in… lucky for me the wire sticked and wasn’t going to get loose again..

SO another lesson… don’t unplug connectors of the fan as they are put in very tight...


Flipped motherboard and unscrewed the gpu heatsink… Asus didn’t do a good job here either and paste was all over the place.. I cleaned it up (core + heatsink) and put a ferm pea drop on the core.. A little bit too much so I scooped some of it off (made pictures so you could see). The memory thermal pads where sticking on the heatsink.. So I gently pulled them off and put them on the memory again. You could see the memory imprint in the thermal pads so it was making good contact. Put the heatsink back on the core (didn’t turn the heatsink left / right, just bang on) and screwed it on top right --> bottom left --> top left --> bottom right.

Pffieww job done… now to put all the screws back in… (high gear from this point)
When I got too the back of the laptop I had to put 3 screws in.. below memory – middle en left below the wifi ( I think)…. And there was the problem… it seems when I put the motherboard back in place a piece of plastic (on which you can pull to take out a cable) was flipped over and got stuck over the screwhole.. NOOO

So the end result.. 1 screw didn’t go in and was put aside… NO I didn’t do everything over for that 1 screw hehehe
As I can’t show you pictures of pre and after temperature i can tell you the result after the first few tests.

Before
The gpu reached like 107-110 degrees Celsius before it shutdown to thermal protection (memory got to like 100 degrees Celsius). These temperatures I would get after running Furmark for 10 – 15 minutes

After
After 1,5 hours of Furmark my GPU would get 90 degrees and memory was like 85.

So I’m very glad with the end result..
Ps I never got any GSOD so I think I’m one of those lucky mofo’s who doesn’t have a problem on that department

 

Thanks for shring experience markklok! I am happy for your temps decrease. If you can post photos and screenshots, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

You didn't mention which paste you used?

 

The stuff from the factory is likely a thermal paste from Shin Etsu and probably performs as well as whatever you can buy yourself. It did seem to be fairly thick (some good pastes are thick, yes). The fun little online paste reviews / advertisement parties are not really worth considering as reliable performance tests. These most often aren't written by people who know how to actually test things properly to get results that are meaningful. The fact of the matter is that all of the quality pastes will perform very close to each other.

The real problem with some of the G73s is not the paste but the heatsink that is not sitting well because of the RAM pads and the spring-loaded screws that can't provide sufficient loading against the pads. That's why the paste appears bubbly and poorly spread. The heatsink simply isn't being pressed completely against the die. I'm not convinced that a thinner paste will improve this problem.

BTW, do not use the line or dot methods for a bare die. Those methods are for heatspreader-equipped processors. You could end up with missing coverage and there will be a huge difference in temperature on those open spots vs. areas with coverage (extremely bad). You should spread a thin layer over the entire surface of the bare die. This is as Arctic Silver specifies.
( http://www.arcticsilver.com/instructions.htm)

 

That's all and fine for Arctic Silver, but for ICD7, spreading just isn't an option. The maker of it recommends the 5mm ball and drop method.

 

ok here are the promised pictures (some are bad but viewable)


First i had to remove the damn keyboard




After like 100000 screws you have something like this


GPU heatsink


Heatsink looked like this after being removed. The thermal pads didn't let go so i had to carefully remove them from the heatsink.


GPU core


So after cleaning the core up i got it all nice and shiney


Time for the repaste.. here goes ! noo a little bit too much


After removing a little of the IC 7 Diamond paste it looked like this


Screwed the heatsink back on


After the whole thing was put back together the ESC key was pulled a little bit too hard.. So it has raisen a bit.. ow well i can live with that...



Soo there it is.. hope you guys can pull it together as i did.. Just follow the youtube video and no rushing

 

Hey, HellCry.

There's you proof!! Hynix memory on the video card! So I did remember correctly.


The photo with the video memory.
At the top, second from the right. It clearly says Hynix.


If I look at the GPU with the Asus paste I can see you got one from the same batch as me. Mine looked the same. Also if you look at the top left corner you can see there is more paste left over on the core which in my opinion is one of the reasons TSS1 got so high in the first place. The heatsink was slightly tilted on the core.

 

Hi,

After 4h to make it completly done, i have repasted CPU + GPU die... and i very pleased to see the results:

-10°C for idle CPU
-15°C for idle GPU
and
-18°C for load CPU
-22°C for GPU burning by FurMark (88°-89°C max)

Before repasted it, FurMark test can't stay more than 4mn at 110°C before thermal shutdown... :S

So to prevent lifetime of my GPU i repasted it for it's good =)

So now, temps looks better !
GPU : 62°C idle
CPU : 52°C idle (with Asus OC in turbo - bios setting) at a 22°C
In a 25°C room.

Thermal paste used : IC 7 (first time i used it)

Regards,

T

 

Took a little over 2 hours last night, using ic-7, very pleased with the results! GPU running about 88C stable furmark this morning. Didn't touch the CPU due to scary warranty sticker. =(

 

Thanks for photos! Appreciated!

Very nice decrease! Happy for you!

Seems to me that ICD7 repaste club is getting bigger Congrats withyour new temps guys!

 

I know for a fact all kinds of vRAM are used on these GPUs since Gary_Key already told me so officially as ive posted, but nice find of proof!

 

I have samsung modules on mine, and I also re-applied the TIM and got very good results. Although I am using AS Ceramique, which I generally use for my sub-freezing overclocking, it's all I had. I also re-applied the TIM on the memory modules and the few other components that had thermal pads on them. Ill save some of the the grief and link thumbnails Pictures below














The dis-assembly was fairly simple, thanks to this video. Watch out for taking off the keyboard; if you are not careful and take your time you could bend, break, or damage the lighting behind the keys.

 

Thanks for pictures! Can you post some screenshots with your new temps now. We all know how ICD7 performs. I am very interested in AS Ceramique results.