why you should re-apply thermal paste to you gpu...

Absolutely right. I make the layer so thin it's transparent, and it still will ooze out the sides a little, but definately that is the way to go. One tube of AS5 goes a long way.

 

Apologies if any of this has already been mentioned but I haven't read all 200replies

571 chassis now come with 8800M GTXs installed from Clevo so unless someone actually removes the HS it should have nice gooey grey thermal paste. If you have had a 571 for a while it will most probably have had paste/pad applied to it by the seller. 901s don't come with GPUs installed from Clevo so they should always (now) have a foil type material on the HS.

571 CPU HS has a very thin thermal layer as standard (which can be removed easily enough) so you could get that or a paste if the company you buy the notebook from re applies a paste. The 901 CPU HS has no paste or pad so you will get whatever the builder applies.

I know we apply Arctic Silver or OCZ Freeze on both the CPU and GPU chips in all notebooks. The reason for the pads on the GPU memory is to maintain good contact with the chips.

It's better to apply too much than not enough but if you are mass manufacturing then it obviously makes financial sense to use pads. Also worth pointing out that, although it makes a difference straight away, Arctic Silver takes about 50 thermal cycles to actually bed. OCZ Freeze on the other hand will bed in straight away so it's pretty hard to compare different after market paste!

 

neil i was not at all refferring to the thermal pads on the ram. i have those and never removed them. i am strictly talking about the HUGE mess that was on the gpu die.. honeslty they must have used basically the whole tube like the one that comes in the box with the 8800 when they get shipped from sager. i promise you there was that much thermal paste on there

 

Yup, only put that about the pads incase anyone was wondering why they didn't come with paste.

Sounds like someone had a field day on your GPU then Mind you, you ought to see the state of thermal paste on desktop GPUs with the HSs off!! I think ultimately having a bit of paste around the die (from the factory) isn't really going to create any performance/drawbacks though the argument obviously comes down to the fact that there will also be too much between the GPU and HS.

 

oh i know i build systems and do repair i see them all the time.. i used to work at ibm as well and saw them back then.. imo in 16 years i have never seen that much applied to one die lol....

on the other hand most people buy stuff like as5 or similar and they dont know how to apply it right and then they can also have issues...so it goes both ways..im glad to hear you physically apply the paste. this way you know it is done right. and trust me im not in any way knocking xotic at all here, they physically never had my system in their hands. so i know it is in no way their fault either

the major concern of mine was the amount between the die and the heatsink. the sink was not screwed down very tight. if it was most would have bene pushed out around the sides. i had to barely turn the screws to take off the heatsink. i knew my temps were a bit high but never would have thought that was the issue..

 

That's the difference between say a desktop CPUs with an IHS so you can apply 65-90 odd lbs of pressure and something like an 8800M chip - if you're dealing in numbers then more paste/less pressure makes sense but yours sounds like someone used an ice cream machine filled with thermal paste set to 1 cubic cm dollops

 

imo that is what it looks like seriously.. did you see the pics on the first page of the amount i pulled off..???

 

The local Fry's Electronics had a great sale on an eVGA 680i desktop mobo with a Core 2 Duo CPU, and I did something I rarely do. I swung by on my way home from work and bought the combo without first doing any research. I thought what the heck, I was looking to build a new PC, and this was a pretty good deal.

Once I got home, I went to the eVGA forums and was straight up appalled at a series of pics someone had posted showing the shoddy application of the thermal "putty". I immediately returned the item. Here is a link to one particular thread on the eVGA forums with pictures of what I'm talking about:

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=61145&mpage=1&key=

 

Swapped my Q6600 for a E8400 yesterday, and while I was in there, I put AS5 on the GPU's also. Peeled that cheezy foil off and cleaned it all up and applied AS5. (There was no paste between that foil and the GPU core.) Peak temps came down about 8c. I did verify that the CPU had AS5 from Sager. Side note: Needed a bios update to support the new CPU, emailed Sager and 2 hrs later they emailed it to me. The new bios was dated April, unlike the sli bios that was March. The new bios causes the fans to run at a higher speed, little less than full, so it's somewhat louder now.

 

i highly doubt you are experiencing an 8c drop in gpu temps from the AS-5. my temps stayed about the same as the factory foil gave...maybe abou 1c or 2c lower but difficult to tell. i have come to the conclusion that the factory foil on the gpu's is very good and is a waste of time to tamper with it.

i did notice temp drop when i applied as5 to the cpu, though. i noticed that right away.

i think what you are experiencing is maybe the new bios update which cools the gpu's down a little better than the previous one. i too had gotten 2 bios updates from sager and noticed the very latest lowered the gpu temps.

the cpu fans will spin at max speed once the cpu temp reaches 68c or 69c i believe as i have tested this already with editing videos. the pro editing software utilizes all 4 cores and really heats up the cpu in a few seconds.

 

i saw nearly a 10deg drop though i showed how much compound was caked on there..

 

Holy sh*t!

 

^^^^^ yeah MINE WAS WORSE THAN THAT!!!!! now you see what i mean!!!

 

Thats why I recomend that everyone re-apply the CPU and GPU(and northbriedge too) with AS5.

 

I'm planning on applying as5 to my GPU, and I have a couple of questions. Should I apply it to just the center? Or should I fill it to the very edge?



Fyi, here's what it looks like without the copper casing:


And can I use 90% isopropyl alcohol to remove the existing compound?

[photo credits: Justin@XoticPC, sterben]

 

put a SMALL drop on the gpu die and spread it very thin.. do NOT APPLY TO THE RAM CHIPS where the blue pads are.. there is to much of a gap there

 

you need to scrape off the excess stuff first then use 90% to clean up the small amount left

 

Thank you for your help. So you think there's too much gap in the first photo?

 

Use some cotton swabs with alcohol in the cotton edges to clean the surrounding area... try not to touch with your hands on the little resistors that are around the core, they link to very static electricity sensitive components inside the core.

 

yes wayyy to much in the pic if you use as5 it should be about a thick as a piece of paper or less

 

Thank you for your advice. I'll wear an anti-static wristband just to be safe.

 

I have one more question. I'll be dissembling only the pipe module, and according to the instructions, I should pull the yellow pullstrip, but I don't see it in the picture.


And the wording in the instructions is confusing. In the step 1, it says fasten the screws in the order indicated (1-7). But the last line says, Assembly order 3-2-1. So which one is it? Ascending or descending?

[Photo credit: Justin]

 

To take off the heatpipe, just remove(in this order) 1, 4, 2 and 3 screws. Then pull the white strip. Thats it... then to put it back, just do the oposite.

 

the performance of 8800m gtx is 4 times more than my old X1600, but also 4 times bigger in terms of size.

 

Thanks again for your help.

 

I applied MX-2 instead, and when I took the GPU apart, I noticed that the inner square of the die had smooth surface and the outer part had rough surface. It was hard to remove the existing thermal compound from the rough surface, but I think I got most of it out.

I only applied MX-2 a little larger than the inner square because I didn't want it to bleed out to the areas around the die. On the other hand, MX-2 is non-conductive. Maybe I should've applied it on the entire rough surface too?

 

no just the die was all that needed it the rough area is actually a foam material to protect the other things on top of the cpu chip's surface

 

Thank you for your advice. I have one more question. I was cleaning the GPU, and when I pressed down on the form material, it actually moved down a bit (so the die and the form material weren't level) and air bubbles came out of the gap. In other words, the gap between the die and the form material surrounding it seems to be big enough for the thermal compound to bleed into. Is this normal?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Photo credit: Justin]

 

yes its fine as long as you didnt let as5 get in there. with mx2 you are fine