8800GT [Clean&spitshine] newbie

[AnOniM]

Hey guys,

I tried searching for answers regarding my problems but opinions seem to be either biased or split between the 2 options so I decided to ask openly and hope that someone can help.

First of all, let me start by saying I'm a newb when it comes to cleaning GPUs (or any computer parts for that matter )..I made my PC almost 3 years ago from scratch. I was looking for a mid to high end gaming rig and I think I've achieved that.

Lately though I'm having problems with my GPU temperature. It idles in the 70 degree range (higher depending on the ambient temp of my room) and in-game it reached 95-100 even. That's mainly the reason I can't play any game that's taxing to the GPU.

I haven't cleaned my GPU ever since I bought it and installed it so as you can imagine it must have collected a fair amount of dust inside and also the thermal paste is prolly non-existent..

I watched some vids and asked some friends about cleaning it and they said I should just pop the case of and get the dust out..as for the thermal paste, that I should get Arctic Silver 5. I did some checking and it appears that AS5 conducts small amounts of electricity, bad thing for some GPUs depending on the type.

So what I want to know is what type of thermal paste I should use (AS 5 or some ceramic one) and which is the best way to spread it (with a plastic bag tightly wrapped around your finger or using the pea method)?

Be gentle, I am indeed a newbie to all this and don't really want to destroy it so any advice really would be awesome. Thank you for taking the time to read my wall-o-text.

~Alex

P.S. - my card is a BFG Tech 8800GT 512mb OC1

 

[-Fran-]

There are a lot of products out there for you to choose, but in my own experience, AS5 is great. I used it on my 4850 and it gave me 4ºc lower then before and same goes with my 4890. I never heard of that "leackage" problem, but well, could be since it has silver... Prolly it's when you abuse paste amount on the chip, but wel...

Thermaltake produces a lot of different types of pastes, so you could check them out as well. My advice, don't worry and if you already have an AS5 tube, use it.

Now, how much paste? I use it for 2 things: 1 is for giving the back of the cooler a thinner layer (mirror like, hopefully) with a soft handkerchief to spread it and 2 is for the chip itself. I use a drop of paste and that's it.

Blowing out the dust before dismantling and using alcohol to clean the chip is a must, BTW.

Cheers!

 

[AnOniM]

i would get a can of compressed air, take your card out of the PC, and use the can to get the dust of the card. There will be a lot so you may want to do it outside.

Haha..more then likely. I'll prolly find a colony of dust bunnies in there..

There are a lot of products out there for you to choose, but in my own experience, AS5 is great. I used it on my 4850 and it gave me 4ºc lower then before and same goes with my 4890. I never heard of that "leackage" problem, but well, could be since it has silver... Prolly it's when you abuse paste amount on the chip, but wel...

Thermaltake produces a lot of different types of pastes, so you could check them out as well. My advice, don't worry and if you already have an AS5 tube, use it.

Now, how much paste? I use it for 2 things: 1 is for giving the back of the cooler a thinner layer (mirror like, hopefully) with a soft handkerchief to spread it and 2 is for the chip itself. I use a drop of paste and that's it.

Blowing out the dust before dismantling and using alcohol to clean the chip is a must, BTW.

Cheers!

Thank you for the response. Yeah, alcohol, lint free cloth (I have one of those from my monitor) and think layer..

The thing is I want to learn how to do it myself because the card is still in warranty so I could just take it in but that won't teach me how to do it in the future..

 

[Rustyy117]

Its easy if you take your time, just don't put the card on a carpet or rug, and make sure you touch something like your PSU or case. You don't want to kill your card with static.

Only use a tiny amount of thermal paste, you want a REALLY thin layer. I'd recommend MX-2 thermal paste, It dropped my CPU temps from 59 to 50C : )

You don't have to buy a can of air, you can use a hairdryer if it has a cold setting.