Very interesting - given the noise concerns with the high-end video cards these days you would think manufacturers would be a lot more circumspect about using cheap thermal goop. Anyone know what is used with a 9800 Pro? Or what type of thermal interface is shipped with the Zalman passive video coolers? If you can greatly increase the Zalman's efficiency by using Shin-Etzu instead, the Zalman 80A should work well with the 9800 even without a fan....
I'm intending to go with the Abit Canterwood mb as it offers certain advantages over the Asus and others, but it does have an active Northbridge heatsink - maybe using a better paste would allow me to dial down the fan voltage and noise with no loss in heat diffusion.
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DeadBySundown
- Friend of SPCR
- Posts: 55
- Joined: Mon May 05, 2003 6:16 pm
- Location: Burlington, Vermont, USA
Believe the 9800 has the same thermal pad that my 9700 had. Definately worth getting rid of as quickly as possible - it's thick and inefficient; appears principally designed to allow the heatsink to be whomped onto the card by an automated process wihtout damaging the GPU.
My ZM80A came with 2 tubes of some nameless white paste. Worked better than the thermal pad, but not as well as the AS Ceramique I replaced it with.
My ZM80A came with 2 tubes of some nameless white paste. Worked better than the thermal pad, but not as well as the AS Ceramique I replaced it with.
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Jefferelli
- Posts: 14
- Joined: Thu May 15, 2003 7:14 pm
- Location: Seattle
Leadtek TI4200
My Leadtech TI 4200 was also skimpy on the goop. I I ended up also adding a Zalman 80A and used Arctic silver Ceramiqe. I had it overclocked before but have not played with the settings now that I added my zalman. But I am sure I soon will. Anyways My 2Cents says go with the 80A, That way you can remove it down the road if you buy a new card.
I just tested that on my Leadtek Ti4200 : removed the thermal goop, and replaced it with AS3. There's no way I can read its temperatures, so I just tried overclocking it to see if it changed something.
Highest overclocking before :
GPU : 305, memory : 570
Highest overclocking after :
GPU : 300, memory : 610
I think the reason why I can't get a stable 305 with the GPU is that the surface of the heatsink has a poor finish, so they used like two tons of thermal paste, whereas I used a thin layer. But the improvement in memory overclocking clearly shows that the AS3 changed something. I won't try running it passive though
Highest overclocking before :
GPU : 305, memory : 570
Highest overclocking after :
GPU : 300, memory : 610
I think the reason why I can't get a stable 305 with the GPU is that the surface of the heatsink has a poor finish, so they used like two tons of thermal paste, whereas I used a thin layer. But the improvement in memory overclocking clearly shows that the AS3 changed something. I won't try running it passive though