Graphic Cards GOOP on GFX card

E

Eazy

Forerunner
Yesterday I picked up a noname 6600GT card (the label was missing) ..... I suspect this is sold by BIG... looks the same. I examined the area under the heat sink and could see some GOOP leaking out. I removed the heat sink off the card and this is what I saw ... these are unretouched .. as is... BEFORE pictures. :O



THAT is scary ..... do you think the manufacturers have a panwalla applying the GOOP on the cards ?? Looks like that !! :D I removed as much GOOP as I could using only paper towels and cloth - I have Acetone and IsoPropyl Alcohol which I used only on the core area and under the heat sink. This is what it looked like after my clean up job..... :)



I then applied a thin layer of Artic Ceramique and now I see a 2C drop in the cards temperature .... all my cleaning effort had hardly any difference :@

I can see the heat sink requires a LAPPING job - maybe later on I may do it.
EDIT: Is all this extra GOOP what kills GFX cards ... I wonder.
 
Well it actually depends whether the goop applied is electrically conductive,if yes, then it surely might kill the GPU.But mostly this white goop isnt conductive so no worries but still you cant be sure.

From your pics,it surely was a horrific site to see.

I remember, one of my self proclaimed hardware guru friend used to apply massive amounts of goop on Athlon XP.His theory was, more the goop = more heat transfer = cooler CPU.I was stunned to see him saying,it was necessary to apply goop on the entire CPU excluding the core !!

Everything ,resistors n all that were there on the CPU around the core.

Anyways coming back to your case,you did the smart thing to remove and clean it ,apply thermal paste properly and then refit the heatsink.I have a habit to do the same thing to any grafix card i buy.Just want to be sure,thats all.
 
Well it actually depends whether the goop applied is electrically conductive,if yes, then it surely might kill the GPU.But mostly this white goop isnt conductive so no worries but still you cant be sure.
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Isnt AS5 electrically conductive too ?
 
Darklord said:
Somewhat yes.;)
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Thats why I did not apply AS5 on this heat sink. :)

I read recently that AS5 needs to be reapplied every 6 months and that Ceramique once applied lasts for real long - thats why I appled Ceramique to this Heat Sink as I dont want to pinch those plastic clips on the GFX cards Heat Sink often. Is it possible to get spares of these plastic GFX card Heat Sink clips ?? Are they ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL kinda thing ?
 
actiually even as5 aint conductive. Its capacitive, same is the case with even Arctic alumina and ceramique.

I still prefer ceramique for normal daily use just because of cost effectiveness. I bought 2 big 22gm tubes for myself :P
 
Funky said:
I still prefer ceramique for normal daily use just because of cost effectiveness. I bought 2 big 22gm tubes for myself :P
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...BUT... I found ceramique very difficult to spread evenly :( This is the first time I used Ceramique... I found AS3 the easiest to apply. I still have a large syringe of AS3 - sadly it is not as effective as even Ceramique :(
 
AS3 was less thick. I use plastic stretched over finger to spread the ceramique. works well. Its like spreading cheese spread over the bread :P
 
How much does ceramique retail for ?? And how many times do we need to clean and re-apply HSL ??

Is ceramique better than AS ??
 
^^ Many people prefer Ceramique over AS5 cause they feel AS5 is conductive/capacitive at lower temps (I mean -ve temps) and tends to harden up also.

Not too sure about performance though..
 
Funky said:
I use plastic stretched over finger to spread the ceramique. works well. Its like spreading cheese spread over the bread :P
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Finger licking good... HUH !! :)

I use an old credit card type of plastic to spread it over the top.

@Josh - I have heard that AS5 needs to be reapplied every 6 months or so .... but Ceramique was mentioned to be a long time solution - it does nor need to be replaced for years. I am not 100% sure about this info - just what I read somewhere.

I used AS3 a few years back and after about 6 months I took off the heat sink as the CPU temps were going up I saw that the AS3 had evaporated from the contact area of the CPU core and it had spread outside the core area as if there had been an EXPLOSION of sorts - you know how an explosion throws stuff away from it - it was really something that I found very strange.
 
hmmm i recently applied AS Ceramique to my XFX 7300GS ... i actually found it very difficult to remove the stock thermal paste from the card ..it was a pink coloured chewing gum types and almost like rubber ... and there was hardly anything on it which resembled a thermal paste ....it was all rubbery....anyways i manged to remove that ALMOST completely and then i applied ceramique .. ceramique was too hard to spread and the core of the 7300gs was too small .. anyhow i managed but there was still some excess of ceramique on it before i fixed it back up.

i wanna know what was the chewing gum kind of thing which was used by xfx ?? it was really difficult to remove.

and will my card have probs due to a lil excess of ceramique ???
 
i recently got some TIM in lieu of AS5 ....it is more malleable than AS5 and about 90% as efficient .....so far it has given me excellent results ...in about 8 ~ 10 cases that i apllied it, within the last week, for my fellow mumbai TE members ...
 
What TIM is it deejay? Anything exotic or is it a local product? I have tried Shin-Etsu before and found it better than AS5. Dont remember the details of the compound though. Any chance of getting it here? Havent used a TIM in a long time though, last was a coolermaster paste that came with my HSF.

And Eazy, how much did you buy the card for and from where?

Raghu.
 
^ Nope shouldnt be a problem. A "thermal pad" is merely a semi-solidified form of thermal paste placed on the heatsink surface to form a 'pad' - its the same stuff thats at the base of any Retail CPU heatsink.

Darklord said:
I remember, one of my self proclaimed hardware guru friend used to apply massive amounts of goop on Athlon XP.
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Hey Darky is this the same guy whose nick rhymes with "FunnyToi"? :rofl:

On a serious note, TIM is just marginally better at thermal conductivity than air but still less than water and definately less than actual metal contact. Thats the reason TIM is used, to fill out the air gaps.. however people have the wrong notion that by adding more TIM, they do a better job at increasing conductivity, when in fact you're merely destroying proper metal contact between proc and heatsink :hap5:

Funky said:
actiually even as5 aint conductive. Its capacitive, same is the case with even Arctic alumina and ceramique.
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I thought the main difference with Artic Ceramique was that it had absolutely no electrical properties at all :huh:

Raghu said:
I have tried Shin-Etsu before and found it better than AS5.
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A good friend of mine told me Shin-Etsu was the only stuff actually "Recomended" by AMD, not even AS is recommended by them! :)

(Monarch Computers recommends the same thermal paste too, and they're authorised AMD system builders)
 
Funky said:
actiually even as5 aint conductive. Its capacitive, same is the case with even Arctic alumina and ceramique.
I still prefer ceramique for normal daily use just because of cost effectiveness. I bought 2 big 22gm tubes for myself :P
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AS5 IS conductive. It has even been used to fill laser-cut holes to unlock multiplier in early AthlonXP proccies. Ceramique is non-conductive. All TIMs are capacitive in the sense that they introduce a capacitance when applied between 2 pins/connections. Its not advisable to get them into contact with contacts that operate at high frequencies as the capacitance will cause coupling between the 2 contacts and lead to electrical noise and interference.

Raghu.
 
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