zpoison

Thermal pads are not the same as thermal paste.
That's a thermal pad, it might be ok to reuse.

It would be handy for some of use noobs to mining to have somewhere to talk to each other here. I'm not evil, I'm not taking hardware from anyone. I just used spares I had around to make some extra money that I could use right now and try to build money for later when I need to replace my car or need medical care.

Ok, but I don't think this is relevant to the context of OP's question and your vagueness may be misinterpreted
 
Also,
 
 

Part 3 of 3
use MSI Afterburner
 
Set a fan curve on MSI Afterburner: 0% fans until 70 °C and after 70°C to 10 % 
Unsync GPU Power from Thermal limit and set the thermal limit to 88 ° Celsius
You will need to save this profil to "1"
 
On the left side, click on the "Windows icon". Go to settings (not the fan settings, the global settings - another "settings icon") and click: start with windows (or similar text)
 
Be aware: If you start MSI Afterburner and close it, MSI Afterburner will not be handling your GPU fans until you restart your Computer. So just don't start MSI Afterburner unless you need to change any settings.
 
During gaming or heavy load, your gpu will get hot - about 88 ° Celsius - but it will stay at 10 % fan speed, which is dead silent.
 

Additional words
 
To be honest, this is the only way to get a silent GPU: 1. Remove heat jamming accessories of the GPU & 2. set fans to under 20 %. The card gets hot, but your ears will thank you.
 
I don't know, if the Gigabyte and MSI cards, you mentioned, can be optimized like this Asus card can. There are certain restrictions, like the fans, that have to be screwed to the aluminum cooler and not to the plastic fan shroud (in order to remove the shroud without removing the fans)
 
Warranty wise should be allright, I think. There is a sticker on one of the inner 4 screws that are attached right to the aluminum cooler of the Asus card. But you don't need to remove the aluminum cooler from the card in order to get this to work
 
 
I know, it's a little discomfortable to do this process, but this maximizes your comfort while not have to modify your card with enormous coolers like "Rajintek Morpheus" "Arctic Extreme IV" or similar ones. I broke my GTX 970 by replacing the cooler with the arctic extreme IV. I had a phone call with Arctic and they just said, it was my fault... 
 
You may think: Why do brands like Asus or MSI put plastic fan shrouds on their cards? 
Answer's pretty simple: The plastic shroud is the design element that will be the key visual point of sale. Without the fan shroud, they look all pretty nasty.
 
May someone want to test this optimization on a higher end card (higher TDP) like a 2070 Super, or 2080? Would be curious to find out, what amount of fan % is needed to cool this cards without thermal trotteling (but still dead silent)
 
kind regards

Actually Intel can't solder them. To a guy like me it's a non issue, actually kinda adds to the connection between me and my PC that I delidded myself. But I get why it upsets some. 
 
 

That a pretty average overclock. I would say the main reason to buy from silicon lottery is for the lower temperature not so much the overclocking potential. 

They finally listed trays on the EU website but theyre "out of stock." Might want to keep an eye on it though...
 
https://www.fractal-design-shop.de/Define-R6
 
11 HDD's is the max it can fit (pic from internet)

 

At least 4 more from the images.
If you fill it up with drives you won't get any airflow to the rest of the computer.
Also no you can't use drive sleds form other brands.
Contact fractal design to see if they can send you some, or buy them from someone else with an R6.

11x 3.5" drives not including the 2x 2.5" trays on the psu shroud.
They're not available for sale from Fractal Design but they might be with enough demand: https://support.fractal-design.com/support/solutions/articles/4000114305-can-i-purchase-an-additional-tg-side-panel-or-additional-hdd-ssd-trays-for-the-define-r6-
 
Moved to Cases and Power Supplies.