cat1092

So in other words, I can use K5 Pro for replacement of pads, to include on this GPU? If so, looks like I can save versus buying the kit from EVGA (or wherever). Thanks for your follow up. Cat

Yes, the pads for my GTX 1070, still in the package, are somewhere close to that thickness. So I guess the thin stuff is out of the equation. Have to get ready for the Super Bowl, will check this discussion later. BTW, the SB can be streamed using this link, for those who prefer to watch on PC.? https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/superbowl/live/?ftag=CBS-01-10aab6g Cat

Has anyone here used these on GPU's, and if so, what were the results? This was a video produced by Linus. I've seen this before, meant to buy for CPU usage & forgot about it......until now while looking around. However, these does conduct electricity, so don't know if a good choice or no. Cat

Thanks for all of your responses, am learning something from each of you!? I see that this can be used to replace those small blue thermal pads in notebooks & AIO PC's. Can this be used to replace large GPU pads, or place on the die rather than MX-4 or any other thermal paste? It's rated decently on Amazon. I suppose what I need to do is tear this card down so that I have a better understanding of what's going on. Cat

That's what I was hoping to find the answer for here, maybe from one who has replaced the pads on this model. I've never replaced the pads on any GPU, only cleaned a few cards w/out any and using a dot of MX-4 in the center of die & reassembled. Have never done a card with a backplate, heck, I didn't use the replacement pads that EVGA sent me for my GTX 1070, the BIOS update fixed the heat. I'm not a gamer, so don't run my cards hot. Mainly watch a lot of videos on the PC via my Prime membership or YouTube. The reason why I'm considering pad replacement was via Google, the backplate had a bit of liquid stains, which I cleaned with Everclear, that's where I discovered it was likely pad wear. Have also seen this on PC's I've repaired for others, I'd clean what was on the backplate, and inform the owner, so that (s)he could decide how to proceed. So while I've done a lot of work on computers, to include building no less than 50, 6 for myself, the rest were for others, this is a new issue to me. I don't see throwing a perfectly working GPU away over pad replacement. On the other hand, if I were to ignore this long, could ooze on my MB & case issues. Thanks for your input, will continue to watch the discussion. How about Arctic Ceramique 2, it's much thicker than MX-4 & I still have near a whole tube, Newegg bundled it with some item I purchased last year. This was the thermal paste I used exclusively until AS5 became popular.

The subject line is much of my question. Purchased a EVGA 660 Ti SC+ (03G-P4-3663-KR), reference style GPU. Have tested well over the course of the week & runs well, OC'd a bit with EVGA Precision X, there was a bit of gain, enough to raise the graphics WEI from 8.4 to 8.5 (using Winaero WEI on Windows 10 1809 Pro). So far, the only thing I've done was blowed the dust from the obvious places w/out disassembling the card, from the fan to the rear, then reversed, and a final through fan. I want to clean this card, as well as another GTX 660 (non-Ti), yet just this one for now. Should I buy the replacement pads from EVGA, or are there better or equally as good pads aftermarket sold to fit this card? Note that I'm not interested in saving $10 on overpriced inferior pads (or overpaying), if the best are direct from EVGA or a 3rd party seller of their OEM components, feel free to say so. Will be using the thermal paste I've used & trusted the most in MX-4, I use AS5 at times on older builds (CPU), but don't want to chance it on a GPU. Some says it's safe for either, but the contacts on a GPU is much closer than that of a CPU & am not going to mess with placing liquid tape for what would be a minimal temp gain, if any. I use liquid tape only when delidding a CPU & applying liquid metal, of which am not going to be doing here, even if both contacts are copper. Any suggestions & approximate cost of pads (including links) would be highly appreciated. Cat

That's exactly what I did & the difference between (both) acoustics & temps were like day & night!? Not long afterwards, caught a promo for 5 of the NF-12 PWM fans (sealed in retail packages) from Outlet PC for $75 shipped, purchased two bundles, most has been used to replace low cost case fans. Normally, these are $25-27 each. The Noctua NF-F12 (almost) converts the Hyper 212 EVO into a Noctua NH-U12S, other than the tricky install. One cannot have enough hands to get the Hyper 212 aligned right & keep it there, I always need my wife to hold the top of cooler while screwing into place. That considered, the NH-U12S may be the better value, plus 3x the warranty. My point about the fan swap are mainly aimed at those already having a Hyper 212 installed. Cat

Don't mean to bump an old Topic, just want to inform others who runs across this one while looking as I did.? I have two of the 2TB WD Gold HDD's, in separate computers, these are FAST drives, hitting just over 200MB/sec during ATTO tests around the 5th phase of the test, before dipping a bit near the end. As far as noise goes, there's none, much quieter than any WD Black I've owned. The reason as to why I purchased these, seems to have taken the place of the RE4. of which I have over 10 in usage. My Blacks are now demoted to backup duty in enclosures, as well as the Samsung Spinpoint F3 drives which were popular & performed just as good as the Black at the end of the SATA-2 era. That 128MB cache helps, any computer component with more of, the better. Of course, not as noticeable as the upgraded cache of recent CPU's, yet many of us remembers the 2MB cache of 1st gen SATA HDD's, as well as 8MB for budget WD Blue SATA-2 models. Going to 32MB made a huge difference, as does 64MB on (most) consumer HDD's of today. I enjoy my WD Gold's, has been a newer version released since. These has the same warranty as the WD Black & 2x the cache for only a few more dollars on promo (I paid $119 each on Newegg), so actually cost less then the 2TB Black at regular price. Many reviewers says these are noisy, why I stayed with enterprise type HDD's for data. As for my OS, run NVMe SSD's where able, even my two AMD AM3+ ASRock 970M Pro3 systems (PCIe 2.0) are running a 240GB MyDigitalSSD BPX each, write speed nearly the same as on a Z97 (PCIe 3.0) system, read is the more noticeable drop. Still, it's amazing to associate an FX system on NVMe, even dropped a AM3 Phenom II x4 965 in one & still booted. At any rate, don't be afraid of the WD Gold for your data, we get what we pay for. If these drives are rated for datacenter usage, will serve the Home user for much longer & after a decade still make an excellent backup drive in an aluminum enclosure.? Cat

Looks to me that Intel Optane is a modern version of ReadyBoost, which (I recall) began as a feature of Windows 7 in 2009. There are many SSD's that's faster on promo & NVMe models has became mainstream. For $99 each, purchased two MyDigitalSSD BPX 240GB NVMe SSD (PCIe 3.0) & one has faster read speeds (2.7GB/sec) on the Ultra M.2 port of my Z97 MB. The other runs on my budget AMD AM3+ ASRock 970M Pro3 in the 2nd GPU slot via PCIe adaptor (PCIe 2.0) & write speeds are very close to the Z97 at 1.34GB/sec (reads are about the same, expected for PCIe 2.0). That's amazing, who'd had thought the AMD FX line and NVMe in the same sentence? Plus the fantastic write speeds, pic below. At any rate, my first SSD, back in 2011, a 128GB Crucial M4 is faster than Optane. Intel Optane is not worth it at it's price point as SSD are built much better (& faster) than 7 years ago, referencing to the Crucial M4 above. Cat

While my Haswell i7-4790K is my main build, also have it's little brother in another, my FX-8370 & 8350 are still solid machines. Both of the FX CPU's outperforms the i5-4690K & is dang close to my XPS 8700 with i7-4770 (according to Passmark scores. The bottleneck & why I don't have a NVMe SSD on either of the FX builds are because of PCIe 2.0. Otherwise are reliable machines that meets the need, although uses more power than any of my Haswell systems. BTW, the FX-8370 is basically a binned 8350, more suitable for overclocking, although with all cores running at over 4.1GHz, don't see the need for further OC on the ASUS 970 PRO Gaming/AURA (FX-8370) & ASRock 970M Pro3, the only mATX 970 chipset MB I could find. If I had to do it all over again, may had chosen an FM2+ platform for PCIe 3.0 speed, however the best Athlon CPU wasn't close to the performance of the FX chips. So any benefit gained would had been in running NVMe SSD's at native speed (hopefully). My next build will come in 2020 with the best Ryzen on AMD's next MB platform, or better yet, the lowest cost Threadripper for bragging rights. That is, unless Intel returns to manufacturing CPU's the proven way, soldering to die for improved cooling. Then may consider the brand again. My 4790K has been delidded, replaced their cheap TIM with liquid metal (no glue) & IHS replaced with a custom copper one, machined to perfection & shiny. Two more to go. While AMD FX systems are fading, are far from dead & gives a lot more performance for the dollar (value for performance, bang for the buck, whatever). Cat

The Rocket 88 delid tool is worth it, shaved at least 12C off the temps under load with my i7-4790K. Will likely do better with the i7-4770, since Intel used a lower cost TIM under the IHS. I also purchased two of their copper IHS replacements, has a mirror like surface, to match the same of my Noctua NH-D15 cooler. Used Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut Liquid metal on the die after covering the surrounding electrical contacts with liquid tape. Didn't use any sealant, from my research, many were saying that the glue, no matter how thin, would raise the IHS, defeating half of the purpose. So I sat the new IHS on the die gently with it in place & holding with just a bit of pressure, locked down the lever. Applied a thin layer of AS5 on top of the IHS, spread razor thin, because both sides were already slick & lowered the cleaned Noctua NH-D15 back into place. Here's the before & after snapshots of the job. For what it's worth, both snapshots were taken after 10 minutes of running, the 'after' was actually the 4th snapshot taken post-delid, as the AS5 began to cure & hasn't done so fully yet, hasn't been quite 3 days since the job was performed. Had it not been for the Rockit 88 delid tool, I'd not had done it. One thing that the videos doesn't show & one has to feel for, not all will pop, like mine, some will slide off & I was feeling for when there was little resistance. When it came, I revered the allen wrench & there it was, ready to clean. Don't wait for the 'pop', that may be the PCB breaking, go by the feeling of no more resistance & it'll be OK to pull out & finish the job. I'd have to say the job was a success, my prior benchmarks using the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility & the approved Prime95 for Haswell/Ivy Bridge were causing temps to go deep into the 80's (sometimes a BSOD to save the CPU), now in the lower to mid 70C range & still hasn't fully cured. The Rockit 88 is a fantastic investment to delid a CPU with, if there's a benefit in doing so. If not benching or having high temps during gaming sessions there's really no need for it until needed, although good to have the kit for when ready, or to do the job for someone else. Cat

I'd say Windows 8.1 since it's supported through early 2023 and has even better power management than Windows 7, and not as heavy as W10. This is obvious, because AV/AM scans takes a lot longer on W10 than either 8.1 or 7, plus uses more resources overall due to all of the things that can't be turned off or disabled w/out a lot of effort. Newegg & Amazon still have 8.1 licenses for both Pro & Home available, only Pro for 7. If a license isn't already owned, than the one for 8.1 also provides a lot of return on investment, as W7 reaches EOL in less than two years. However, in a larger scale than XP ever was, Microsoft will have one heck of a problem getting all of the users who said a large 'NO' to the 'free' upgrade in 2015 onto W10. What'll probably happen (like XP did until EOL of Vista), software will continue to support Windows 7 through EOL of 8.1, then the hammer will fall on both. Still, nearly 5 years of support is far better than two, that is, if a license isn't owned. I grabbed both of mine when the initial $40 Windows 8 Pro with bonus Media Center key was released in 2012 (one qualified for $15, as I had just purchased a new notebook), so for $55 sure have got my money's worth. Cat

I may offer the service when there's a CPU overheating issue when cleaning & applying new thermal paste doesn't do the trick, one job will more than pay for the investment of the tool. Although the way I seen it, at a combined near $900 for all three of mine (pricing higher now), if I save either from an early death, it'll have paid for itself big time. My original intention was to get the i7-5820K, the 6 core model with 28 PCIe lanes, and allowed a friend to talk me out of it. He told me that I'd have to jack up the overclocking big time to match the 4790K, and that for diagnostic purposes, I 'needed' the onboard graphics. And that if I really wanted a 'decent' 6 core, to take the (then) $550 option, which has a full 40 PCIe lanes. To which I agreed was better, it was just that my budget was at the time, $1,800 & still had to get a GTX 1070, the Samsung 950 PRO NVMe SSD & the rest of the system, am disabled & not made out of gold. I'd actually go over budget when swapping RAM to two 16GB sets of the 2400MHz TridentX modules, although reused the original RAM elsewhere & still may purchase the GTX 1070 Ti, or non-Ti 1080 FTW (ACX 3.0 model) & move this 1070 FTW where needed. Plus am saving for my next big project, am not going overkill, maybe a CPU that has the performance of the AMD Ryzen 1800X, whatever that model may be in 2020, just two years away. You're right, enough delids would essentially pay for the build at $150 a pop with just 15-20 of these. While I used to work for less while learning at the University of Hard Knocks, had to get rid of the deadbeats (those who could afford to pay & wanted free or low cost work & freeloaders who feels the World owes them a living). These days, I'll occasionally call a random shop & price a job, and knock off 30%, cash only & a handshake guarantee that's good as gold, the shop owners have overhead, I don't, so that's fair for all. I have it jotted down who I work for, when & what computer. The only times when anything came back to me were HDD's that didn't last long, WD sent replacements to me and I'd restore the drive that was imaged & cloned to a similar sized drive (gives two restore options) & then run chkdsk in repair mode to find & fix any system errors (Win 7 through 10), as well as DISM on 8.1 & 10 when the new is installed. And didn't charge a red cent, because these are repeat customers that sends me work. I have a policy, don't bite the hand that feeds me, and treat everyone fairly & equally. Sometimes I'll still give a generous discount to a needy senior citizen, veteran, a disabled person or struggling family. While I take a pay cut, usually gain a friend for life, am often supplied with fresh veggies in the season, have received several cakes & pies in the last month (four had to be frozen), and they'll usually send me a quality job. Giving back to my community is important to me, also a way of making a name for myself. Once I learn this, and feel confident about it, will run before & after benchmarks, maybe I can then seek some of these. I believe a few of those I work for needs the service, even after installing a tower cooler with twin fans, temps seems higher than should be, that's an open opportunity for new build funding. Cat

While the FX-8350 is my best AMD build, certainly not the first, also have a FX-6300 system that'll hang with most i3 systems (other than any recent Kaby Lake/Coffee Lake series that may be quads), as well as some low end 4th gen i5 systems. Since my newest Intel systems are Haswell, both of the Devil's Canyon models & a i7-4770 is a Dell XPS 8700, can't say much about those that are newer, except that Passmark scores shows the i7-4790K barely ahead of the i7-6700K, was over 200 point gap, now under 100. Still a lead is just that, Plus have half a dozen of assorted Core2Quad systems, as well as a couple of once dominate Phenoms that are true quad cores. To this day, I believe that AMD gave up on the Phenom series too early, instead of moving onto the FX lineup after AM3 was dead (why some stated the 6 core Phenoms were a waste). I'd have one of those if it weren't for the still high pricing, some are still over $100 to this day, my best is the 965 x4, followed by the 945 x4 (95W version). Plus have several Athlons stored, maybe someone in need of a CPU or low cost build can use at least one, the first quad lineup for Athlon in the x4 630 (the x4 620 debuted for $99. While many of these didn't outright beat Intel across the board, at least forced them to lower pricing, why it good for us all to have AMD around, like or despise the brand. That stated, as obviously posted above, am no fanboy of neither, I choose the CPU for the job. GPU wise, I'm more biased on, prefer EVGA NVIDIA based GPU's, because these have been providing more graphics power while using less electricity for the last 2-3 releases. At the same time, AMD's latest models are priced out of the market for most & doesn't end there, the monthly electric bill will rise if ran a lot, as most enthusiasts tends to do. I stand by my decision in regards to a FX-8530 build, these are on promo at Newegg often (along with the FX-6300), there's decent AM3+ MB's, the ASRock 970M Pro3 has been a great one for myself, even though it's only a 3 to 3.5 egg (or star) rated model. The only issue I had with the first, was that there seemed to be a shortage of epoxy, glue, whatever they use to hold down the SATA ports with. The second of the same model was OK in this regard. Also has a dehumidifier option in the UEFI, when plugged in, can be set to turn on for 5 to 15 minutes every 12 or 24 hours (great for high humidity areas), by chance humidity is a #1 killer of MB's. Am surprised that ASUS, Gigabyte & MSI doesn't have a similar feature. At $75, one cannot ask for more for the MB, also accepts up to 64GB RAM, although 32GB is the max for me in the FX-8350 system, 24GB in the FX-6300 one. Unlike some MB's, not really picky about brand of RAM, as long as using matched sets. Bottom line, it all depends on how much cash one wants to spend. If it were me looking for a Sandy Bridge system, would rather be looking for someone that has a complete build for sale, maybe to recoup some of the cost of a newer one. The warranty won't be any longer, yet everything should be there, if purchased on eBay, we always have both eBay & PayPal protections to fall back on, the main thing after receiving is test it hard, a 24 hour RAM test, same with Prime 95 (or Bitsum's Thread Racer), some torture tests. If that's the way one wants to go, a complete build is all around better, at least if there's an issue, can be identified, if all else is OK & doesn't cost much to replace a component (such as a GPU or PSU), it's probably a good system. All legacy models starts to have issues over time, better to be one than ordering several potentially junk components & then have 14 days to assemble & test. Yes the protection of eBay & PayPal will cover one's back, yet any stated warranty stands, one must determine in that warranty period (sometimes only a DOA one), that all is OK. While I have assembled computers of 100% used components, these were either already on hand, given to me, or found on recycle days at roadside (there's always room for an extra computer here). Even if not working, it'll usually be one component that's usually here. Or sometimes (I respect & recommend this) all is OK, only the HDD removed. Storage is no issue here, just purchased a 256GB Samsung 850 Pro & have no earthly idea where's it's going, will be the model that can benefit the most, obviously a SATA-3 one. Also have an unopened 240GB MyDigitalSSD NVMe SSD, have another in use. And several of the 500GB to 1TB WD RE4 HDD's that I love, better than the WD Caviar Black of it's day (SATA-2), with double the cache at 64MB. Final thoughts, I'd go with either a already built Sandy Bridge system, or build an FX-8350 one from all new main components. One can reuse HDD's, SSD's, optical drives, RAM if laying around. Anything to hold down build cost if need to stick with a budget. Some thrift stores has ATX/mATX cases for sale in good to like new condition, sometimes with a PSU included. DDR3 RAM can be purchased from eBay sellers at half the cost of Newegg or Amazon, just make sure to get matched sets & the seller has lots of positive feedback. There's one featured brand called A-Tech with a Lifetime warranty, of which I found some low cost DDR2 desktop modules for only $22 for a 4GB set. That was $38 less than Newegg wanted for their lowest priced option, have purchased DDR3 sets for others & no issues. Whatever you decide, Good Luck with youe choice! Cat

knightslugger, wished I caught that message about the Rockit88 delid tool, was on another page engaging with a Spammer, while looking up the tool & purchased the same model (I guess), the model that delids & reseals, there were two options. It's the first I've found since looking & still didn't find the Dr. Delid kit. They then try to sucker one into paying for shipping by saying it 'may' be slow. I see that a lot on Newegg, sometimes takes a week, other times 2-3 days. Oddly, I once got a tube of MX-4 in three days, a 512GB Samsung 950 PRO ordered the same day took a week to arrive. I'm sure that they'll again sell out and you'll get a chance to move yours. Had I known prior to purchasing both of my Devil's Canyon CPU's that these were manufactured this way, would had waited until Ryzen. Those will most likely be the last of my Intel CPU purchases, unless a legacy model becomes needed for one of my Core2Quad builds. Doubt I'll get as good as you are with this, while I work on computers for others, this is not a job I'll take on, don't want to be held liable for CPU damage that can cost me a lot more than I'd make from the job. While some would return the computer saying something's wrong, 'my CPU has been running hot' & the tech guy says 'there's nothing I can do, it's gone', my conscience won't allow for that. If I can't perform quality work, don't want the job. I specialize in simple PC builds, upgrades of most types, Malware cleanup & security installs, OS recovery or clean installs & simple printer/network setup. Don't setup overclocking (although I can to some degree) or anything that may lead to damaged components, they're on their own with that. Can't wait to perform that first delid to get it behind me. Cat