I need advice on a cooler mod

[Dunkan77]

Hello guys,

I'd like your take on a mod I've been thinking to do to my GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0. You see, mine has the misaligned cooler with only 2 of the 3 heatpipes touching the core, the TIM coverage looks like this. I was wondering if I were to solder a thin copper shim to the general area my die is contacting the cooler a bit like this. Would this mod be a viable thing to do and yes I am aware there are little components around the die itself so i'll be taking care of not shorting them out, I wanted to know if it would improve or reduce performance because I'm having trouble to keep the gpu cool without making my ears bleed  

I will also take care of the new eventual screws since the cooler will be higher off the PCB

[Bananasplit_00]

if its basically copper foil i think it might work but you will now have two layers of thermal paste for the heat to pass through so you would preferably use some real nice paste, which could just be a upgrade by itself

[Dunkan77]

Well that's what I was thinking of soldering the little piece to the cooler.. I know it sounds like a bad idea but Galax have done the same thing albeit not like a DIY but more professionally: take a look at their cooler, the 3rd heatpipe wouldn't have been touched had it not been for the little piece

[Jurrunio]

35 minutes ago, Dunkan77 said:

Well that's what I was thinking of soldering the little piece to the cooler.. I know it sounds like a bad idea but Galax have done the same thing albeit not like a DIY but more professionally: take a look at their cooler, the 3rd heatpipe wouldn't have been touched had it not been for the little piece

maybe use longer screws.

 

What card is that exactly? Using 2 6pins rather than an 8pin shows it's age, but old cards don't come with short PCB like this when it's power draw needs 2 6pins.

[Dunkan77]

49 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

maybe use longer screws.

 

What card is that exactly? Using 2 6pins rather than an 8pin shows it's age, but old cards don't come with short PCB like this when it's power draw needs 2 6pins.

It's an EVGA 970 SC with the ACX 2.0

 

[Jurrunio]

15 minutes ago, Dunkan77 said:

It's an EVGA 970 SC with the ACX 2.0

 

I mean the Galax card.

[Dunkan77]

Oh it's the Galax gtx 970 oc.

http://www.hardware-boom.com/evga-geforce-gtx-970-galax/

[Dunkan77]

20 hours ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

real nice paste, which could just be a upgrade by itself

I've been using Arctic Silver 5 for the past two years on this GPU and nothing has changed temperaturewise  It seems the old compound wasn't the limiting factor in the thermal transfer. Another thing that led me to the conclusion is the relatively cold air pushed out of the heatsink, it isn't heating up very much and I want to attribute that to the misaligned heatpipe. 

[Bananasplit_00]

4 hours ago, Dunkan77 said:

I've been using Arctic Silver 5 for the past two years on this GPU and nothing has changed temperaturewise  It seems the old compound wasn't the limiting factor in the thermal transfer. Another thing that led me to the conclusion is the relatively cold air pushed out of the heatsink, it isn't heating up very much and I want to attribute that to the misaligned heatpipe. 

AS5 is old, outdated and doesn't work that great. Get some NT-H1 if you want some good paste that dosent cost fortunes.