How do i clean a Gigabyte GTX 1080?

[Burrito_Potter]

Just bought a second-hand Gigabyte GTX 1080 Turbo OC for my system, the thing is, i want to clean it, but i am worried about completely disassembling the whole thing and reapplying thermal compound (which i'm not good at nor have access to thermal pads), i just wanna remove the cover and clean the dust from within, i looked everywhere but found no pics, videos nor articles about how to remove the cover.
i hope i find an answer here!

a pic for reference 

[CommanderAlex]

Check the rear of the card to see if there are screws that go around the edge of the card that hold the cover on. You should be able to remove just those screws and not the 4 screws that holds the retention plate to provide pressure to the cooler on the GPU die. 

[FloRolf]

If you cant find a guide online just look at it yourself. The coolers really aren't that complicated. Just take a look where the screws go and if there are plastic clips and you will probably easily be able to pop it off. 

 

In case you need to take the entire cooler of, worry not, pads are reusable and thermal paste isn't as critical as it is on CPU's. You can put more on a GPU. 

[Helpful Tech Witch]

4 minutes ago, Abyssal Radon said:

also make sure you replace the thermal pads on the memory while you're going through the hassle to clean the GPU.

 

12 minutes ago, Hus317 said:

(which i'm not good at nor have access to thermal pads)

 

[The_russian]

To add another tip to what the others have said, if you do decide to disassemble the card be careful when you separate the cooler from the PCB. There is going to be a fan wire going between the two, slowly separate the cooler from the PCB until you have enough room to unplug the fan, then you can separate them all the way.

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

 

 

I do wonder why tho, they're easily accessible and cheap. and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to open up a gpu to "clean" it and then not have basic cooling materials at hand.

[Burrito_Potter]

Thank you everyone for your advice, so from what i understood that it's way better to take everything apart and clean/replace the thermal compound
i will do my best to do so, since the card does reach 82-86 C° few minutes after benchmarking

 

Unfortunately i only found one store that sells thermal pads, but i have no idea what thickness to get, is 0.5 mm enough or should i buy 1cm or 1.5cm? (i heard once on LTT video that a thick thermal pads can prevent the cooler from resting properly on the GPU die

and thanx again so much for your inputs

[CommanderAlex]

8 hours ago, Hus317 said:

Thank you everyone for your advice, so from what i understood that it's way better to take everything apart and clean/replace the thermal compound
i will do my best to do so, since the card does reach 82-86 C° few minutes after benchmarking

 

Unfortunately i only found one store that sells thermal pads, but i have no idea what thickness to get, is 0.5 mm enough or should i buy 1cm or 1.5cm? (i heard once on LTT video that a thick thermal pads can prevent the cooler from resting properly on the GPU die

and thanx again so much for your inputs

I've bought ranging sizes of thermal pads from a reputable seller on eBay. They were very inexpensive and you get your bang for your buck compared to Micro Center.