swapping Armor OC and Gaming X Coolers?

[Shmegr]

Hi all, first time posting here...

I currently have an MSI Gaming X GTX 1070 and I happened to get my hands on an MSI Armor OC GTX 1080 recently.
I've heard the Armor OC runs a little hot because of its last gen cooling unlike the Gaming X which seems to have lower temps across the board.
Since they are the same PCB, would it be possible to swap the cooler from the gaming X 1070 and put it on the Armor OC 1080?

Also, if this is possible, will the Noctua NT-H1 paste I have on hand work for GPU's since it's non conductive? or is there another factor I'm not aware of?
And Lastly, to do this will I need to buy new thermal pads?

Thanks

[Skiiwee29]

if they are truly the same and do not interfere with the VRM and memory cooling etc... then I dont see why not... Also that thermal paste will do just fine. 

[rasmuskrj]

I think the Gaming X is a custom PCB whereas the Armor card uses the reference PCB. I would defintely research this before attempting it if I were you.

[Shmegr]

21 minutes ago, legacy99 said:

if they are truly the same and do not interfere with the VRM and memory cooling etc... then I dont see why not... Also that thermal paste will do just fine. 

 

5 minutes ago, rasmuskrj said:

I think the Gaming X is a custom PCB whereas the Armor card uses the reference PCB. I would defintely research this before attempting it if I were you.

thanks for the reply,
Here are the PCB's off of ekwb.com
They look the same to me, but I'm no pro with this stuff. looking for a couple more pairs of eyes on this...

[rasmuskrj]

Well seems that I was wrong  Looks like none of them use the reference PCB. But I agree that they look very similar.

 

It's hard to be sure without measuring anything though. I feel like the GPU chip looks kinda bigger on the gaming X, which it probably isnt, but the visual effect might be caused by some proportions not being the same.

 

If you're not intimidated by the task I would probably just try to do it and see if it fits

[rasmuskrj]

According to this compatability list from EK it seems the same block fits on both the Gaming X 1070 and Armor OC 1080: https://www.ekwb.com/configurator/waterblock/3831109831564

 

That would suggest that you can do what you're suggesting.

[Shmegr]

22 minutes ago, rasmuskrj said:

According to this compatability list from EK it seems the same block fits on both the Gaming X 1070 and Armor OC 1080: https://www.ekwb.com/configurator/waterblock/3831109831564

 

That would suggest that you can do what you're suggesting.

thanks for the help

[Shmegr]

will i need new thermal pads if I were to do this swap?