Dirty thermal pads on ASUS STRIX GTX 1070

[Justin_]

Well i'll get to it. I had my ASUS STRIX 8OG GTX1070 apart and the heat spreader bar for the VRAM fell face down on my carpeted floor, and is now covered in random dust and hair.

 

First off I would assume that it can't be cleaned.

Next off, what should I use to replace them with? What thickness and brand should I go with. I know thickness is important, but I don't know what thickness the 8OG 1070 STRIS uses for the VRAM.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Roman848]

24 minutes ago, Justin_ said:

 

First off I would assume that it can't be cleaned.

 

Did you at least tried ? I think a little bit of dust or hair on the spreader wouldnt be an end of the world.

[mariushm]

Clean it with isopropyl alcohol , sanitary alcohol.. water..

It's thermal pad, it has no thermal paste or substance on the surface that would be damaged by cleaning it.

 

As for replacing, you'd need a thermal pad of equal or slightly higher thickness - s you put the heatsink, the thermal pads compress a bit so it's ok if pad is a bit thicker but bad if pad is too thin.

 

You can buy thermal pads from distributors of electronic parts for cheap (price versus pad surface) or from stores like retail pc stores in expensive retail packages and at pre-cut shapes (squares, rectangles etc)

 

Heres example at distributor, with some filtering pre-applied (can filter more by thickness and material and if it has adhesive or not on one/both sides and so on): https://www.digikey.com/short/3v524j

 

 

 

 

 

[Justin_]

7 hours ago, mariushm said:

Clean it with isopropyl alcohol , sanitary alcohol.. water..

It's thermal pad, it has no thermal paste or substance on the surface that would be damaged by cleaning it....

 

 

Ok I didn't know if it could just be washed off. I will try that first

 

Thanks for the tips

[pyrojoe34]

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[pyrojoe34]

10 hours ago, Justin_ said:

Well i'll get to it. I had my ASUS STRIX 8OG GTX1070 apart and the heat spreader bar for the VRAM fell face down on my carpeted floor, and is now covered in random dust and hair.

 

First off I would assume that it can't be cleaned.

Next off, what should I use to replace them with? What thickness and brand should I go with. I know thickness is important, but I don't know what thickness the 8OG 1070 STRIS uses for the VRAM.

 

Thanks in advance!

You should really just replace it rather than try to clean it. I like the Arctic Cooling ones but even a generic silicon thermal pad will work just fine. To measure thickness either use a caliper to measure the pad (it might be a little squished so estimate the thickness, common sizes are 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3mm thickness, I think 1.5 is the most common but I've noticed 0.5mm is also pretty common. Just make sure you know otherwise you'll get warping/bad contact). The other option is to just contact ASUS and ask them what the pad thickness is.

 

Also... hello fellow Missoulian. Enjoying the smoke? If it uses 0.5mm pads let me know, I have a ton of extra and can give you a piece.

[Justin_]

9 minutes ago, pyrojoe34 said:

You should really just replace it rather than try to clean it. I like the Arctic Cooling ones but even a generic silicon thermal pad will work just fine. To measure thickness either use a caliper to measure the pad (it might be a little squished so estimate the thickness, common sizes are 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3mm thickness, I think 1.5 is the most common but I've noticed 0.5mm is also pretty common. Just make sure you know otherwise you'll get warping/bad contact). The other option is to just contact ASUS and ask them what the pad thickness is...

Ok I checked it out and it seems to be 1mm, i'll get some on order. Hopefully they will show before I return from LTX

9 minutes ago, pyrojoe34 said:

...Also... hello fellow Missoulian. Enjoying the smoke? If it uses 0.5mm pads let me know, I have a ton of extra and can give you a piece.

Hey! I put my location thinking I might find somebody local. The smoke makes for nice sunsets!

Thanks for the offer, but I think it uses 1mm pads for the VRAM

[pyrojoe34]

14 minutes ago, Justin_ said:

Ok I checked it out and it seems to be 1mm, i'll get some on order. Hopefully they will show before I return from LTX

Hey! I put my location thinking I might find somebody local. The smoke makes for nice sunsets!

Thanks for the offer, but I think it uses 1mm pads for the VRAM

I like these but they're a little pricey. Something like this will work almost as well (5W/mK vs 6W/mK) but is much cheaper.

[Justin_]

3 minutes ago, pyrojoe34 said:

I like these but they're a little pricey. Something like this will work almost as well (5W/mK vs 6W/mK) but is much cheaper.

Your second link was broken, but I managed to get it working. Thanks for all of the advice!