How much Arctic Silver 5 to apply to X1900XTX GPU?

[DaveyTN]

Hey all - I just got an X1900XTX that is running 90C which is just too hot for me. So, I purchased the Accelero X2 aftermarket cooler in hopes to cool this thing off a little.

The Accelero X2 already comes with thermal paste applied to the heatsink but I plan on scraping this off and cleaning the area with some iso alchohol.

How much Arctic Silver 5 would you recommend putting on the GPU before I install the cooler? When I put a different heatsink on my AMD 64 I used about a bb size amount of AS5.

Anyone know how much is needed for the X1900XTX GPU? Thanks !!

 

[Jules]

Originally posted by: DaveyTN
Hey all - I just got an X1900XTX that is running 90C which is just too hot for me. So, I purchased the Accelero X2 aftermarket cooler in hopes to cool this thing off a little.

The Accelero X2 already comes with thermal paste applied to the heatsink but I plan on scraping this off and cleaning the area with some iso alchohol.

How much Arctic Silver 5 would you recommend putting on the GPU before I install the cooler? When I put a different heatsink on my AMD 64 I used about a bb size amount of AS5.

Anyone know how much is needed for the X1900XTX GPU? Thanks !!

Leave the Paste on the Accelero X2 as it is some really good Paste.

 

[giantpinkbunnyhead]

Originally posted by: MyStupidMouth

Originally posted by: DaveyTN
Hey all - I just got an X1900XTX that is running 90C which is just too hot for me. So, I purchased the Accelero X2 aftermarket cooler in hopes to cool this thing off a little.

The Accelero X2 already comes with thermal paste applied to the heatsink but I plan on scraping this off and cleaning the area with some iso alchohol.

How much Arctic Silver 5 would you recommend putting on the GPU before I install the cooler? When I put a different heatsink on my AMD 64 I used about a bb size amount of AS5.

Anyone know how much is needed for the X1900XTX GPU? Thanks !!

Leave the Paste on the Accelero X2 as it is some really good Paste.

Ditto on that. I had the temptation too but it's not the same paste. It works good on mine. Much cooler. AS5 if you want... just a small pinhead-size blob if that... but I don't think you'll see much improvement really.

 

[imported_motodude]

You need to just turn the fan speed up on your stock cooler.

 

[Conky]

Use the absolute minimum of paste that still allows you to make full contact.

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: giantpinkbunnyhead

Originally posted by: MyStupidMouth

Originally posted by: DaveyTN
Hey all - I just got an X1900XTX that is running 90C which is just too hot for me. So, I purchased the Accelero X2 aftermarket cooler in hopes to cool this thing off a little.

The Accelero X2 already comes with thermal paste applied to the heatsink but I plan on scraping this off and cleaning the area with some iso alchohol.

How much Arctic Silver 5 would you recommend putting on the GPU before I install the cooler? When I put a different heatsink on my AMD 64 I used about a bb size amount of AS5.

Anyone know how much is needed for the X1900XTX GPU? Thanks !!

Leave the Paste on the Accelero X2 as it is some really good Paste.

Ditto on that. I had the temptation too but it's not the same paste. It works good on mine. Much cooler. AS5 if you want... just a small pinhead-size blob if that... but I don't think you'll see much improvement really.

Agreed leave the paste thats on the Accelero X2 its pretty good.

 

[Ryan Norton]

if you're going to use AS5 I've seen two schools of thought: one that you put a specific size blob of compound (obviously depending on the size of the chip you're dealing with or really the contact area) and then let the heatsink naturally spread the compound out over time. School #2 is that you put enough compound on the bare die to be able to use a credit card or something safe but similar to spread the compound out evenly over the entire contact area of the chip.

I used to do school #2 when I first got into optimizing cooling to bring fan, etc. noise down (big fan of SPCR www.silentpcreview.com, check their forums for a zillion good tutorials on applying thermal compound to GPUs), but after quite a few system rebuilds, aftermarket cooler swaps, etc., I just got sick of spreading AS5 out in a perfect, uniform thin layer, and went back to School #1. I haven't tested it extensively, but I haven't had any problems either. Only specific experience I have relevant to you is installing a Zalman VF700 on a 7800GTX: I ditched the white Zalman genero-paste and used AS5.

 

[TheRyuu]

There isn't a noticable difference from leaving a little drop on and letting the HS do the spreading, to spreading it yourself.

I kind of combine the two. I put a small dot on the die of whatever I'm putting it on (GPU in this case) and I take one of those plasic ziploc or some other plasic small bag, turn it inside out and just roughly spread it out across the die (takes like 10 sec., so I do it). I can also remove a little bit of the AS5 with the bag if I put a little too much on by just using another spot on the bag, and some AS5 is bound to stick to it.
Then, I just let the HS finish it out and fill it anything I missed.

Turn the bag rightside out, zip it shut, no mess, done in a minute.

But honestly, it doesn't matter. I normally spread it out on GPU's roughly because the springs arn't as strong on the GPU HS's.

 

[Munky]

According to the official instructions on their website, you're supposed to spread a thin layer if putting the AS5 on an exposed core (all video cards, basically) and let the heatsink spread it if placing it on a heat spreader (A64, P4 cpu's).