I keep reading about the memory thermal problems, how easy is the pad replacement? Also where did you get your ifixit tool set from? Ordering the rest of my new PC today, very excited.
Not too bad, I took it slowly and it was a couple of hours last night, and mem temps are >10C lower at a higher load than originally tested. Peaking at 90C at the moment, was hitting 100C easy yesterday morning.
I got the iFixit Mako (from rainforest) set which has everything but the spudger in it so you'll need a thin plastic object (toothpick or something?) to pry off the X piece. I actually used some gaffer tape to pull it over, then lever up with tweezers. Tape is useful later to secure the cables too.
The hardest part was some $%@ at the factory had mixed up the tiny screw head covers and one was totally jammed in as the wrong shape. Had to use a scalpel blade to slowly lever that out, some very fine scratching on the edge but can't be seen at arms length. Alcohol & better thermal paste are the only other items to get.
I got the same pads as in the guide, but if you can find higher conductivity ones, you might see bigger temp drops. I suspect much further will require active cooling of the upper surface of the GPU as that's just passive cooling of the backplate.
One thing I think the video skipped was the ribbon cable connectors have a flip up fastner (the black bit on the mounting). Says it when putting back together but maybe I missed that in the teardown part. And the rubber grommets will fall out somewhere, so put to one side immediately.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/mmzri2/3090_fe_thermal_pad_mod_cutting_template/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3260LR2JzQ
Use a knife to cut the pads, scalpel is best.