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30xx Series Founders Edition

A2B said:
OK let me correct myself. Cheapest 120x120mm Thermalright Odyssey 1.5mm pad on Ali Express with 10 day UK shipping: Thermalright ODYSSEY Heat Dissipation Silicone Pad CPU/GPU Card Water Cooling Thermal Mat 12.8W/mk 85x45mm 120X120MM|Fans & Cooling| - AliExpress (just over £16 all-in).

Google says the 1.5mm Odyssey pads are perfect for front and back on the 3080FE (3090 is different so check). They are said to be harder than squishy ones like Gelid Extreme, and so 2mm on the front will interfere with contact between die and hs and ruin your thermals.
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1.5mm Gelid Extreme pads on the front (3090 FE only) is best for proper core to core hotspot delta and highest contact pressure. 1.5mm Odyssey pads cause slow core hotspot delta issues with time! If you MUST use Odyssey pads, you need to manually cut them all out to size first, then compress all of them at the same time, at once, using a flat pane of glass on a flat, clean surface, about 0.2mm manually. You MUST use a digital caliper /micrometer to check your work! Once they have been compressed to 1.3mm, re-trim them as they will now be a bit too wide/long. Also, on the left VRM bank (closest to the I/O panel), make sure the VRM pad strip does NOT cover the SMD caps next to the VRM's as those SMD caps are higher than the VRM's and can not help the already bad mounting pressure caused by the leaf spring (X Bracket) doing all of the work by itself.

Gelid Extreme pads are soft enough to easily compress under the weak pressure generated by the leaf spring. Yes it's weak pressure. Look at an AMD blower card and compare the screw layout. (R9 290X, 5700 XT/6900 XT etc), notice all the screws around the VRAM that help with the compression? The Nvidia FE cards don't have that, except that one single screw on the backplate that is right next to the PCIE VRAM area (which is why that pad always compresses the most--doesn't take a genius to figure this out).

1.0mm pads are too thin. Do NOT use 2mm pads on a 3090 FE front side.

On the backplate side, you can use whatever pad you want. Gelid Ultimate pads seem to be slightly better than Thermalright Odyssey pads. However I would NOT suggest Gelid Extreme pads 1.5mm or 2mm (both do work however, just make sure you use the same thickness throughout) on the backplate side! The Gelid Extreme pads will give you the lowest VRAM backplate temps, however the extreme heat (much hotter than the front side!!) caused by the backplate getting heat soaked will make the pads melt and turn into very sticky putty (this is always an issue with softer pads!). This does not hinder performance whatsoever, but makes the backplate extremely hard to remove without breaking something! If this happens to you, you MUST preheat the card to 100C (either by running a miner or something, or passively heating it with a hairdryer to 85C+) and then quickly disassemble and remove the backplate, which will then come off much easier (still sticky).

Apparently on 3080 FE's, 1.5mm Gelids appear to be too thin on the front side, unlike 3090 FE, so for 3080 FE, 2mm Gelid Extremes can be used. I'm guessing something about the heatsink dimensions are different.
 
Bit annoyed with myself, I saw the 3090FE was available so rushed to buy it, I didn't realise the 3080FE (which I think is much better value) was also available as it didn't show up in the product listing, I didn't want to delay too long double checking in case the 3090 went out of stock.

I also don't think the 3090FE will fit in my top PCI-E slot, as there is a metal base plate for a HDD case riveted (not screwed) in place that is just too high even for a double-slot card of that length unless I angle the motherboard . I removed the cage many years ago but the base is firmly entrenched.

According to my mobo manual (B450 chipset), the middle PCI-E slot is labelled x16, is there any performance detriment from using that slot if I only have 1 slot filled? Actually it's a bit confusing, it says elsewhere "N/A" against that slot for single vga configuration, does that mean it wouldn't work at all? :confused:

Worst case scenario, I suppose I could replace my case (Chieftec Blue Dragon), got it 19 years ago...

Lesson learned, maybe best to take the extra minute or two to check before rushing into purchases.
 
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HangTime said:
Bit annoyed with myself, I saw the 3090FE was available so rushed to buy it, I didn't realise the 3080FE (which I think is much better value) was also available as it didn't show up in the product listing, I didn't want to delay too long double checking in case the 3090 went out of stock.

I also don't think the 3090FE will fit in my top PCI-E slot, as there is a metal base plate for a HDD case riveted (not screwed) in place that is just too high even for a double-slot card of that length unless I angle the motherboard . I removed the cage many years ago but the base is firmly entrenched.

According to my mobo manual (B450 chipset), the middle PCI-E slot is labelled x16, is there any performance detriment from using that slot if I only have 1 slot filled? Actually it's a bit confusing, it says elsewhere "N/A" against that slot for single vga configuration, does that mean it wouldn't work at all? :confused:

Worst case scenario, I suppose I could replace my case (Chieftec Blue Dragon), got it 19 years ago...

Lesson learned, maybe best to take the extra minute or two to check before rushing into purchases.
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I think the lower slot only has 4 PCIe lanes although I'm not sure if not having the card in the top slot will effect this.
 
HangTime said:
According to my mobo manual (B450 chipset), the middle PCI-E slot is labelled x16, is there any performance detriment from using that slot if I only have 1 slot filled? Actually it's a bit confusing, it says elsewhere "N/A" against that slot for single vga configuration, does that mean it wouldn't work at all? :confused:
Click to expand...
If you look down into the second slot, it likely won't even have all the pins populated, despite being a full-size slot. If they only come up halfway, it's an x8 slot, and less than that would be x4. That slot would likely be connected through the chipset too on B450, rather than direct to the CPU. You'll definetly want to use the first one.

Could always get the Dremel out and get rid of the offending part.
 
Aretak said:
If you look down into the second slot, it likely won't even have all the pins populated, despite being a full-size slot. If they only come up halfway, it's an x8 slot, and less than that would be x4. That slot would likely be connected through the chipset too on B450, rather than direct to the CPU. You'll definetly want to use the first one.

Could always get the Dremel out and get rid of the offending part.
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So reading up I've found conflicting views, the one I'm most inclined to believe is that the second slot is connected direct to CPU, but only 8x.

I think I'll probably just have a good bash at the end of the tray with a sledge hammer, then either it will shear off the rivet, or the offending end will bend downwards out of the way. Maybe. Unfortunately it seems quite sturdy, better build quality than the other cases I have around with their wafer-thin metal.
 
HangTime said:
So reading up I've found conflicting views, the one I'm most inclined to believe is that the second slot is connected direct to CPU, but only 8x.

I think I'll probably just have a good bash at the end of the tray with a sledge hammer, then either it will shear off the rivet, or the offending end will bend downwards out of the way. Maybe. Unfortunately it seems quite sturdy, better build quality than the other cases I have around with their wafer-thin metal.
Click to expand...

can you not just drill the rivets holding the hdd tray out?
 
HangTime said:
So reading up I've found conflicting views, the one I'm most inclined to believe is that the second slot is connected direct to CPU, but only 8x.

I think I'll probably just have a good bash at the end of the tray with a sledge hammer, then either it will shear off the rivet, or the offending end will bend downwards out of the way. Maybe. Unfortunately it seems quite sturdy, better build quality than the other cases I have around with their wafer-thin metal.
Click to expand...
Which board model do you have?
 
hyperseven said:
can you not just drill the rivets holding the hdd tray out?
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Never done that before, it looks tricky because I can't get good access to all the rivets. Maybe I'll give it a go if I can find my drill, but compounding problem seems to be getting the front of the case off, I had a go last night and the released 5 of the 6 plastic clips holding it in place but the last one is in an annoying place, I think I'd have to remove the motherboard backing plate or something to get at it. I don't think I've ever removed it in the 19 years of ownership.

To be fair, I have a similar issue in my 3rd system, riveted HDD cage blocking the GPU I want to put in there, so I might use that as a guinea pig system to hone my skills.
Joxeon said:
Which board model do you have?
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Asus ROG Strix B450 F Gaming. Looking at benchmarks I think I'll be unhappy with PCIE 3.0 8x compared to 16x, so probably just need to bite the bullet and get these rivets out.
 
HangTime said:
Never done that before, it looks tricky because I can't get good access to all the rivets. Maybe I'll give it a go if I can find my drill, but compounding problem seems to be getting the front of the case off, I had a go last night and the released 5 of the 6 plastic clips holding it in place but the last one is in an annoying place, I think I'd have to remove the motherboard backing plate or something to get at it. I don't think I've ever removed it in the 19 years of ownership.

To be fair, I have a similar issue in my 3rd system, riveted HDD cage blocking the GPU I want to put in there, so I might use that as a guinea pig system to hone my skills.

Asus ROG Strix B450 F Gaming. Looking at benchmarks I think I'll be unhappy with PCIE 3.0 8x compared to 16x, so probably just need to bite the bullet and get these rivets out.
Click to expand...

You seem to be fretting an awful lot about this case, considering you have had it for nearly 20yrs and just spent £1400 on a GPU, why not just spend another £100~ on a decent case that will easily fit your new card?


Also keep in mind the 3090fe uses 350W+, that all needs cooling. Im not sure about your particular case, but cases I had 20yrs ago where not great by modern standards for airflow. Often very restricted front intakes, probably 80mm fans etc.

So, rather than fret, get a new case and let that 3090fe fit with ease and enjoy!
 
That’s a nice comment…. No FOMO there at all…


I tend to agree with the sentiment of @xPETEZx post though. Just get a new case it’s 20 years old. I remember those, fairly sure I had one. They have pretty rubbish cooling by modern standards and weigh a ton.

If you really want to stick with a sleeper PC the. You need to be prepared to mod it and drill out those rivets. Check YouTube for some guides.
 
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