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Thermal pads or paste?

Tomcat825

Tomcat825

Tomcat825

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My GTX 280's thermal pads are completely worn away so I'm going to replace them, however I stumbled across a post from google that stated the general consensus is that Paste is far better on GPU's (core AND memory) than pads, but paste is risky as it's capacititive (not sure what this is tbh).

Source: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=133823

What would you guys suggest? I'm happy to risk the paste if it's just a case of being tight on the application or is it really worth just sticking with pads?
 
Tomcat825 said:
My GTX 280's thermal pads are completely worn away so I'm going to replace them, however I stumbled across a post from google that stated the general consensus is that Paste is far better on GPU's (core AND memory) than pads, but paste is risky as it's capacititive (not sure what this is tbh).

Source: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=133823

What would you guys suggest? I'm happy to risk the paste if it's just a case of being tight on the application or is it really worth just sticking with pads?
Click to expand...

Its not conductive but is capacitive (spelling) meaning it can built up a charge over time
Click to expand...

Basically, what that says is that over a time it can short your components ;)
Not sure how true it is, but i'd just use pads to be safe
 
Compared to a layer of thermal paste thermal pads are quite thick.

You may find that the heatsink won't be in contact with the components if you use paste.
 
Surveyor said:
Compared to a layer of thermal paste thermal pads are quite thick.

You may find that the heatsink won't be in contact with the components if you use paste.
Click to expand...

Did you mistype the last word as paste instead of pads? That seems a bit contradictive to me, surely the paste would put the components closer to the heatsink as its thinner than the pads?
 
Tomcat825 said:
Did you mistype the last word as paste instead of pads? That seems a bit contradictive to me, surely the paste would put the components closer to the heatsink as its thinner than the pads?
Click to expand...

I didn't mistype.

If, say, the gap between the heatsink and the component was 0.5mm then a thick enough pad would be used to bridge the gap.

A layer of paste is far less than 0.5mm thick so you'd end up with an air gap.

A layer of paste isn't going to fill the much larger gap where there was a thermal pad.
 
Ah yes, fair enough. I'll stick with Thermal pads then. Hwoever, I've never used them or read up about them... do either of you have any suggestions as to a good "make" of them? Or are they pretty much just thermal pads and that's it, 1 make fits all and does the job of any?
 
Tomcat825 said:
Ah yes, fair enough. I'll stick with Thermal pads then. Hwoever, I've never used them or read up about them... do either of you have any suggestions as to a good "make" of them? Or are they pretty much just thermal pads and that's it, 1 make fits all and does the job of any?
Click to expand...

I've never had to replace any but they come in various thicknesses.

If you have a look on some of the water cooling specialist sites they usually carry a large range from 0.5mm to 5mm.

I think generally you use a slightly thicker pad than the gap so it compresses down a bit when the heatsink is fitted.

I've sent you a message via trust.
 
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