Hey, folks…
I am going to jump into the middle of this long-a$$ super-thread with a question that has likely been asked and answered many times over now, but I cannot fish through 900+ pages to find what I need. If this is the wrong place to post this, I hope the mods will move it to the appropriate place (and let me know, as otherwise I will never find the answers you guys take the time to type up for me).
Today, I modified my GPU heat sink for my new-to-me GPU install.
mid-2011 iMac 27"
Core i7 2600 (SR00B) @ 3.4 GHz
NVIDIA K4100M
I used my Dremel with a sanding barrel to grind down the pads of the heat sink as per the several photos I have seen for the K4100M, and based on what I can see with my actual IRL components.
I had to stop after I had both heat sinks installed and torqued down to "barely finger tight". The CPU seemed to go well, though I had an issue with getting the heat sink to lie flat on the CPU and the "radiator" portion to contact the flat mounting bracket. (I figured it out, though.)
So I think I may have ruined my three-pipe heat sink by removing too much material. I am hoping someone here can allay my fears, pat me on the head, and send me on my way.
I marked the pads and ground them down as all the various videos and "build threads" show, but this left gaps that were quite large with the smaller, metal-looking chips at the top of the card. I have good quality thermal pad material, but ended up not using it due to this large gap. For the CPU, I used Arctic MX-4. I used that on the GPU chip, too. But once I got a load of the big gap where I ground away the heat sink material, I decided to use enough of the Arctic MX-4 to completely fill the gaps between the chips and the metal sink.
WAS THIS INCORRECT? And, more importantly, is this specific thermal paste okay for use with these smaller chips? I stopped for the evening once I had screwed the heat sinks back onto the logic board, so I can easily take down the GPU section, wipe it all clean, and do this over again if I have screwed up.
I have OwlTree thermal pads, Arctic Silver, and some Kryonaut stuff, and I could apply any of them if need be. However, if I need to do this, I need a brief hand-holding session since the pads do not come with any instructions. For instance, does the shiny material peel off both sides? Like, are the pads self-adhesive or something like that?
Further, two of the chips are shiny metal, like the main chip, and they are the two for which I had to clearance the sink. I imagine these must have different temps than the plastic (ceramic?) black chips, but again, I have no idea.
Help?
Anyone?
Bueller?
THANKS!
-- Wade
My cat Mary Ann remains unimpressed…