Replacing thermal paste on a 9800 GTX

[FilipM]

I wanna replace the thermal paste on my 9800 GTX with some Arctic Cooling MX-2. There are no stickers covering any of the screws on thye bottom side of the card so i can un-screw it without doing any damage to any of them.

When I pop the card, do i clean it off with a cloth and alchocol like on CPU's? Will i need to buy something for memory cooling, or will the thermal pads still work?

If anyone has already done this, give advise if you can and also provide pictures if possible.

 

[FilipM]

bump

 

[Flyordie]

Well... I did it on my HD4850... I have pictures of it all.
I used Alcohol swabs to clean off the old crap. So I don't see any issue with that.

 

[Ramo1203]

Well you can re-use the old thermal pads that come with the card.

 

[hat]

That's an iffy subject cause I dunno if the cooler makes contact with the memory or not without the thermal pads...

 

[FilipM]

I know on the 9800 GTX review (Zotac card) Wizz took off the cooler and reaplied thermal paste, but didn't say if thermal pads were damaged.

 

[OnBoard]

They will be fine. It's sort of gooey mess that you can mold to anything you like. Even if they rip you can just stick 'em back or take an extra piece on the memory pads to the VRM side if needed. The fan wire is kinda short but you can lift the cooler to the top side and then start ripping it off. It's very tight, don't pull on the wires.

Oh and there is A LOT of the paste, cleaning will take a while, take your time

 

[Ramo1203]

That's an iffy subject cause I dunno if the cooler makes contact with the memory or not without the thermal pads...

I'm almost sure the memory doesn't make contact without the thermal pads. Anyways they shouldn't be damaged when you remove the cooler.

 

[OnBoard]

I'm almost sure the memory doesn't make contact without the thermal pads. Anyways they shouldn't be damaged when you remove the cooler.

Yep, doesn't, they are a good 1-2mm even when squashed. They do rip easily, but it's like play-doh, just put them back together.

 

[FilipM]

Operation done, now the testing part. Man, my hands were shaking when i was putting it together, will it work? LOL

The inside bit, I expected worse, but it looked like cement in there, lol. Cleaned it off and the shiny G92-420 got it's eyes back, it saw the world. Applyed a very thin layer of AC MX2 with a credit card, put the thing carefully together, screw it in, back in the case.

Thanks for the encouragment to do it.