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980 ti thermal paste

just keep in mind that offering a product that is not only expensive and has to be ordered (and shipped) is not always the best solution. The OP mentioned that he lives in Columbia which may not be as easy as some other country's to pick up specialized cleaning solvents for computer hardware. automotive grade products will work just as well and you're obviously not going to drown your hardware in it so there's not really any risk of anything dissolving on contact but, you'd obviously want to be careful with what your doing just like anything else. all i'm saying is don't knock it until you've tried it, i've personally used non chlorinated brake cleaner, mineral spirits and nail polish remover in a pinch to clean PCB's and silicon dies in a pinch and they do in deed work. come to mention you can actually find contact cleaner in most automotive stores.

Indigo is what I use and I always have it on hand... each bottle lasts me through 20-30 builds and is one alternative. Contact cleaner costs me more than a bottle of Indigo and my kids won't steal it outta my toolbox for their cars. There many practical and non-dangerous alternatives for example 90+% alcohol which can be found at Walmart for $2.50 a bottle. The automotive components can DAMAGE PC components. Unless you are a person who has never spilled a soda, dropped a screw inside PC case, or tripped over your own feet .... NOT RECOMMENDED....accidents happen.

Like using AS5 which is capacitive and takes 3 weeks to cure.... There's no need to take that risk when cheaper alternatives are available which perform as well or better. ...

AS5 is more expensive than Shin Etsu G751... the latter has no capacitance issues, cures before you have finished the build , same thermal properties so why spend more to incur inconvenience and risk however small it may be ?

At Walmart... 5 oz contact cleaner (cheapo stuff) is $5.99 and CAN damage something ... 32 oz 90% + Iso Alcohol has 0 risk and costs $2.49. Why spend more than twice as much to incur a risk, no matter how small it may be. make this choice.

You are in a rock climbing competition (100 feet) at an indoor sports center. Member of the father / son teams who gets to the wins $100.

Route A costs $20 to climb and has no safety rope. Route B costs $10 and you get a safety rope. Both routes are same difficulty, no time limits and no penalties for falling. Which route do you choose ? Now it's your son's turn who never climbed a rock wall before .... why take the risk, there's no downside.
 
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As far as lessons learned go: don't be too eager to change thermal paste. It barely does anything and the risk is real.

Dried out paste is a much heard argument to replace paste - but the stuff is SUPPOSED to dry out.

Before doing anything to break the bond between chip and heatsink, check everything else. Ambient temp, case airflow, fan quality, software.
 
As far as lessons learned go: don't be too eager to change thermal paste. It barely does anything and the risk is real.

Dried out paste is a much heard argument to replace paste - but the stuff is SUPPOSED to dry out.

Before doing anything to break the bond between chip and heatsink, check everything else. Ambient temp, case airflow, fan quality, software.

Have you seen the mess Gigabyte did to his card? What a bunch of arseholes.
 
Have you seen the mess Gigabyte did to his card? What a bunch of arseholes.

I just read 'engineer'... was this Gigabyte's handiwork?! I read it as some random shop.
 
I just read 'engineer'... was this Gigabyte's handiwork?! I read it as some random shop.

Well he sent his GPU to Gigabyte RMA, then received it back as "not on warranty" because of that mess of thermalpaste. He never touched it so logically, Gigabyte RMA guys did the mess themselves just to save a bit of money or slack some work.
 
Well he sent his GPU to Gigabyte RMA, then received it back as "not on warranty" because of that mess of thermalpaste. He never touched it so logically, Gigabyte RMA guys did the mess themselves just to save a bit of money or slack some work.

Weeeeeelll do you really think that plausible? They take a card apart entirely and put it back together to deny a warranty? Time is money, you know...
 
Weeeeeelll do you really think that plausible? They take a card apart entirely and put it back together to deny a warranty? Time is money, you know...

It's not the first story I've heard about Gigabyte RMA team... But always take it with a grain of salt I guess. One time a guy sent a GPU and got back with the same GPU but with the PCB cracked. He took pictures before and after fortunately so it was more trustable...
 
Yes I saw that one too and thát I had no doubts about.
 
Gigabyte used to warranty used cards, I think they were screwed over during the Litecoin mining period, now they are so strict they even damage customers cards so they can refuse warranty.

I had a 7970 and Gigabyte replaced it twice on RMA, each time I got a broken card back, they didn't deny my RMA claim but they did ship me junk cards each time. Was like they got one card coming in from one customer, one card going out to the next and they did no repairs on either.
 
Well he sent his GPU to Gigabyte RMA, then received it back as "not on warranty" because of that mess of thermalpaste. He never touched it so logically, Gigabyte RMA guys did the mess themselves just to save a bit of money or slack some work.

In his other thread I believe he said he took it to a shop and they did the repaste.
 
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