A lesson in the importance of good thermal paste and keeping the heatsink dust-free

[[Ion]]

As some of you may know, I recently purchased a used 9600GT. When it arrived, the heatsink was reasonably dusty, but it didn't look too bad. Well, the short story is it was. I had to run it at 50% fan speed to keep the idle temps under 65C, and the load temps would fluctuate between 70C and 75C. I decided today to replace the thermal paste with OCZ FreeZe and blow the dust out of the cooler. End result? Load temp (F@H) is about 55C at 35% fan speed. Total time taken: 10 minutes
Here's a SS of it at load after the dust removal/new thermal paste:

 

[MilkyWay]

As some of you may know, I recently purchased a used 9600GT. When it arrived, the heatsink was reasonably dusty, but it didn't look too bad. Well, the short story is it was. I had to run it at 50% fan speed to keep the idle temps under 65C, and the load temps would fluctuate between 70C and 75C. I decided today to replace the thermal paste with OCZ FreeZe and blow the dust out of the cooler. End result? Load temp (F@H) is about 55C at 35% fan speed. Total time taken: 10 minutes
Here's a SS of it at load after the dust removal/new thermal paste:
http://img.techpowerup.org/091113/temps.png

im planning on doing that but with MX-2 paste i have a tiny drop of left

should make it run just as good as it used to

it used to run at 35c idle now its like 40odd c idle big difference to me is that it gets to like mid 60s during games when it never batted above mid 50s

 

[brandonwh64]

i got a 7600GT not too long ago and the heatsink and fan were seperate due to him watercooling it but when i mounted the HSF i lapped it alittle and used Arctic silver 5 and but washed it in the dish washer first to get that orange scent LOL! worked like a charm LOW TEMPS. i will post a screen shot maybe tonight or tomarrow but its great!