Worklog here: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1217452
Thermal Paste to be used in rig:
http://www.arctic-cooling.com/further_prod2.php?idx=140
This paste has won several awards, even supposedly topping the excellent AS5. Be that as it may, one of the reasons I went with it is that it does NOT contain any metals in it, making it safe for use around tight spots where leads or other nasties might get in the way. Suffice it to say it sounds like a dummy proof goop.
After reading several articles suggesting that you can seriously reduce your GPU temps by applying after-market thermal paste I decided to open up my MSI 8800 GTS 640 Overclocked Edition:
As you can see from the picture, there's the standard gray thermal paste on the GPU core itself, plus there's small slabs of a thermal paste tape on the card's MOSFETs. I took the tape off just to see what it was make out of and it appears to be a fibrous and creamy texture.
While most modders highly recommend putting the after-market goop on the GPU core, I've heard little about putting a non-conductive paste like MX-2 directly on the MOSFETS. My real question is, do you think it is best to use the standard tape gunk that came with the card or should I lather on a swab of MX2 for each of the chips? Has anyone tried this before?
As you can see from the product page, the MX2 is non-corrosive, non-conductive and non-capacitive. By all accounts it should be fine, correct? If so, do you think I should apply approximately the same amount of gunk to match what MSI had or did they use too little/much? Thanks for your input.