Re-applying thermal paste of 8800GT

Morten74 · Post by **Morten74** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:31 am

Hi guys

I just purchased an EVGA 8800GT Akimbo to replace my passive ASUS 8600GT - needed more power

In idle the fan is at 34% and I cannot hear it in the case (see sig for my specs). Core temp is about 49 degrees, which is acceptable, I guess. However, when I start up a game (BF2 or Gothic 3) the fan really starts naking a noise as it increases to about 60-70%. This does keep the GPU nice and cool at below 60 degrees, though. I have tried to fix the fan at 35% (which is where I start to hear it), but while gaming the temps go up to 80+ degrees, which I think is a bit on the high side...

Having read of others who have bought the Akimbo cooler separately and put it on their 8800GTs and getting much lower temps even when OCing, I thought I might try the remove the TIM and use some qualite stuff instead (like AS Ceramique to avoid the conductance problems of AS5).

Does this sound like a bad idea? (I know it might void the warrenty if I break the sticker covering one of the screws, but I'll take my chances if that's what it takes...

Any advice on how to apply the TIM - I have read somewhere to use just a drop the size of Â½ a grain of rice in the middle of the GPU and let the cooler spread it out?

Thanks in advance

Best regards
Morten

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:33 am

you need better cooler. Like Arcting Cooling Accelero + 800 RPM slipstream. Akimbo is seriously overclocked card... I mean seriously...

Morten74 · Post by **Morten74** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 12:03 pm

Nope - mine is std. clocked 600MHz core and 900MHz memory - that's why I suspect poor thermal grease... I know that EVGA also makes one clocked at 720/1000 with the same cooler - I would never try to OC to that level, but 650/975 would be nice...

Morten

Cryoburner · Post by **Cryoburner** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 1:03 pm

I've heard some good things about Arctic Cooling MX-2 as well. It's supposed to be slightly more effective than Arctic Silver 5, and lasts longer once installed.

You might also try using a utility to better control your fan speeds. I use ATI Tray Tools, though I'm not certain what's currently best for Nvidia cards. With a utility like this, you can set each ramp up point for the fan to give it a more gradual curve. It's better than setting a fixed value, since you can keep the accoustics reasonable under load while still providing plenty of fan speed in the event that temperatures reach higher than normal levels.

Geod · Post by **Geod** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 1:37 pm

Hi,

I got the akimbo cooler also, for my eVga 8800GT. When you look on the back of the card you'll see alot of screws, simply loosen and remove and retain all the screws. Also take off the two black screws from the metal bracket on the end of the card

If a sticker is in the way, you should be able to peel it off slowly, and reapply it to an empty portion of the back of the video card, eVga's warranty covers disassembly of the cooler by the user.

After you get all the screws off the card and cooler, the backplate and cooler should come apart easily.

On my card I removed all the grey paste and used AS5, I had spread it in a thin layer on top of the gpu.

Unfortunately my temps are still at 60C with the akimbo fan at 30%.

Morten74 · Post by **Morten74** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 9:51 am

Thanks guys

@Cryoburner: I think I will program Rivatuner to do this

@Geod: Hmmm, doesn't really sound like it's worth the trouble - the 60 degrees are during idle, right?

Morten

shimq1 · Post by **shimq1** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 6:39 pm

Geod wrote:Hi,

I got the akimbo cooler also, for my eVga 8800GT. When you look on the back of the card you'll see alot of screws, simply loosen and remove and retain all the screws. Also take off the two black screws from the metal bracket on the end of the card

If a sticker is in the way, you should be able to peel it off slowly, and reapply it to an empty portion of the back of the video card, eVga's warranty covers disassembly of the cooler by the user.

After you get all the screws off the card and cooler, the backplate and cooler should come apart easily.

On my card I removed all the grey paste and used AS5, I had spread it in a thin layer on top of the gpu.

Unfortunately my temps are still at 60C with the akimbo fan at 30%.

Did applying new thermal paste decrease the temperature from stock? What was the temperature before you applied new thermal paste?

aztec · Post by **aztec** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 7:03 pm

instructions

http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~douglee/8800GTS/8800GTS.htm

AS5 helps, but a 3rd party cooler like an HR-03 and a 120mm fan will do wonders for the temps.