VOGONS


First post, by Jackal1983

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I recently acquired a Quadro FX 3000 card for a DX7-8 based Windows ME build. As of now it seems to be working well (haven't installed the driver I'm waiting for my P4 651 to show up), so refurbishment is the next step. What thickness thermal pad do these heatsinks accept under the ram heatsinks or should I use high quality thermal paste like Kryonaut instead? Eventually I plan to throw an NV silencer on but as far as I know they don't come with a heatsink solution for the rear mounted memory modules, necessitating reusing the stock backplate.

Reply 1 of 9, by wirerogue

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all the old nvidia cards that i've replaced the thermal pads on, including the fx3000, came with those white, really soft and kinda greasy thermal pads which were originally 1mm in thickness.
however, if you are going to use new silicon pads, like those light blue ones they sell on amazon, i would go with the 1/2mm as they don't compress nearly as much as the original white pads.

Reply 2 of 9, by RacoonRider

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Here's a method I used when I refurbished Radeon HD4870X2 in 2014:

First, I lit a candle and dropped a drop of hot paraffin on the cooler in places where it contacts the cooled chips. Then I assembled the card back to its previous shape with paraffin still hot. I disassembled it again after a few minutes, the paraffin was already solid, so I measured the thickness of the imprints with a Vernier caliper. Although now that I think of it, it would have probably been a better idea to just use some play-dough.

Anyway, that furnace of a card worked well into 2019 in my daily driver and is still alive to this day.

Reply 3 of 9, by Jackal1983

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wirerogue wrote on 2020-02-04, 17:03:

all the old nvidia cards that i've replaced the thermal pads on, including the fx3000, came with those white, really soft and kinda greasy thermal pads which were originally 1mm in thickness.
however, if you are going to use new silicon pads, like those light blue ones they sell on amazon, i would go with the 1/2mm as they don't compress nearly as much as the original white pads.

Is this a general rule for all modern thermal pads? I was planning to go with either some arctic cooling thermal pads or fujipoly/thermal grizzly if I'm feeling spendy.

Reply 4 of 9, by MrEWhite

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RacoonRider wrote on 2020-02-04, 17:24:

Here's a method I used when I refurbished Radeon HD4870X2 in 2014:

First, I lit a candle and dropped a drop of hot paraffin on the cooler in places where it contacts the cooled chips. Then I assembled the card back to its previous shape with paraffin still hot. I disassembled it again after a few minutes, the paraffin was already solid, so I measured the thickness of the imprints with a Vernier caliper. Although now that I think of it, it would have probably been a better idea to just use some play-dough.

Anyway, that furnace of a card worked well into 2019 in my daily driver and is still alive to this day.

Just the mention of play-doh around graphics cards gives me flashbacks... shivers in Voodoo 5 6000

Reply 5 of 9, by RacoonRider

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MrEWhite wrote on 2020-02-04, 19:25:

Just the mention of play-doh around graphics cards gives me flashbacks... shivers in Voodoo 5 6000

I'm curious to know why 😀

Reply 6 of 9, by candle_86

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1mm is what they are, though for the rear I'd just grab normal self stick ram sinks

Reply 8 of 9, by RacoonRider

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MrEWhite wrote on 2020-02-05, 10:32:

Just Google Voodoo 5 6000 Play-Doh and you’ll see

Oh, I remember this thread on 3dfxzone now that I've googled it. The picture links are dead now, that's good, the content is quite shocking.

Reply 9 of 9, by Jackal1983

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candle_86 wrote on 2020-02-05, 04:31:

1mm is what they are, though for the rear I'd just grab normal self stick ram sinks

Normally I'd do that, but I like the fact that the backplate adds a bit of structural strength to the card. Also, It might be a while till the right NV Silencer revision shows up (Aerocooler sells AVC-NV4 on amazon which is supposed to be the NVSilencer 4 but im'm not sure if it's revision 2 or if that matters anyhow) on ebay and I'd like to swap the pads out as soon as I've verified it works in 3D for peace of mind.