Help and Feedback Needed - 675M upgraded to 880M in MSi 7X series

[monsti]

Hi guys, I needed help and feedback with a problem I was facing with my laptop, particularly a VGA card upgrade that I did.

I posted the topic in detail here:

 

Though I need additional feedback and information regarding:

 

Power Supply: I have a default 180W PSU that came with the MSi with the 8gb 675M card, and the 880M is only 5W more TDP, but still I wanted to know if that was sufficient. Oddly enough when I bought the card I was told that I'd need a 240W PSU. Could that be a contributing factor to why the card isn't performing as it should (all pictures etc attached with the post.

 

Thermals: When repasting and retaping, do I need to put thermal tape over the VRMs? If there is a bigger gap between the heatsink and the VRMs, and I use a 5mm thermal tape/pad, will it be alright or will it contribute to additional heat buildup?

 

Heatsink: Do I need to wipe down/wash the copper pipes of the heatsink with any particular material. It all looks shiny enough, but does invisible top coating of maybe dust/oil reduce heat dissipation?