P870DM-G 980DT Heatsink Mod for MSI 1070

[thegh0sts 114]

As per @coolane's request, I figured I'd make a separate thread for this modification. In the original thread (https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/265-benchmarks-the-official-thread/&page=34) coolane shows their heatsink modifications and results which I think were ingenious. Initially I didn't think it was possible to use the 980DT heatsink with the MSI 1070 without modification, though with coolane's post showed potential and I figured I may as well give it a try since there's no chance in hell or any other place that I would be able to do a 1070 SLI configuration.

 

Thanks to coolane, they provided further detail into their mod and it was very straightforward enough for me to warrant an attempt. So, I ordered:

 

10pcs of 8.8mm x 8.8mm heatsinks

1 sheet of thermal transfer tape

400 - 3000 grit sandpaper

 

and I am waiting for those parts to arrive to my location before I begin and I post when they do. 

 

EDIT: I may do some minor changes to their attempt like not adding additional heatsink pipes since i have no idea on how to even attach them so this will be a basic modification.

 

EDIT2: Original content

 

Quote

 

About modding the 980DT heat sink, please take a look of the picture below (corner was cut out already). You can compare with yours and see the changes.

If you align the MSI 1070 with the 980DT heat sink, you will find those power phases popping the copper panel and preventing the GPU core from making good contact with the heat sink. Especially the individual one in the corner. I used a hacksaw to cut out the corner, and used the 400 sandpaper to deep-sand the places that I circled, following with refined sanding using 800-grit paper and 2000 grit for polishing. This required a lot of works, I would say adding extra (maybe 3) heat pipes on top of the 980M heat sink would be much easier if you don't want the trouble. 

 

 

About the vbios of the 1070, I will recommend to wait for what @prema might come up later or a modded nvflash. Because at this moment, as I know, any modification of the pascal vbios cannot bypass the nvflash and requires a programmer to program it. This involves extra spending in a programmer and higher risk of bricking a card easily. 

I can't provide the vbios because it's not my property. I found it in a chinese forum; if you search "vBIOS硬刷 Pascal GTX1060/70/80" in google, maybe you will find the original thread.

The below post by Dreamonic is a reference of editing the pascal vbios using hex-editor, I tried to mod it by myself and resulted in black screen on boot, not sure what is the cause.

http://www.techinferno.com/haven/threads/94/

 

 

Quote

 

1. I just used a simple hacksaw to manually cut it and 3M sand papers to sand it; the saw looks like this one: 

https://www.amazon.com/Stanley-STHT20139L-Rubber-Grip-Hacksaw/dp/B00B5A0T5K/ref=sr_1_2?s=power-hand-tools&ie=UTF8&qid=1484799254&sr=1-2&keywords=hacksaw

2. Hopefully the below picture can give you a better insight. If you put the 1070 together with the 980DT heat sink, you will see a better picture of where to cut out or sand out. Because your goal is to have the core contact the heat sink evenly with 4 screw holes aligned.

3. Just 3M double sides thermal tape, it came with the small heat fins I got from amazon. If you don't plan to resell your card, you can use some thermal adhesive.

4. It's okay to have the red-circled components to touch the heat sink, I applied some thermal paste there to dissipate the heat.

 

 

EDIT 3: I learned from @J95 and @Prema that the vbios mod used by coolane was stolen from Prema by some crappy Chinese hacker so this thread is specifically for the modding of the heatsink itself.

 

EDIT 4: I ended up getting the following to complete the mod so far.

 

1. Stanley hacksaw - $10AUD

2. Sandpaper 80 grit and 180 grit emery (for soft metals like copper), 400 grit W&D, 800 grit W&D, and 1200 grit W&D - $10AUD approx (though i spent more ordering more from Amazon which won't be used now but good to have :p)

3. Protective gloves - $12AUD

 

EDIT 5: Ordered some thermal adhesive to glue a bit of copper plate to cover the power phase chip. Sure, a mini-heatsink might do the job though it might be better if it was going through the heatpipes.

Edited January 29, 2017 by thegh0sts

[coolane 69]

5 hours ago, thegh0sts said:

EDIT: I may do some minor changes to their attempt like not adding additional heatsink pipes since i have no idea on how to even attach them so this will be a basic modification.

You're welcome . I'm glad it helped!

I just simply used Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive to attach the heat pipes on the heat sink.

If you would like the best performance, you can consider soldering them.

[thegh0sts 114]

i was thinking of using a dremel (even bought the cutting wheels for metal) but think it might be better if i just do the same and get a hand saw from the hardware store.

 

do you know how to separate the pipe from the plate? only cos there's too much plate on the right side (the side that doesn't have the power phase chip). i was thinking if it could be separated that it be bent so that its inline with the GPU die screw holes and reattached through soldering or thermal adhesive, then cut off the excess plate to make it smaller. 

 

did you have to sand the existing pipes to give new pipes better contact?

[thegh0sts 114]

I did have a look at the thread talking about reprogramming the vbios chip to do 200W TDP and it looks straight forward when it comes to unlocking the TDP but setting the max and min TDP is bit of a bump since i can't calculate how one gets/calculates the hex value for a 200W TDP.

[coolane 69]

19 hours ago, thegh0sts said:

i was thinking of using a dremel (even bought the cutting wheels for metal) but think it might be better if i just do the same and get a hand saw from the hardware store.

 

do you know how to separate the pipe from the plate? only cos there's too much plate on the right side (the side that doesn't have the power phase chip). i was thinking if it could be separated that it be bent so that its inline with the GPU die screw holes and reattached through soldering or thermal adhesive, then cut off the excess plate to make it smaller. 

 

did you have to sand the existing pipes to give new pipes better contact?

Separating the original pipes from the heat panel might damage the pipes or the heatsink, because they were soldered together firmly. The only way that I know it's to heat them up hot (~500 Fahrenheit or higher) enough to take of the pipes. I am not sure about this, you might need to do some research.

 

Yes, I sanded the surface of the pipes around the core area to expose the copper partially, that way it can transfer heat better without having a layer of paint between them. Depends on the thermal performance that you are looking for, you can determine how much you want to sand out.

[thegh0sts 114]

1 minute ago, coolane said:

Separating the original pipes from the heat panel might damage the pipes or the heatsink, because they were soldered together firmly. The only way that I know it's to heat them up hot (~500 Fahrenheit or higher) enough to take of the pipes. I am not sure about this, you might need to do some research.

 

Yes, I sanded the surface of the pipes around the core area to expose the copper partially, that way it can transfer heat better without having a layer of paint between them. Depends on the thermal performance that you are looking for, you can determine how much you want to sand out.

 

thanks. how did you calculate the hex value to get 200W TDP?

[coolane 69]

17 hours ago, thegh0sts said:

I did have a look at the thread talking about reprogramming the vbios chip to do 200W TDP and it looks straight forward when it comes to unlocking the TDP but setting the max and min TDP is bit of a bump since i can't calculate how one gets/calculates the hex value for a 200W TDP.

So in Dreamonic's thread, he used 150W for example to mod the TDP.

150W is 150,000 mW, in hexadecimal is 00 02 49 F0. In the vbios, you read it from the right to the left, so it's modded as F0 49 02 00 (as he highlighted as red).

200W is 200,000 mW, in hexadecimal is 00 03 0D 40. So in the vbios, it will be 40 0D 03 00.

[thegh0sts 114]

2 minutes ago, coolane said:

So in Dreamonic's thread, he used 150W for example to mod the TDP.

150W is 150,000 mW, in hexadecimal is 00 02 49 F0. In the vbios, you read it from the right to the left, so it's modded as F0 49 02 00 (as he highlighted as red).

200W is 200,000 mW, in hexadecimal is 00 03 0D 40. So in the vbios, it will be 40 0D 03 00.

 

Ah i see. I assume you unlocked the TDP adjustable setting and voltage control? I did find similar values in my vbios rom file but since i don't have a flash programmer i can't do it.

Edited January 23, 2017 by thegh0sts

[coolane 69]

3 minutes ago, thegh0sts said:

 

Ah i see. I assume you unlocked the TDP adjustable setting and voltage control? I did find similar values in my vbios rom file but since i don't have a flash programmer i can't do it.

I modded it according to the thread, but it resulted in black screen on boot. There is something wrong that I don't know.

Right now the vbios that I am using was from a chinese forum (google "vBIOS硬刷 Pascal GTX1060/70/80"); it unlocked the TDP adjustable to max 200W TDP, voltage is still locked without control.

[thegh0sts 114]

10 minutes ago, coolane said:

I modded it according to the thread, but it resulted in black screen on boot. There is something wrong that I don't know.

Right now the vbios that I am using was from a chinese forum (google "vBIOS硬刷 Pascal GTX1060/70/80"); it unlocked the TDP adjustable to max 200W TDP, voltage is still locked without control.

 

thanks. did you flash it through nvflash and which did you flash (i see 2 1070 roms)? i'm not gonna flash it now anyway since i don't think that 1 set of heatsink fins is enough to cool it.

 

EDIT: my parts still haven't shipped yet

Edited January 23, 2017 by thegh0sts

[thegh0sts 114]

@coolane whatever vbios you're using it should work for me since gsync is known not to work with the P870DM-G.

[coolane 69]

14 hours ago, thegh0sts said:

 

thanks. did you flash it through nvflash and which did you flash (i see 2 1070 roms)? i'm not gonna flash it now anyway since i don't think that 1 set of heatsink fins is enough to cool it.

The vbios was modded, it cannot bypass the check of nvflash and will fail the flashing.

Currently nvflash only supports vbios that is officially signed.

I used a programmer to program the vbios into the chipset.

 

The one that I used is starting with "Clevo_8", which is for P870DMx series.

The one started with "Clevo_7" is for P7xx series.

[thegh0sts 114]

The vbios was modded, it cannot bypass the check of nvflash and will fail the flashing.

Currently nvflash only supports vbios that is officially signed.

I used a programmer to program the vbios into the chipset.

 

The one that I used is starting with "Clevo_8", which is for P870DMx series.

The one started with "Clevo_7" is for P7xx series.

Oh ok so you still used the programmer to flash the vbios. Will look into it. Can't find that clip attachment.

EDIT: I'll just worry about the heatsink for now.

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

[thegh0sts 114]

I just learnt that the vbios mod used was from a person that stole @Prema's code so in respect to Prema i won't be using it.

 

got a hacksaw and made my cuts

 

 

EDIT: I don't think 400 grit sandpaper will do the job...it's like I haven't shaved much off at all.

Edited January 26, 2017 by thegh0sts

[coolane 69]

3 hours ago, thegh0sts said:

I just learnt that the vbios mod used was from a person that stole @Prema's code so in respect to Prema i won't be using it.

Yup, I tried to be quiet. That's why I asked you to search google instead of posting his original url, and recommended you to wait for Prema's vbios at the beginning. 

I am waiting to switch back to Prema's vbios once is ready.

 

3 hours ago, thegh0sts said:

EDIT: I don't think 400 grit sandpaper will do the job...it's like I haven't shaved much off at all.

Good job! I sanded it a very long time using the 400 grit paper. Maybe it will be faster and more efficient with a dremel.

[thegh0sts 114]

I did manage to find some 80grit emery sandpaper (suited for soft metals like copper), 400, 800, 1200 grit wet & dry sandpaper (even though i have some being delivered...i guess i can start my own tool kit haha) and i took about 4-5 hours just to sand all the rough areas from my cuts and I did an initial fitting and it looks like I shaved off enough the bend in the plate for the row of power phases to not bump into the bend in the heatsink plate.

 

Remember that the power phases have thermal pads sandwiched between the plate and the phases so that gap kinda helps.

 

As you can tell, I made some extra cuts at the top where the small black chips (that are paired) are because one pair was partially covered so i thought i may as well cut a small bit out so it can have a mini heatsink on it instead. this is a non-essential cut, the essential cuts are where the power phase chip sits on it's own and sanding that bend in the plate so the row of power phases don't bump into the plate. So in my instance there will be 7 chips that require 4 mini heatsinks. @coolane's version didn't have this so they only have 3 mini heatsinks.

 

Here's my initial test fitting of the modded heatsink.

 

 

 

I didn't see any noticeable gaps in the area between the die and heatsink. Here's what my shaved heatsink looks like.

 

 

 

I shaved it to the point where it nearly splits the copper so i this should be a good indication of how much you need to shave off and I get a perfect fit.

 

Now, it's just a matter of getting the 8.8x8.8x5mm heatsinks + thermal tape.  

 

EDIT: It won't be till early February when I get those heatsinks and I have no idea where i can source them locally in Australia.

Edited January 26, 2017 by thegh0sts

[coolane 69]

Very nice! You made it even have better fit than mine. Back in that time I didn't bother spending too much time to sand it that much (only got 400 paper).

My core still has a little bit gap with the heat sink, not perfect.

You will be happy with the temperature dropped, it's gonna be significant.

[thegh0sts 114]

Here's how the shaved section in the heatsink plate interacts with the power phases. As you can see there's just enough of a gap to allow even the thickness of the thermal pads (which i am gonna have to trim a bit).

 

 

Plus i get some decent coverage with the thermal paste so i think it's all good. deciding if i should use thermal paste on the red area or just thermal transfer tape.

 

 

EDIT: looking at the top of the initial fitting i think it's possible to attach a small copper plate over the area of the power phase chip to the heatsink with thermal adhesive. all you'd need there is just a thermal pad that was thick enough. If I could graph the copper from an unused section of the plate to cover the area in red that would be great. I may not do this right away but after i get my mini-heatsinks.

 

 

But so far it's looking good!

Edited January 27, 2017 by thegh0sts

[thegh0sts 114]

looks like the mini-heatsinks shipped so i'll be getting them soon. better not buy more due to impatience

[thegh0sts 114]

final idea for the modded heatsink.

 

[thegh0sts 114]

placing a piece of copper over the power phase chip provides only a very thin gap, enough for either tape or thermal paste. i might attach some mini heatsinks to the top to help the dissipation if there's enough height clearance.

 

i have glued that cross piece into place so will see if that does any better. 

 

EDIT: since the cross piece i glued on is quite bare I was looking at getting some high temp resistant spray paint to cover that area in place of anodizing the copper

Edited February 2, 2017 by thegh0sts

[thegh0sts 114]

I bought some high temperature resistant paint and sprayed it over the exposed piece and it looks great! I might do another coat to be sure

 

 

Just waiting on the mini-heatsinks to arrive and i should be good to go.

[bennyg 14]

Nice. Which/where did you get it?

[thegh0sts 114]

1 minute ago, bennyg said:

Nice. Which/where did you get it?

 

I bought this, the high temp of 690 Celsius for black is quite good and it the paint is not obvious where i sprayed...it's quite seemless.

 

https://www.bunnings.com.au/dulux-duramax-300g-high-heat-enamel-black-spray-paint_p1400735 

[thegh0sts 114]

I should be getting my mini-heatsinks from amazon tomorrow.