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Do I need thermal pads?


Leo14

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Title says it all, do I need to get thermal pads for the black squares ( sorry no idea what they're called, but don't worry I know I'm capable of installing this myself) I'm also pretty sure thats some thermal compound smeared all around, which I will remove before adding my thermal paste. I went with IC Diamond 7 carat, but I tried to contact the seller and ask/look around online but couldn't really find a definite answer. Videos weren't helpful either, but I just really some quick help on this as I want to install this soon.

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The black squares are the VRAM chips. Depends on your heatsink, if they will make contact with your heatsink then probably yes you should have some thermal pads. I'd figure since it is an Alienware the heatsink is probably nice, so I'm leaning toward a definite yes to thermal pads on your VRAM.

And yes, that stuff is thermal compound smeared around.

--

I'm probably not the best to answer this however since I don't have a removable graphics card for my laptop. I just saw your post in the recent list lol.

-atn

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The black squares are the VRAM chips. Depends on your heatsink, if they will make contact with your heatsink then probably yes you should have some thermal pads. I'd figure since it is an Alienware the heatsink is probably nice, so I'm leaning toward a definite yes to thermal pads on your VRAM.

And yes, that stuff is thermal compound smeared around.

--

I'm probably not the best to answer this however since I don't have a removable graphics card for my laptop. I just saw your post in the recent list lol.

-atn

Mmmmm okay thank you for your input though, I do appreciate it as I think I should wait and see until I can get a definite answer on this, as I do not want to jump into it if I don't know as much as I possibly can, and at this point this is the one thing I need to know, as I think it could potentially fry the card (?)

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Assuming this is for the laptop in your sig.

http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m17x-aw-17/3702-m17x-r3-gpu-upgrade-gtx-780m.html#post55176

veer says that he used thermal pads, and if so, they would be for the VRAM chips and perhaps the coils (smaller squares in the upper left of your picture).

So yes, you will need thermal pads.

Plus unless they flop out, they wont hurt anything.

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You'll need thermal pads on all the things touching the heatsink.

The thickness of the thermal pads is rather important, too thick and there will be loss in cooling performance plus the heatsink might get bad contact with the die. Too thin and the heatsink might not make good contact with the vrams etc.

Measure your current thermal pads and get ones at the same size, my guess is 1mm would work nice.

You should buy high performance pads like phobyas with 7w/mk.

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You'll need thermal pads on all the things touching the heatsink.

The thickness of the thermal pads is rather important, too thick and there will be loss in cooling performance plus the heatsink might get bad contact with the die. Too thin and the heatsink might not make good contact with the vrams etc.

Measure your current thermal pads and get ones at the same size, my guess is 1mm would work nice.

You should buy high performance pads like phobyas with 7w/mk.

Thank you, I will be picking up some good thermal pads/making sure they're the right size

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No one knows FOR SURE which thermal pads I need? I mean i saw that video that shows where thermal pads are needed, so i got that.. just dont know which size!!! I dont wanna run into problems, might just order .5-1 mm pads... idk

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No one knows FOR SURE which thermal pads I need? I mean i saw that video that shows where thermal pads are needed, so i got that.. just dont know which size!!! I dont wanna run into problems, might just order .5-1 mm pads... idk

Fujipoly Extreme System Builder Thermal Pad - 1/4 Sheet - 150 x 100 x 0.5 - Thermal Conductivity 11.0 W/mK

Gelid Solutions GC-3 Extreme Thermal Compound - 3.5 Grams (TC-GC-03-A)

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