Best way to apply MX-4 to 880M?

[Ethrem]

So... I've never repasted anything before in my 18 years building computers. I had to take apart my machine the other day because I screwed up a BIOS flash and that meant I had to replace the stock TIM so I ordered some MX-4. Well I'm not having much luck with it.

*Supposedly* I had ICD7 as the stock paste but I don't believe that because I used 70% IPA to remove it and there is no scratching on the GPU die. Actually removing the MX-4 is more difficult than the stock TIM because the stock TIM didn't goo up and spread all over when I removed it, it had hardened.

Anyway, I removed the stock stuff with a makeup removal pad (the lint free side) and 70% IPA and I put a blob in the middle of the die. I put the heatsink back on and turned the machine on but I was idling in the 40s. It quickly hit 80s under load so I shut it off and tried the spread with a saran-wrapped finger method. Suffice to say that method is retarded - my temps hit 93C with the fans on max within seconds of starting Unigine Valley and that includes the roughly 5 seconds from when I saw it hit 85 and clicked quit.

Well I removed it and reapplied it again, this time placing the tip of the MX-4 on the center of the die and just squeezing a tiny bit out, I put the heatsink on and I saw idles of 36C so I decided to run Valley - with the fans on high, it maxed at 84C before I ended the benchmark. Its currently at 41C while my secondary GPU which I haven't repasted (and is not connected to the SLI cable) is sitting at 36C. The ambient temp is 21.7C

Don't these temps sound high? Is it because I have a single GPU being stressed by Valley instead of the load being spread? I don't know what to do here.

Just to see, I ran Valley with the fan control on normal and it hit 89C before the benchmark even finished at which point I stopped it and came back here.

With the stock TIM, I would hit 87C, the fan would kick in, and it would go down to the upper 70s.

I have a 20g tube of the thermal paste but I'm starting to strip the screws so I don't know what to do. I don't want to repaste the secondary GPU until I get the primary sorted. Any help is greatly appreciated!

EDIT: I was looking on the internet and there is something about my 880Ms that is different from what I'm seeing

If you look at this image

The space around my die? It has a black piece taking up most of the space. Is that beneficial or harmful to cooling? I'll try and take a picture of it the next time I open it (going to call XOTIC about getting some new screws before I attempt this again)

[svl7]

The black tape around the die is something certain vendors put their to prevent the thermal paste getting all over the tiny capacitors around the die, it doesn't have any other functionality and is not required.

All you need for a proper re-paste is cleaning the die as well as the heatsink, apply a relatively small dot of paste on the middle of the die and then mount the heatsink. I don't have pics just now, but if you search the forum you'll find several repaste guides with pics I think.

[Ethrem]

That is my repasted job that just yield such high temps. I'm redoing it right now but that doesn't look like a bad job to me?

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

[svl7]

That looks excellent to me. You did plug in the fan, right?

[Ethrem]

That looks excellent to me. You did plug in the fan, right?

The fan doesn't come unplugged when doing the master GPU so yes it's plugged in. Lol.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

- - - Updated - - -

I think I got it this time. I did a little line in the middle and I'm idling at 35C on the active one while the other is at 37C

Just in case, I had the roommate go fetch some 90-99% IPA, this 70% might not be doing it.

I need to get some new screws though and it doesn't seem like XOTIC is going to be very helpful with that, they want me to RMA the machine. So stupid.

[svl7]

Hmm, maybe there's just not enough pressure between the die and the heatsink for this paste... not easy to fix though. You could bend the mounting clips up a bit... anything else would require a hardware modification.

I'm not sure what a good temperature is for your system, but you certainly shouldn't be higher than with the stock paste.

ICD is a more viscous paste, doesn't "bake out" as fast in my experience, but a fresh repaste with MX-4 and ICD always got me about the same results. Also the last time I was messing with a Clevo I used MX-4 as well and got good results.

[Ethrem]

Hmm, maybe there's just not enough pressure between the die and the heatsink for this paste... not easy to fix though. You could bend the mounting clips up a bit... anything else would require a hardware modification.

I'm not sure what a good temperature is for your system, but you certainly shouldn't be higher than with the stock paste.

ICD is a more viscous paste, doesn't "bake out" as fast in my experience, but a fresh repaste with MX-4 and ICD always got me about the same results. Also the last time I was messing with a Clevo I used MX-4 as well and got good results.

Well Valley maxed at 87C before the fans kicked in, which is the normal Clevo behavior. When the fan kicked in, it was running 84-85C. With forced maximum fan speed, it only hit 80C during the benchmark.

BioShock Infinite with the fan on maximum topped out at 77C right after and on normal fan speed immediately after topped at 85C which is actually lower than the thermal paste it came with.

The way the heatsink is designed, when you screw it in, the metal clips pull down and put pressure on the copper base of the heatsink so pressure shouldn't be an issue I wouldn't think.

87C is the highest that it went with stock paste and from the look of it, the MX-4 actually performs slightly better. We'll see what results I get with the higher proof IPA on the second GPU. I should note that the fan didn't creep up to its anywhere near its max (it was actually pretty quiet) when BioShock's benchmark was running and it always did get quite loud with the stock paste. Temps don't stay very high for long either. Its back down to 49C right now and I just finished the benchmarking like 2 minutes ago.

[Ethrem]

LOL I repasted the second one with a tiny blob and its running 70C under load compared to 79C for the primary. Less is definitely more with this stuff, gonna do another repaste on the primary. If I can get it down to what the secondary is running, I've dropped temps around 8-9C from what it came with which is nothing to scoff at (and also likely means they didn't use ICD7 like I suspected, even though that is what I ordered).

I did remove the black tape from the second one. There was still paste under the tape (which I am unable to clean off because the capacitors shred anything that I use to try to clean it. Its cosmetic so its not a big deal to me, just interesting that the tape didn't even work. I'm going to remove it from the first as well.

By the way, here's the stock paste job on the second one...

Pretty horrendous if you ask me.

I'm debating on whether or not I'm going to repaste the CPU while I'm at it.

EDIT: It failed the test on Furmark with the temp going to 89C on the primary, 88C on the secondary. Stock maxed at 87C at the end of a 15 minute burn in and this was only 8 minutes in. I'm going to have to get some different paste, I guess. And now I'm on a hunt for some new screws.

[svl7]

Nice improvement!

Also, don't use furmark if you want to have your card in a working condition.

[Ethrem]

Nice improvement!

Also, don't use furmark if you want to have your card in a working condition.

Yeah, it was just a test. I was watching it very closely, I know it can fry a card fast.

Unfortunately, I am not getting good results with the paste. Watch Dogs is high 80s but it does spike over 92C and kick the fan into maximum, which is unbearable.

ICD7 got here today, not I need to wait for my replacement screws to get here.

In the meantime, I've been working on my desktop. Gonna have to get that Devil's Canyon chip... 4.4GHz @ 1.3v :'(

[johnksss]

Future reference. Furmark does not need heat to fry your card.

[Ethrem]

Future reference. Furmark does not need heat to fry your card.

Oh my. Didn't know that. How does it fry it? I won't use it ever again.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

[johnksss]

Long term use will fry the voltage regulators.

Over clocked can also fry the voltage regulators.

How do I know you ask?. I did it already.

It's why i really never use it anymore. Light use is fine, but using it to push ones card beyond it's limits is asking for trouble.

[Ethrem]

Thanks for the info. I won't use it, Valley will work just fine for me.

So I got my replacement screws today and was able to put ICD on but I decided to compare the week old MX-4 to the brand new ICD application. The result was pretty amazing actually. I think svl7 is correct that this machine doesn't have enough pressure on the heatsink for a thin paste like MX-4. Here's the HWMonitor when Valley was running between the two:

Now I should note that I had the fans on auto when I started the benchmark to see where it would go. The card kicked to 87, fan kicked up and knocked it down to 83C but the MX-4 card didn't fare well at all, hitting 91C and then triggering fan on max which kept it between 89 and 90C. The ICD card, on the other hand, went no higher than 82C when the fans were on full (I used FN+1 to force max fans).

Very impressed with the ICD performance and tomorrow will do my secondary GPU with the compound.

In short, it looks like ICD is the best to use for the Clevo models that have this type of heatsink (there are a few).

I also don't get what the complaints are about getting the stuff out of the tube? I pushed the syringe a little bit, it started to come out slowly, I tapped in the middle of the clean die and the blob went down. It didn't come out like MX-4 but it wasn't overly difficult to me? I must be missing something here.