I had decided to drop the coin on the $800 MSi Seahawk EK X and save myself the hassle of attaching the waterblock myself.
It seemed like a great idea. It has the waterblock I want, already installed, and it was cheaper than buying them seperate. Win, win.
After installing the card into the system and loop, I began overclocking it to see what it could do.
The core was amazing. 2101mhz gaming stable.
The memory, not so much. I wasn't even able to get +50 on it. I had read of people getting +400 and more in some cases. What a dud.
Figuring I had just lost the memory lottery thanks to the micron memory in it, I decided to carry on and just enjoy the card.
After some time spent playing on it, I decided to replace the thermal paste because.. that just what I do most times.
I opened the card up, replaced the paste and started replacing the memory pads.
The pad felt.. slick. Odd.
I picked at it and the plastic started to peel off. The PLASTIC. They had not removed the plastic from the thermal pads on the memory.
After my new pads and paste were installed, I reattempted my overclock. I managed +425 on the memory.
Check your Seahawks people. They aren't paying attention.
Yikes nice catch I was about to pull the trigger on 2 of those cards, tell I saw the Titan XP hit the market. Did your temps change at all? I really liked the looks the of the cards. Can you take some pictures or show us.
Temps did come down but only a little bit, about 5c (I wanted to get under the 45c boost throttle, runs at 42c load now). I made an attempt at a pic but it's installed upside down in my case. This is the best I've got.
* I just noticed in the pic that the plastic is still on the ek logo as well. Much plastics.
You have to worry about too much or too little paste, no thermal pads and now even plastic on the pads themselves.
I had the Seahawk 1080 EK for a week and I opened it up to give it better paste. Everything looked fine. My memory went up to +900. The card was great, but Titan Pascal was announced in the return period, so the card went back to the store.
I have a 980 ti waterblock from swiftech. the manual specifically said NOT to remove plastic covers on some of the preapplied thermal pads. Just wanna let you know.
teamrushpntball:
11" pcb length
6.5" from bottom of card to top of waterblock+terminal "width" (not including the pcie connection section)
ghostrider85:
That's... surprising
I'm not sure how there could ever be a circumstance where plastic is a good thermal conductor. It's possible that is the case with the seahawk but I saw nothing in the paperwork describing that. In my case, only a couple of them had the plastic still on them as well. What I can say for sure (personal experience) is that my memory became much more stable after replacing them. I can only assume that was due to better thermals since I have no way to directly measure mem temps.
I would contact EK and see what they think. I might check mine now once I get my new motherboard. Currently running 2.1Ghz core / 5.5Ghz mem @ 56C w/ ~700rpm fans.
That's funny, but it happens, ALL of us have done dumb things with computers at some point. I just see it as that little Asian lady heard the lunch bell ring and wanted to hurry to get to the microwave first to heat her stir fry.
Chaos, that pretty much exactly what mine is running at now. 2114 @ 1.93v, 5504mhz memory. I have to keep my temp under 50 or it starts to step down, replacing the pads and paste seems to have helped with that, as well as having rads intake. I'm pretty much thrilled with the 1080. I'm currently playing Crysis 2 as well as Elite dangerous on my Rift and it's locked at max fps (90) all the time on ultra.
Chaos, that pretty much exactly what mine is running at now. 2114 @ 1.93v, 5504mhz memory. I have to keep my temp under 50 or it starts to step down, replacing the pads and paste seems to have helped with that, as well as having rads intake. I'm pretty much thrilled with the 1080. I'm currently playing Crysis 2 as well as Elite dangerous on my Rift and it's locked at max fps (90) all the time on ultra.
Yes, I am playing Elite as well. I just hit Elite rank in Trading last night. Mine is at 2114 then throttles down to 2100 but that is only 14Mhz so I don't care about it until we get modded bios so I can get more than than 1.093v. When it throttles I get a power limit trigger and voltage limit trigger at the same time even though I am nowhere near my power limit. Wish you could turn GPU Boost off.
I swear stuff like this is why I have just said I will do it myself, I looked at the Seahawk when I purchased both of my 1080 FTW cards in the end the seahawk is quite a bit cheaper compared to buying a card and than block and backplate and than factor in installation time. Seeing stuff like this makes me wanna swear off MSI, I have read quite a few reviews recently on the Carbon Gaming board having PCIE slots not even attached to the board just laying there. I agree QC is gone all these companies doing what they can to reduce man power and well we the consumer get these issues.
After 2 days of mine being in the loop, ALL the nickel plating came off inside the block.
Not sure *** is going on with the QC or build of them, it's not the first person I've seen with this issue.
Talked to EK and they said I'd have to get in touch with MSI, but I REALLY don't want to RMA it because I don't want to be without a GPU for ~ 2-4 weeks.
Chaos, that pretty much exactly what mine is running at now. 2114 @ 1.93v, 5504mhz memory. I have to keep my temp under 50 or it starts to step down, replacing the pads and paste seems to have helped with that, as well as having rads intake. I'm pretty much thrilled with the 1080. I'm currently playing Crysis 2 as well as Elite dangerous on my Rift and it's locked at max fps (90) all the time on ultra.
I saw the first posts in this thread, and I just have to reply.
Plastic film on things like logos and other external things is normal. It's a protective film for shipping. You're supposed to peel if off to reveal the clean and shiny thing beneath the plastic.
I have to laugh because I wonder how many people on here still have this protective film on lots of different things in their house. Yes, I'm sure it shouldn't have been on those thermal pads, but yes it should've been on the logo. That protects it during shipping so that it's still shiny and scratch-free when you unbox it and peel the plastic film off of it. It's a part of the unboxing process.
So you guys, every time you unbox something, check it over for this protective film and peel it off so that your new thing can be as beautiful as it was intended to be instead of dull with the protective shipping plastic film on it. It's not there to protect it while you own it!
I always leave the protective film on products, as long as it doesn't hinder performance. When you go to sell it, peel it off, it makes for better pictures and could help the resale price.
I have a 980 ti waterblock from swiftech. the manual specifically said NOT to remove plastic covers on some of the preapplied thermal pads. Just wanna let you know.
I always leave the protective film on products, as long as it doesn't hinder performance. When you go to sell it, peel it off, it makes for better pictures and could help the resale price.
You suit yourself, but I peel it off because I like to enjoy the intended beauty of what I have. Life is short. Enjoy everything that you can while you can.
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