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Thermal pads (which ones and where to buy?)

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GorbazTheDragon

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Hi all, currently living in the Netherlands wondering what thermal pads to use for my 690, did some digging and found I need 0.5mm which coincides with my approximations from the flakey paste that came with the card from NV.

So I'm wondering what kind of pads to get.

Sniffed around on mouser and found this stuff https://eu.mouser.com/datasheet/2/156/Thermal-Gap-Filler-Product-Profile-1152219.pdf

Al-oxide filled silicone sounds interesting.

Aquatuning sells their own brand stuff and phobya too, and there are also some Arctic ones in other local vendors.

Anyone have any ideas or experience as far as this goes? I know it's not the most critical thing but there seem to be some interesting things to try...
 
#2 ·
Assuming "Al-Oxide" is aluminum oxide, I wouldn't use anything listed on that PDF. Aluminum oxide is conductive.

I'd stick to a brand like Arctic so you know they're non-conductive.
 
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#4 ·
#5 · (Edited)
GorbazTheDragon said:
Hi all, currently living in the Netherlands wondering what thermal pads to use for my 690, did some digging and found I need 0.5mm which coincides with my approximations from the flakey paste that came with the card from NV.

So I'm wondering what kind of pads to get.

Sniffed around on mouser and found this stuff https://eu.mouser.com/datasheet/2/156/Thermal-Gap-Filler-Product-Profile-1152219.pdf

Al-oxide filled silicone sounds interesting.

Aquatuning sells their own brand stuff and phobya too, and there are also some Arctic ones in other local vendors.

Anyone have any ideas or experience as far as this goes? I know it's not the most critical thing but there seem to be some interesting things to try...
Click to expand...
The ones in the Mouser link have pretty mediocre thermal conductivity.

Arctic's pads are generally the best performance vs. price ratio you'll find.

You can get higher-end pads, but cost and usability tend to get worse faster than performance improves. I'd personally recommend the soft blue Arctic pads of 0.5mm thicker than the gap you expect to need to fill for everything except the very hottest running VRM components, for which I'd recommend Fujipoly extreme (which should be matched as exactly as possible to the gap, as they are not very compressible and are somewhat brittle).

The Pook said:
Aluminum oxide is conductive
Click to expand...
No it's not, not electrically.

Aluminum oxide is one of the most popular TIM fillers precisely because it's an electrical insulator with respectable thermal conductivity.
 
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Discussion starter · #6 ·
Alright thanks, some of the OEM reps suggested 0.5 for all 6 series cards reference coolers. I'll probably just get both 0.5 and 1mm stuff and see what works.

Maybe give that aluminium oxide stuff a run for its money if I do need to order something off mouser at some point.
 
#7 ·
Hi,
0.5 is very thin.
 
Discussion starter · #8 ·
Judging by how the paste on the card was when I opened it the gap is somewhere between a third and half a mm wide, my experience with other electrical stuff has been that you should be conservative with the thickness because you end up bending the boards and/or heatsinks.
 
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GorbazTheDragon
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