[Schnitter]

Hi guys, well my 5870 HD Graphics card fan was really noisy and the card idle temp was 45 instead of the 37 degrees it used to be. I decided to open up the card and lube the fan. I removed old thermal paste and aplied Arctic Silver Alimina (http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_alumina.htm) which is the only Arctic Silver I could get in the 3rd World Country I live in. The fan no longer sounds, it runs great, but the temperatures are 50 on idle! I know I put everything together fine so:

1) Is Arctic Silver Alumina bad?
2) Does thermal paste take long to "cure"?
3) Other...

Also, I've read that some thermal pastes take up to 200 hours to cure? Does that mean when you buy a computer and build it you have to use it for 200 hours before Overclocking? I've seen videos of people building their computers and cranking the GHz up as soon as possible.

Finally, can someone enlighten me about the best thermal paste for CPUs and GPUs? Thank you, I love to keep myself informed.

EDIT: Would it hurt/help if I add Arctic Silver Alumina to the chips that are in contact with the cooler of the Video Card?

 

[Phenomanator53]

check to see if your heatsink is firmly attached, and see if the thermal paste is evenly spread out

 

[Schnitter]

Thermal paste is evenly spread out, I checked and even added a little more to the middle. I am just monitoring temp with Catalyst Control Center and sometimes the temperature goes down to a more acceptable 42 but then shoots up to 50 again (fan at 21 to 23%).

Weird thing is, it was doing better before on a semi-stuck fan. The fan now is quiet like it was when it was new.

I have yet to test any games (don't have any installed currently). I am just browsing websites.

 

[Ghooble]

I don't think the heatsink is on properly. It's almost always the answer to temp problems.

 

[Schnitter]

Will open it again (damn reference board has way too many screws) and give it one last shot. Can't wait for the 680 GTX to be back in stock to throw this 5870 HD away.

 

[Phenomanator53]

are you sure you fastened the 4 screws directly around the GPU first?

 

[Schnitter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phenomanator53

are you sure you fastened the 4 screws directly around the GPU first?

Did it again, cleaned the thermal paste with Isopropyl alcohol, added a new ball of thermal paste and now the temps are around 44. Yes, I did put the PCB together with the heatsink and fastened the GPU backplate. I think I didn't do it that way the first time though (3am here lol tired). Anyways, the temps went from 50 to 44 so I guess after this Thermal Paste cures properly, I'll get closer to the 38 degrees it was when new. I can always manually set the fan to 80% when playing games anyway until the 680 GTX gets here. Thanks for help.