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chipset cooling pads/ paste/ tape
- Thread starter Acuradude
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2005
For thermal pads you'd either want to re-use whatever came with your videocard, or you can buy them cut to size from eBay. For thermal tape I always use sekisui stuff, since 3M tape has been unreliable for me in the past (coming off over time, not holding up to tiny copper sinks). There's also thermal adhesive available (artic silver makes some) for a more permanent solution, but tape is preferable for re-selling or shipping the card later-on.
Ceramique or MX-2/MX-4 is ideal for videocard heatsink TIM given that you want something that won't conduct electricity with the exposed die.
Ceramique or MX-2/MX-4 is ideal for videocard heatsink TIM given that you want something that won't conduct electricity with the exposed die.
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2007
- Location
- Small town Emlenton, PA
Tape sticks. Pads don't. Sekisui is a veryyy thin two sided tape. Pads are thicker and have no sticky.
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2005
Pads are for stock videocard heatsinks. They don't transfer heat well but they're mostly used for RAM chips that don't really get warm.
Tape is adhesive (but removable) and transfers heat better off of the chips to separate heatsinks. The thermal adhesive stuff (like Arctic Silver's) transfers heat better than tape, but it pretty much invalidates your warranty and makes resale of the card much harder. As said above, I cannot stress enough that 3M tape is worthless. Better to spend the 6-10 bucks on sekisui from eBay if you don't want to have to worry about your heatsinks falling off randomly.
edit: for example, using tape, and standard TIM you can do this: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6893852&postcount=19
Tape is adhesive (but removable) and transfers heat better off of the chips to separate heatsinks. The thermal adhesive stuff (like Arctic Silver's) transfers heat better than tape, but it pretty much invalidates your warranty and makes resale of the card much harder. As said above, I cannot stress enough that 3M tape is worthless. Better to spend the 6-10 bucks on sekisui from eBay if you don't want to have to worry about your heatsinks falling off randomly.
edit: for example, using tape, and standard TIM you can do this: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6893852&postcount=19
Last edited:
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2011
- Location
- Kailua-Kona, HI
i'm confused... didn't he ask about chipset? like i assume the southbridge in his990fx?
i too have this questions. temps on my mobo get up to high 50c; not that i need to be concerned but I assume a re-tim and mayb adding a small fan would help?
i too have this questions. temps on my mobo get up to high 50c; not that i need to be concerned but I assume a re-tim and mayb adding a small fan would help?
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2007
- Location
- Small town Emlenton, PA
Mosfets on a mobo usually don't lay flat enough to use Tpaste. So the Tpads are most common on mosfets and Vregs. Same for VRAM usually.
Edit now home.
Chipset cooling meaning the Mobo Mosfets or the NB/SB on the Mobo? If the NB/SB then paste is used. If the Mosfets I have always seen Tpads. I haven't done the Mosfets much in my short PC life so I can only say what I have done and others have done.
I do know the Vregs, usually (NVIDA) are in groups of three. Being an electronics guy and having done some replacementsof stuff like that they really aren't perfectly flat across the row of the 3x Vregs. Thermal paste is meant to be applied so you have a .0001 or less gap. Like No gap. The Vregs (and Mobo Mosfets) will have more than that. So that's why the Tpads are best.
Tpads come in many thicknesses. On my FC GPU blocks I have to use two different thicknesses.
TTape. Sekisui is the king. A nighmare to work with it's so thin and sticky. You prep the surfaces right, it's great for small heatsinks on a GPU or mobo on ram/Vregs etc.
TPads. Not sticky. The ones you see on GPUs is slimy and squishy. No sticky.
TPaste. The stuff in a tube, your milage may vary.
Edit now home.
Chipset cooling meaning the Mobo Mosfets or the NB/SB on the Mobo? If the NB/SB then paste is used. If the Mosfets I have always seen Tpads. I haven't done the Mosfets much in my short PC life so I can only say what I have done and others have done.
I do know the Vregs, usually (NVIDA) are in groups of three. Being an electronics guy and having done some replacementsof stuff like that they really aren't perfectly flat across the row of the 3x Vregs. Thermal paste is meant to be applied so you have a .0001 or less gap. Like No gap. The Vregs (and Mobo Mosfets) will have more than that. So that's why the Tpads are best.
Tpads come in many thicknesses. On my FC GPU blocks I have to use two different thicknesses.
TTape. Sekisui is the king. A nighmare to work with it's so thin and sticky. You prep the surfaces right, it's great for small heatsinks on a GPU or mobo on ram/Vregs etc.
TPads. Not sticky. The ones you see on GPUs is slimy and squishy. No sticky.
TPaste. The stuff in a tube, your milage may vary.
Last edited:
Your post answered the question I was going to ask. Tnx.
I hate pads and was usually replacing them on NB/SB heatinks. But as you say, mosfets and VRM are not level enough to use tpaste... so that pad will stay where it is.
Couple of questions if I may...
- Is SB on Z77 heating enough to warrant removal of the tpad and replacement with tpaste?
- Should I think about adding heatsink on upper mosfets and VRM on Asus P8Z77-M? There are no holes in PCB so heatsink would need to be glued I guess, but that means I can't use tpad.... any ideas?
I just bought this motherboard and plan to use it for a mild to moderate OC of a i5-2500K. Here's a pic of the P8Z77-M PCB:
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2007
- Location
- Small town Emlenton, PA
TPad doesn't glue. Nothing to squish the pad down, like screws. No go there.
Mild to moderate overclocks? Your fine. I think. Just have good case airflow, maybe a small fan to blow over the mosfets if even needed.
Let others chime in on this too.
Mild to moderate overclocks? Your fine. I think. Just have good case airflow, maybe a small fan to blow over the mosfets if even needed.
Let others chime in on this too.
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2011
- Location
- Kailua-Kona, HI
total thread jacking...
so then... my aux temp, which i thought was the soutbridge, has been running hot... 52-55c
ALL THE TIME; even after all night at idle while i sleep. i felt around the board, the heatsinks around the CPU area are cool; the southbridge heatsink is warn (but not 50c warm)...
what would you do? re-tim the southbridge chip? add a small fan/blower to the southbdrige?
@Tosh; i wouldn't worry about it at first. depends on your ambient temps and what you consider a mild OC. You'd essentially have to be built and booted in to windows to monitor temps and decide from there. I see that board only has one heatsink on the chips by the cpu, that might be ok. if there is lots of air flow through the area (like a big cpu cooler or exhaust fans on the case) then you might be ok. pretty sure most of these parts can get REALLY hot before it is an issue. my cheap biostart 870 board has no heatsink and I oc'd that to the moon; 4.7ghz on a chip meant for 2.8ghz; with all mobo power features MAXED out.
so then... my aux temp, which i thought was the soutbridge, has been running hot... 52-55c
ALL THE TIME; even after all night at idle while i sleep. i felt around the board, the heatsinks around the CPU area are cool; the southbridge heatsink is warn (but not 50c warm)...
what would you do? re-tim the southbridge chip? add a small fan/blower to the southbdrige?
@Tosh; i wouldn't worry about it at first. depends on your ambient temps and what you consider a mild OC. You'd essentially have to be built and booted in to windows to monitor temps and decide from there. I see that board only has one heatsink on the chips by the cpu, that might be ok. if there is lots of air flow through the area (like a big cpu cooler or exhaust fans on the case) then you might be ok. pretty sure most of these parts can get REALLY hot before it is an issue. my cheap biostart 870 board has no heatsink and I oc'd that to the moon; 4.7ghz on a chip meant for 2.8ghz; with all mobo power features MAXED out.
Yeah, there will be plenty of airflow... I'll leave upper VRM chips as they are.
The chip itself seems small enough to warrant a dab of my diminishing supply of AC5... that and a additional fan blowing in that general area should do I guess. I'll leave the original heatsink on, to make it easy in case any warranty claim is needed in future.
So off to get rid of that sticky tpad/tape or whatever it is... And sorry for the thread jacking, I thought I shouldn't make redundant threads.
The chip itself seems small enough to warrant a dab of my diminishing supply of AC5... that and a additional fan blowing in that general area should do I guess. I'll leave the original heatsink on, to make it easy in case any warranty claim is needed in future.
So off to get rid of that sticky tpad/tape or whatever it is... And sorry for the thread jacking, I thought I shouldn't make redundant threads.
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2005
Not really. As long as you have an intake fan blowing somewhere in the region it'll be fine. I have a tiny sliver of a heatsink on my Z68 board's ICH/SB and it works fine with case airflow.
Recent Intel chipsets don't really have any known issues with temps, and they're not going to cause issues with overclocking like older nvidia/AMD chipsets, so you should be fine.
You could add some small VRM heatsinks to the VRM chips if you're concerned about it, or you want to go beyond a minor overclock.
I'd go with MOS-C1's for those chips. The kit will come with thermal tape, or as suggested you can buy sekisui in strips from eBay instead of the provided stuff.
Tnx, I already removed the tpad from z77 heastsink (sticky little *******) and replaced it with Arctic Silver 5. Not too difficult to do and like to do whatever I reasonably can, when building new PC.
And yes there will be intake fans blowing both upper VRM area and lower board section (chipset heatsink and video card). I usually use plastic ties to skew point the fans to cover a good angle. There will be plenty of airflow and for now I'll leave upper VRM chips as they are.
Technically I should't call them "intake" fans, since I keep the case open (it's actually physically located in next room (storage area) behind a wall. This is both because it's cooler there and because I don't need to mind the noise that way.
I always wandered how inferior are Tpads and Ttape, when compared to good Tpaste?
Tried to search the net, but I can't find any measurement comparisons.
And yes there will be intake fans blowing both upper VRM area and lower board section (chipset heatsink and video card). I usually use plastic ties to skew point the fans to cover a good angle. There will be plenty of airflow and for now I'll leave upper VRM chips as they are.
Technically I should't call them "intake" fans, since I keep the case open (it's actually physically located in next room (storage area) behind a wall. This is both because it's cooler there and because I don't need to mind the noise that way.
I always wandered how inferior are Tpads and Ttape, when compared to good Tpaste?
Tried to search the net, but I can't find any measurement comparisons.
Figures. I always thought tpads or ttape more of a marketing gimmick than cooling solution.
Thing is VRM chips are uneven and tpaste can't be used. But if they are giving me 3 years guarantee on a board that has VRM section "cooled" by heatsink with tpad under it... it prolly just means that those chips don't heat much and that heatsink is there more for marketing than cooling.
Sometimes when heatsink can't be mechanically attached I just use tpaste and leave 2 diagonal corners clean. And than just apply some fast glue on those 2 corner spots. Always works, but you need the chip surface to be big enough. Besides it voids the guarantee if I use that on VRM section, also using thermal adhesive would void it... since I can't cleanly remove those heatsinks if I need to claim warranty sometime.
Thing is VRM chips are uneven and tpaste can't be used. But if they are giving me 3 years guarantee on a board that has VRM section "cooled" by heatsink with tpad under it... it prolly just means that those chips don't heat much and that heatsink is there more for marketing than cooling.
Sometimes when heatsink can't be mechanically attached I just use tpaste and leave 2 diagonal corners clean. And than just apply some fast glue on those 2 corner spots. Always works, but you need the chip surface to be big enough. Besides it voids the guarantee if I use that on VRM section, also using thermal adhesive would void it... since I can't cleanly remove those heatsinks if I need to claim warranty sometime.
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2010
- Location
- Manassas, VA
I think you're missing a point...thermal paste, pads, and tape all serve DIFFERENT purposes. You can't substitute in one for another. It's not a marketing gimmick...
VRMs are probably fine passive if you're not overclocking. They most definitely should be cooled if you are though.
VRMs are probably fine passive if you're not overclocking. They most definitely should be cooled if you are though.
Of course, that is correct in the case of VRM cooling. But in case of the z77 heatsink cooling the main reason manufacturer used thermal tape (pad?) is economical aspect. Cheap Ttape/Tpads don't degrade over time as a cheap tpaste and are much easier and less messy to be applied by robotic equipment in factories.
Or are you saying that Tpaste is worse choice than Ttape/Tpad, for motherboard chipset cooling?
Or are you saying that Tpaste is worse choice than Ttape/Tpad, for motherboard chipset cooling?
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2005
Thermal pads for chipsets are down to cost (partially), and they're intentionally thicker to prevent damage to the exposed die during movement and shipping.
Honestly Intel SB chipsets barely need to be cooled, so there's really no reason to bother with swapping out from the stock pad as long as you have some kind of intake fan installed. It's not like a NB chipset that will actually get warm or be affected by heat.
For motherboard VRM chips thermal tape or thermal adhesive is preferable, unless you happen to have a custom-fitted VRM heatsink for the board. Board-specific VRM heatsinks aren't really worth it compared to a cheap copper VRM set since you can reuse those so easily.
Honestly Intel SB chipsets barely need to be cooled, so there's really no reason to bother with swapping out from the stock pad as long as you have some kind of intake fan installed. It's not like a NB chipset that will actually get warm or be affected by heat.
For motherboard VRM chips thermal tape or thermal adhesive is preferable, unless you happen to have a custom-fitted VRM heatsink for the board. Board-specific VRM heatsinks aren't really worth it compared to a cheap copper VRM set since you can reuse those so easily.
