Should the thermal pad on the mosfets also be touching the chokes on the mobo, or no big deal?

[QuantumCookie]

I removed the wifi card as I don't need it and I don't want it and so I had to unscrew the heatsink to make that happen, that left the original soft thermal pad in pieces.

I will be reapplying the thermal pad using Thermalright Odyssey Thermal Pad 12.8 W/mK 1,5 mm, but I am not sure if leaving the pad touching the chokes is a good idea or not.
The old thermal pad is obviosuly touching the chokes.

Probably not a big deal, but I thought I'd ask.

The old thermal pad is very soft, and about 1,5 mm thick. Compressed to 0,7mm it seems.

Also, not shown is the mobo heatsink, should that heatsink be touching the chokes? Perhaps not a good idea to adding pressure sideways I am thinking.

Also, other people have commented some place that, one shouldn't cover the capacitors with the thermal pad. In the photo there seem to be one capacitor or something between the mosfets.
Also, some suggest applying thermal pad just over the mosfet chips and not along the whole length, to improve mounting pressure onto the mostfets (assuming one doesn't try press/bend the heatsink, just fastening the screws for the heatsink.

 

[Nebulous]

Nahh, it won't do anything. Just clean the leftover pieces of thermal pads and reapply the new stuff.

 

[Blaylock]

Agreed. Just clean the old stuff off, clean with some Isopropyl Alcohol, and add the new thermal pad. Make sure to get the same thickness as the original. The thermal pad and heatsink do not need to touch the chokes (or capacitors) as they do not get hot. But it won't hurt anything if the pad touches the chokes either. The mounting pressure is preset by the manufacturer. Simply tighten the screws fully and you're done.

 

[QuantumCookie]

I was thinking of maybe placing bits of thermal pad onto each mosfet chip, but then there are these capacitors (or somesuch) in between the mosfets, and looking at an angle, it sort of looks like the top of those "capacitors" match the height of the mosfets, and so it sort of looks like the mosfet cooling is maybe supposed to cool these inbetween "capacitors" as well.

The old thermal pad ofc covered it all.

I guess I'll just place a whole strip of thermal pad where the old pad was.

People online complain about how difficult it is to work with the Thermalright thermal pad. I wonder if it might help to place the pad in the refrigerator before handling it. Sort of sounded like the protective plastic was sticky too strongly to the soft thermal pad or something.

The cpu here isn't overclock'able being a Ryzen PRO model (5750G), but the apu is I think (past 2000 MHz), so it might pull more power overall. I thought I would take the time and upgrade the cooling while I am tinkering with all of this. Still waiting for the ram sticks and other stuff to arrive in the mail. Although the goal is a super stable system, I wouldn't mind exploring some overclocking capability re. the apu, hopefully I can maybe overclock the ram by 12.5 % and run ram at 4000 MHz along with the infinity fabric for at 2000 MHz in a 1:1 ratio.

 

[Blaylock]

I was thinking of maybe placing bits of thermal pad onto each mosfet chip, but then there are these capacitors (or somesuch) in between the mosfets, and looking at an angle, it sort of looks like the top of those "capacitors" match the height of the mosfets, and so it sort of looks like the mosfet cooling is maybe supposed to cool these inbetween "capacitors" as well.

The old thermal pad ofc covered it all.

I guess I'll just place a whole strip of thermal pad where the old pad was.

People online complain about how difficult it is to work with the Thermalright thermal pad. I wonder if it might help to place the pad in the refrigerator before handling it. Sort of sounded like the protective plastic was sticky too strongly to the soft thermal pad or something.

The cpu here isn't overclock'able being a Ryzen PRO model (5750G), but the apu is I think (past 2000 MHz), so it might pull more power overall. I thought I would take the time and upgrade the cooling while I am tinkering with all of this. Still waiting for the ram sticks and other stuff to arrive in the mail. Although the goal is a super stable system, I wouldn't mind exploring some overclocking capability re. the apu, hopefully I can maybe overclock the ram by 12.5 % and run ram at 4000 MHz along with the infinity fabric for at 2000 MHz in a 1:1 ratio.

No need to waste you time with isolating the mosfets from the caps. Some pads are soft and a little difficult to work with, but you should be fine. Even if one of the pads tears a little, don't fret. Just place it back together and it'll work just fine. I like to use the dull end of a crafting exacto knife to separate the plastic from the pad. This has been the easiest method for me.

Be sure to make a new post once you're ready to start your overclocking adventures. Many of us here have a passion for this. Most of the newer Ryzen CPUs don't overclock as well as older AMD chips (read as percentage gains) but can generally gain a little. In my experience I've noticed these Ryzen CPUs tend to run at a higher voltage than necessary, so I let them auto clock but I adjust the voltage down quite a bit to improve temps, n turn improving the auto clocks.

IIRC a 1:1 ratio is still the preferred setting. It certainly is for earlier Ryzen. Maybe someone more knowledgeable than me can help with that.

 

[WhitehawkEQ]

Those caps are only there to filter noise, they don't get hot.

 

[QuantumCookie]

Right, I had no idea at the time.

Sometime later I think I heard that the chokes cleans up the electrical signal, after it becomes DC from the AC off the power grid. I think maybe they call this noise "ripple".