I recently bought an NV Silencer 5 for my 6800GT, and was VERY excited about it's cooling potential, and silent operation. I've read on a few threads that people were getting MIXED results on cooling, and I THINK I've found the reason.
I'mpretty anal about what goes into my system, so I check, and double check just about everything. I really didn't think I needed better cooling since I was getting about 50 degrees idle, 70-75 degrees load on my 6800GT, which was pretty good, but I'm constantly getting the "upgrade bug".
When I received the silencer, I carefully took off my stock heatsink (which was pretty well made IMO), and noticed that the heatsink's thermal paste was very evenly spread, with much of the aluminum showing in the middle, indicating very good contact with the core. I also noticed that the thermal/silicone/teflon strips used on the ramsinks seemed a bit thick, and IMO probably didn't do much to dissipate heat. Knowing this, I knew right off the bat, that the NV Silencer (if made proper contact with the RAM/Memory, would at least cool the memory MUCH better than the stock heatsink.
I carefully cleaned off the little bit of remaining white goop off the GPU core, and remnants of the thermal tape off the memory with 90% rubbing alcohol, then reapplied some AS5 on the core, and since I didn't have any AS Ceramique available, I used the white silicone paste supplied for the memory. I spread the stuff VERY thin, and rubbed down the copper areas that will come in contact with the GPU, and memory with the respective thermal pastes.
...now here is the interesting part. I then put the Silencer on, and screwed it down (as per directions). I looked at it carefully, and everything LOOKED OK, but I wanted to make sure. I then took it off, and reinspected the contact, and noticed that only one of the corners of the core was making proper contact! The AS5 on the other areas wasn't even pressed! I thought that maybe the silencer wasn't perfectly flat, or that maybe my card was warped? In either case...this was bad news.
I somewhat compensated for this by adding more AS5 in order to secure some sort of a contact between the core, and the copper heatsink. I installed it to notice that I was getting 60-65 degrees idle temps! YIKES!
I then uninstalled it, and tried to bend the copper plate of the Silencer. This was unsuccessful, since the copper plate is VERY strong.
I then had the bright idea to apply some pressure, directly under the core when installing, to make it push up onto the Silencer, by putting the X shaped plate on, and putting a small piece of cotton between it, and the card. This worked a little better, and the contact between the core, and heatsink was MUCH improved (I would say about 75-85% contact), and dropped my temperatures down to almost the same as stock. 53decrees idle....but noticed that it did a MUCH better job of cooling under load, only going up to about 65-70 degrees. I was OK with the results, and used it for a few days like this.
I then had some free time on my hands today, and decided to bust out the good ole' lapping kit, to sand down the copper plate, to custom fit it to my 6800GT. I started by applying the most pressure on the parts of the plate, that I knew made the most contact. After every 5 or so minutes, I put on some cheap goop on the core, and memory to see if it made better contact. I did this for about 20-30 minutes, and when I was finally happy, that it made solid 95-100% contact on all parts, I finished it off by lapping the contact surfaces with 1000grit.
I now have no need for the make-shift piece to make the proper contact, and my tmperatures as of now (only about 20 minutes after fresh AS5, so I'm sure it'll get better) is 46-47 degrees idle, and only about 60-65 degrees on full load!
I still can't say for sure, which one was the "imperfect culprit", the Silencer that wasn't perfectly flat, or the Video card that had some flex, but I've found the solution to make the silencer work better.
I hope this helps some of you that aren't getting the results that you thought you would with the Arctic Cooling silencers.
..Oh...and sorry for the long post.
I'mpretty anal about what goes into my system, so I check, and double check just about everything. I really didn't think I needed better cooling since I was getting about 50 degrees idle, 70-75 degrees load on my 6800GT, which was pretty good, but I'm constantly getting the "upgrade bug".
When I received the silencer, I carefully took off my stock heatsink (which was pretty well made IMO), and noticed that the heatsink's thermal paste was very evenly spread, with much of the aluminum showing in the middle, indicating very good contact with the core. I also noticed that the thermal/silicone/teflon strips used on the ramsinks seemed a bit thick, and IMO probably didn't do much to dissipate heat. Knowing this, I knew right off the bat, that the NV Silencer (if made proper contact with the RAM/Memory, would at least cool the memory MUCH better than the stock heatsink.
I carefully cleaned off the little bit of remaining white goop off the GPU core, and remnants of the thermal tape off the memory with 90% rubbing alcohol, then reapplied some AS5 on the core, and since I didn't have any AS Ceramique available, I used the white silicone paste supplied for the memory. I spread the stuff VERY thin, and rubbed down the copper areas that will come in contact with the GPU, and memory with the respective thermal pastes.
...now here is the interesting part. I then put the Silencer on, and screwed it down (as per directions). I looked at it carefully, and everything LOOKED OK, but I wanted to make sure. I then took it off, and reinspected the contact, and noticed that only one of the corners of the core was making proper contact! The AS5 on the other areas wasn't even pressed! I thought that maybe the silencer wasn't perfectly flat, or that maybe my card was warped? In either case...this was bad news.
I somewhat compensated for this by adding more AS5 in order to secure some sort of a contact between the core, and the copper heatsink. I installed it to notice that I was getting 60-65 degrees idle temps! YIKES!
I then uninstalled it, and tried to bend the copper plate of the Silencer. This was unsuccessful, since the copper plate is VERY strong.
I then had the bright idea to apply some pressure, directly under the core when installing, to make it push up onto the Silencer, by putting the X shaped plate on, and putting a small piece of cotton between it, and the card. This worked a little better, and the contact between the core, and heatsink was MUCH improved (I would say about 75-85% contact), and dropped my temperatures down to almost the same as stock. 53decrees idle....but noticed that it did a MUCH better job of cooling under load, only going up to about 65-70 degrees. I was OK with the results, and used it for a few days like this.
I then had some free time on my hands today, and decided to bust out the good ole' lapping kit, to sand down the copper plate, to custom fit it to my 6800GT. I started by applying the most pressure on the parts of the plate, that I knew made the most contact. After every 5 or so minutes, I put on some cheap goop on the core, and memory to see if it made better contact. I did this for about 20-30 minutes, and when I was finally happy, that it made solid 95-100% contact on all parts, I finished it off by lapping the contact surfaces with 1000grit.
I now have no need for the make-shift piece to make the proper contact, and my tmperatures as of now (only about 20 minutes after fresh AS5, so I'm sure it'll get better) is 46-47 degrees idle, and only about 60-65 degrees on full load!
I still can't say for sure, which one was the "imperfect culprit", the Silencer that wasn't perfectly flat, or the Video card that had some flex, but I've found the solution to make the silencer work better.
I hope this helps some of you that aren't getting the results that you thought you would with the Arctic Cooling silencers.
..Oh...and sorry for the long post.