This is probably gonna be longer than it needs to be but I'm bored and feel like typing sooooo...

I have been having problems with heat for the longest time. I know my case is one of the biggest parts of the problem: it has horrible airflow. But this week it got to be too much. I came home the other day to find that even with my fans cranked and the ambient air temp at 30C, my video card was hotter than I had ever seen it (54C), and this was after upgrading the HSF to an Arctic Cooling VGA silencer and using A/S 5. The only thing I could think of that could be causing such high temps was that I used too much paste. So I took the HSF off, cleaned it and the die with alcohol, and re-applied A/S 5 using a razor and making it so thin I could read the righting on the die. Re-assembled the HFS and fired it up.

The AIW 9800 Pro doesn't have a temp sensor built in so this is how i am getting my temps:
I am using this hard drive cooler

which has a temp probe for the hdd and an extra probe for something else, I decided to use it here:

I had seen someone use this setup before. It puts the probe almost in the center of where the chip sits. The tip of the probe is NOT being pinched, it is just beyond the spot where the bracket touches the card. I know it isn't 100% accurate but it was in the same spot for both readings. Throughout the winter my room has been at about 24C and yesterday (when I did this) it was 25C. When idle, my video card was reading about 40C in a 24C room. By putting a super thin layer of A/S 5, I have dropped my idle temp to 32C in a 24C room. Better gains under load: before it would be 52C running 3dmark05, now it runs about 40-42C. My ambient case temp has dropped by 10C load/no load.

I'm just happy because after costing myself $15 for a new window after I butchered my current one trying to install a CPU duct (measure twice, cut once ) I ended up dropping my temps for about 15 minutes of my time and no $$$.

Attached Thumbnails

   

I've used that one myself.... but on videocards I stick to Artic Sliver Ceramique....
Yup... it performs a bit worse than AS5.. but it's non-conductive....

Good to see you got it to work properly!

TDR

I would advise against using a razor or any sort of metallic spreader...

The straight edge of an old credit card works wonders...

The way I was made to understand it, the more goop you have between an item and its heatsink, the less heat actually gets transferred between them (something about the goop absorbs the heat, or insulates the HSF, or something of the sort...) On the other hand, f you just have a very thin layer, it will fill in the micro-gaps, and help with the heat transfer...

Good to see you got it working, and good job on the temp drop...