Reapplying thermal compound

[Boxa786]

So, I plan to clean my graphics card heatsink and cooler, I'v had it for about 1.5 - 2 years now, without cleaning it.

I know how to take it apart etc, and i have 3 different thermal compounds

1. The one that comes with the Noctua U12P HSF
2. MX2
3. STARS-700 (something I bought from local comp shop ages ago)

I had some AS5 but cant seem to find it, not sure if I used it all or if I've lost it now.

btw for the cheapo STARS-700, its got the following:
10% metal oxide
thermal resistance = 0.06
conductivity 7.5W/m-k

Should I go get some compound specifically for GPU's?

Or can I use any of those I already have?

PS - GFX card = HIS ATI 3870 OC'd edition with IceQ 3 cooler, I know its old tech, I got it when it came out and its done me fine, Im waiting for 48** prices to go down, then sometime next year will get a new DX11 card (second gen, going to sit out the first gen DX11 cards)

 

[dirtmountain]

I'd use the MX2, i'd also toss that STARS_700 in the can, no reason to keep it. On another note why disassemble your 3870? Is it having problems? temps ok? Are you attaching a new VGA cooler? There's no real reason to take it apart for cleaning. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[Boxa786]

There's alot of dust in there, and I cant feel much comming out of the back, even on max, its loud(er) than I can remember it being, sounds like its working twice as hard to shift the heat.

Plus I cleaned all the fans last week, planned to do a full clean this weekend, I've just changed out my old cpu hsf (akasa revo zerother ak-925) for noctua U12P, dropped cpu load temps about 15 degrees celsius. Every now and again a spring clean is needed inside the case, and for the gpu its more like every couple of years?

I think what's caused alot of dust, is about 3-4months ago, my last clean, I had all 3 case fans (front side and back) as intake, without knowing, so alot of dust collected in the case. This has been fixed and I just got a filter for the side fan, going to put it on max as an additional intake fan.