Proper Thermal Paste or Pad for GPU & CPU in Acer Revo 3610 Rebuild

[Joe_Miner]

As part of the process of converting my very first HTPC (I had upgraded it several years ago to 4GB RAM and Win7Pro) I wanted to change out the spindle hard drive to an SSD before converting the ACER Revo 3610 ("3610") to Win 8 Pro.

 

To change out the HD I had to remove the MB from the 3610 which ment I had to remove the CPU/GPU cooler and fan.

The GPU was covered by a thermal pad while the CPU was covered by a hardend thermal paste.

I removed both and cleaned the heat sink, then tempered the heat sink with AS5.

I cleaned the GPU and CPU and after applying AS5 I re-attached the heat sink and heat sink fan

 

after 4 hours of operation I was not happy with the temperatures I was seeing -- both with the GPU and CPU and when I removed the heat sink it didn't look to me that even contact was made between the heat sink and the GPU or CPU

 

Should I have used a thermal pad with the GPU?

Should I be using something other than AS5 with the CPU?

 

I noticed that the heads of the screwes that held down the heat sink did not seat fully into the heat sink when I re-attached the Heat sink which makes me think there is not enough mass (providing height) between the CPU/GPU's and the heat sink to give it more height -- is there such a thing as shims? maybe CU shims? If i were to find/use shims would regular AS5 then work?

[ikon]

You didn't mention how you applied the Arctic Silver. I'm wondering if perhaps there was too much paste. The technique I've heard for quite a while is to apply a single thin line down the middle of the CPU/GPU and then reattach the heat sink, evenly tightening the hold down screws in a criss-cross fashion, to ensure the 2 surfaces are brought together.

[Joe_Miner]

You didn't mention how you applied the Arctic Silver. I'm wondering if perhaps there was too much paste. The technique I've heard for quite a while is to apply a single thin line down the middle of the CPU/GPU and then reattach the heat sink, evenly tightening the hold down screws in a criss-cross fashion, to ensure the 2 surfaces are brought together.

That's what you did with a Atom 330 (which has two retangular shinny heads) and a Nividia ION?

 

You are likely right though -- I may have too much paste on the Atom. I used the AS recommendation for surface spread method

 

I did use the cris-cross method to tighten the heat sink screws attaching it to the MB.

Edited November 27, 2012 by Joe_Miner

[ikon]

I use the single, thin line of paste on all of the chips I do. If there are 2 'heads' to the chip, I do each of them the same way.

[Joe_Miner]

It was a long journey but I finally found a solution and ended up using a CU shim over the NVIDIA.

 

Repurposing an Acer Aspire Revo AR3610-U9022 Net-Top with a SSD and Windows 8

[ikon]

Congratulations on your perseverance. I'm normally known as a guy who sticks to it, but I think I would have given up at some point on this project and decided it would be better to buy a new unit. Enjoy the fruits of your labour.

[Joe_Miner]

Thanks Ikon -- actually, in a strange sort of way it was fun -- got to use my Dremal and gained a LOT of experience in applying Thermal Paste AS5

[ikon]

Actually, you raise a question I had; given its thinness, couldn't you have just used scissors or a utility knife on a mat to cut the copper?