#Thermal paste

37 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

safe dock
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I would go with ifixit’s recommendation

tranquil estuary
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Not all thermal paste are the same. But you need thermal paste or pads - if you want an easier time to work with.

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Grizzly products are industry leading in term of thermal conducting properties but... you are not overclocking your Switch, do ya?

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MX4 is good as well.

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You just simply need a decent thermal paste/pads.

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In fact, any would work better than the brown paste Nintendo uses ._.
Even toothpaste would be better

tranquil estuary
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You sure know how to do research lol

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Don't buy Thermal Grizzly since it's too expensive for so little paste

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and you do need a fair bit

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Also, a few things I have to update from that thread

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Using thermal paste/pads on the RAM section is not neccessary

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since that last thread, I have been asking some more professional opinion and also did some testing

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applying thermal pads/pastes to that section doesn't really help that much

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RAM doesn't need cooling, in fact they prefer to stay warm

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also, it can have a worse effect, spreading the heat to the SoC section, which is bad

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Again, you don't have to buy the most expensive stuffs

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just a decent one is OK

tranquil estuary
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Ok so moving here instead of DM so I can track it better

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First: Thermal paste and Thermal pads, their functionality is the same. And thermal pads are easier to apply, but in fact, often has less heat conductivity than paste, hence they are worse. You follow?

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Thermal pads is also easier for places where you have to lift up the components out often, as it won't be ruined as much as paste.

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Easier to apply, easier to clean, can be re-used better.

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But their functionality is the same.

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They are exchangeable

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Second: Like I have mentioned in the other thread. The parts that you need to re-apply thermal paste include: Outer shield (the one you see right after opening the backplate), the heatshrink (radiator) surface contacting the outer shield, the copper shield right on top of the SoC contacting the heatshrink.

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There is another area that can be re-apply but not recommended: The copper shield mentioned above is on top of the SoC, which also has a thermal paste layer in between. The problem is opening this layer is very risky, you can ruin the SoC or any components around it if you are not careful.

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This thing is the outer shield:

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This is the heatshrink or also called radiator

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This part is the SoC, under a shield and copper cover:

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This is what it looks like under

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But I do not recommend opening it like that

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it can be done, yes, just risky

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Before, I did recommend to cover thermal paste/pads in this area, but updated info and testing pointed that it's not needed:

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Now the third point: You can just use one type of thermal paste or pads, you do not need to use different type of thermal paste for each areas.

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Choose between paste and pads for ease of application, it doesn't matter that much.

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If you link all of these info to what you have read so far, you will understand the why and how

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Chart of Thermal Paste Layers

---- Outer Shield----
Thermal paste layer (Re-apply this one)
---- Radiator ----
Thermal paste layer (Re-apply this one)
---- SoC Shield, Copper cover ----
Thermal paste layer (Can re-apply but risky)
---- SoC + RAM ---

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Well, I have to go to sleep now. If you still have questions regarding this issue, feel free to drop it here, I'll answer later @analog acorn