I set out to replace my GPU's fans, but ending up down an increasingly longer rabbit hole.
When I bought my GTX 1080 second hand, the owner told me he had applied liquid metal between the heatsink and the die and that I never had to reapply it again.
But after about 4 years, one of the fans started to make a rattling noise. After weighing my options (Raijintek Orpheus being my prefered) I went with ordering replacement fans on eBay. Yesterday they arrived and I set out to replace them. After getting rid of the warehouse amount of dust, I realised I had to remove the heatsink, as the card has two connectors just below a heatpipe that are impossible to remove with it in the way.
So I removed the 6 screws that held it in place and this is what I discovered:
The crud on the die and heatspreader was solid and it looks way more textured than it was. Basically, what once was probably liquid metal now appears to have etched itself on the heatspreader. There's no going back, I have to clean it up.
After a thorough cleaning of the die with rubbing alcohol, a soft pad and some Q-tips, I managed to get something that resembled a GPU die:
Still not that clean but atleast it felt smooth. Now lets try the same technique on the heatspreader:
That didn't do much. After some wet sanding with grit 1500:
That'll do. Extreme overclockers often mention that you don't want a mirror finish, but a flat surface. It felt flat enough. Back to the core with some more rubbing alcohol and Q-tips:
That's the best I could get it. Time to apply some Kryonaut and ... Oh those thermal pads look dirty and dry. So half an hour later I also replaced those.
The card is performing much better