Hey there boyz, today I disassembled my 1070, after reading a few forums just of curiosity to check if I had any damage done to my card, because I have used furmark, not much but for about 15-30min maybe a bit more in total just to check my overclocks (yes i know that program is balcklisted by nvidia and etc, but still) in past, because the first thing I did when I bought my card was overclocking, dint bothered with games or anything to see performance and basic boosted clocks, just straight to heaven, valley, 3dmark and afterwards furmark to see if my oc was stable, and it was. It was all done almost 2 months ago so, my temps never went above 70 or 72 celsius which is well bellow max temps on core, but that wasn't the mindbogglerer, I'm totally aware that there aren't any sensors on vrams and other components which can blow up very easy when you don't know or cant see the actual temps, and rely only on airflow and hope for the best. Basically to make story short, after all that research and reading about FTW series fiasco, I decided to take my new card apart (used only for two months), and see for my self what is what and were do I stand, and came to conclusion and also some questions which needs to be cleared, hope you guys gonna help me out here.
I took some pics to show and give info about FTW card that I own, maybe someone out there have some questions and this thread may give some answers:
Teardown it self is pretty easy and straight forward, only problem is there are too many screws, which for some people make life hard, since they lose them or worse, not the case with me, how ever I dint like the part where heavy heat sink is connected to pcb and secured with only four screws, and the end of the heat sink after the card is installed tends to hang down a bit, not that it does any damage to card just feels a bit flimsy, would be better if the heat sink had one or two more screws at the end, to secure it more firmly, but I don't complain, at least you can easy swap thermal paste and do basic cleaning just by removing four screws.
So after full disassemble I started to validating the pcb and components on it, as well as cleaning a strange stains from included thermal pads (black ones), it felt like they have melted down a bit, while the card was being used, there were little wet stains on the vram cooling plate as well as pcb it self, it felt a bit strange because I have encountared such situation with my previous card, and I have used cards from asus, gigabyte and stock cards as well in past, and always when switching thermal pads, there was any stains. But after a swift and soft wipe down with alcohol wipe. they were gone, I wiped the pads as well dint like the clammy feeling of them, you will be able to see them in pics:
After all that was done and checked, I dint noticed any damaged components nor issues with pcb, which may have occurred during the use, I was happy and my hearth was at rest at once, but I will mention this how ever. During teh gaming when card is around 50-60+ celsius the back plate gets very hot, and I think there are some heat issues which are trapped between, ''cooler'' pcb ''backplate'' and to be honest I don't like that, although I have a decent case (corsair obsidian 750d), with 2 intakes and 1 exhaust fan (140mm, will post a picture with my rig at the end if some1 is interested), I believe airflow inside my case is decent so i shouldn't worry about it much but still something to think about and consider never the less.
So now to teh main reason why I opened my card and posted this thread, I have one question are these marked parts in my picture, are the ones which are missing the thermal pads if so let me know and enlighten me, I will be grateful. I never seen these sections thermal paded before on my previous cards, which had decent coolers on them such as gigabyte windforce and etc, wont go into too much details you all know what I mean, just look at the picture and tell me if I have marked the correct spots, which needs pads:
By the way, I forgot to mention that thermal pads which come on Vrams and chokes are pretty thick, I recon around 1mm, for those who break them or lose, so they can cut and swap those out, I use the ebay ones they cost pretty cheap for 10x10cm you pay 1buck+, and they do the job well have used them for years, never had any issues, I have sold all my old cards and never have I been contacted by person who bought them, about something going wrong on card, that means I do keep my cards in good shape even after the warranty is gone, and switching thermal pads is healthy procedure, which I can recommend from personal experience.
If that is the case, I have requested a ''thermalpadmod'' from EVGA, but if I understood it right, I'm still in queue for approval, which makes me a bit dizzy since I still haven't received my ''FREE POWER LINK'' requested it month ago or at least few weeks, not sure any more, never received any confirmation also, how ever if this is the case then perhaps some1 who have already done this ''mod'' can tell me how thick thermal pads must be and on which areas they go. The pic of rig for those who are interested in case and how much space I have for airflow,, for card to breathe properly:
Any way, thanks for advice if there will be one, and do forgive me about my english, its not perfect nor is my native language, but I did my best to make reasonable sentences and explain or perhaps give some info to others. Cheers!
