So I have a couple 1070 FTW's in SLI and I'm going to be putting in the thermal pads there offering for the VRM's when they arrive. I figured while I have it off I might as well replace the TIM as well. So am I correct in assuming that these heat sinks look aluminum because there actually nickle plated copper? The features section on the cards say it has a copper contact area, also copper pipes. You can't use this stuff on aluminum but apparently nickle is fine.
 
I also have some MX4 laying around so I'll probably stick with that to be safe if I don't get an official response, or a very strong consensus maybe...would be an expensive mistake to make.
 
This stuff worked wonders when I delided my 3570k. I'd love to see what it can do for these cards.

Stick with Mx-4. If you put a tiny bit toouch Liquid Ultra on the core and it shorts something your warranty will more than likely be void for damage to the pcb. Only use non-conductive thermal material.

Nickle plated copper? Yep.

Cool thanks for the reply's peeps.
 
Not sure what direction I'm going to go yet. I'm not to worried about shorting it, as long as your careful it shouldn't be an issue. I've delided two cpus so far (3570k and a 6600k) with no issues. Really doesn't take much at all you basically just paint a thin layer on and your good to go.
 
Honestly with one card it was fine. SLI makes the first card jump a lot though. Same thing happened with my two 760's. So I went from 64C maxed out in furmark to 80C on the first card. Second one still tops out 64C. Got some killer airflow in my case to so it's definitely not that. Rosewil Thor V2 with custom fans.

I've read through some TIM reviews and the Grizzly Kryonaut is one of the best non-conductive formulas. I personally use ICdiamond because I like it's durability and near 0 breakdown and it's ratings show it's only 2*C hotter under high pressure air and liquid cooling compared to the Liquid Ultra. I have some Liquid Ultra unused I considered trying but I am too concerned about making a mistake and it shorting something out. If you're comfortable with applying it, you'll get the best cooling from the Ultra, but for me I'd rather have slightly higher temps than risk frying something because all of my systems components aren't cheap...and I also have my air condition unit vented into my case which drops the temps to about 20*C idle and 45*C under load so it really doesn't matter for me.
here's a link for the TIM comparisons:
http://www.tomshardware.c...igh-Pressure,3364.html
 
 
 
 
 

+1 non-conductive TIM

I've had Liquid Ultra dry out in less than a year on two different rigs and two different video cards.
 
I'd highly recommend going with a different TIM, such as ICDiamond or Kryonaut.

CLU is great, use it myself on my 1070SC and saw a 6C drop in temps under full load. The EVGA factory paste is also great tho. If you use the liquid metal TIM, you really only need a very very thin layer on both contact areas. As Scarlet said, it is able to short out other components on the board

Use thermal grizzly kryonaut. Safer and lower temps!