Yeah I've taken it apart twice now, I bought my own GElid thermal pads and I'm gonna use kryonaut on the gpu. I'm just not satisfied with the temps I'm getting. Especially on VRAM chips on the backside of the pcb. But is there any reason why I couldn't keep using the original spring retention bracket? It's worked so far, I mean it makes contact with the gpu. And I feel like it looks better having that black piece on the backside

Yeah I felt like the instructions that came with those kits are HORRIBLE.  If you've disassembled a card before and know what you're doing, the instructions are probably sufficient for you to figure out what to do, but if you haven't, it's awful.  Also, they mention that you need to save the thermal pads in case you have to RMA the card, which is BS.  That stuff just disintegrates when you try to take it off for nearly everyone (I've seen precisely one person post that their themal pads didn't fall apart on disassembly).  Jacob personally told me not to worry about that and that EVGA will not refuse an RMA if the cooler doesn't have the thermal pads reapplied.  But EVGA really needs to take that whole sentence out of there so as to avoid confusion and fear on the part of people taking their cards apart and having the thermal pads disintegrate upon removal.  And they need to provide a way to order new thermal pads in case people need them as well.

Gonzhilla
Woooo I did it boys. I was shaking so bad putting it back together because I didn't have the right size thermal pads exactly even though I thought I did my research. Also added some extra custom pads to the back. I thought for sure my card wouldn't boot but I just stress tested it for like 20 minutes and just about every part of the card on the icx temps are 10-15c lower. Including the gpu itself. Now it's staying boosted steady at 2055mhz without even overclocking it. I'm so stoked

I think you're experience has inspired me to do this in order to improve my temps. How thick are the GElid thermal pads you used? No compression issues?
 

That's awesome to hear! I'll be using Kryonaut as well. I actually did replace the stock paste with Kryonaut when I first got my card as the temps were not great, turns out the stock paste was super dry and crumbly. From taking apart the card though I'm sure I affected the integrity of the thermal pads as you could tell they were starting to disintegrate when pulling the cooler off. Just ordered some 2mm and 3mm GElid pads so hopefully can get some better temps out of all this.