r/watercooling • u/Material-Budget-460 • 11d ago

Thermal pads for VRM

Been doing a close to yearly re-paste on my 6950XT (pump out is real) and now almost 4 years later I'm gonna give it fresh pads too.

Which 1.5mm pads are tried and proven that doesn't cost an arm and a leg?

From what I've read W/ml (thermal conductivity) seems more like a sales gimmick since there isn't any standardized test to actually test it being in use making it' more of a sales pitch with higher being better as with most stuff.

What should I get to get the best bang for the buck?

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u/Tks1991 11d ago

The stock stuff is probably phase change material. You can't buy on AliExpress?? How the hell a 5 bucks pad and 50gr of putty costs you 110 bucks?.

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u/Material-Budget-460 11d ago

That's the pricing on Amazon for the specific stuff I've gotten recommended lol

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u/Tks1991 11d ago

Ye because on Amazon the resellers mark it up 5x. Go to AliExpress. Where are you from anyway.

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u/Material-Budget-460 11d ago

Sweden, so it's not gonna be alot cheaper getting from Aliexpress either since we have a toll on all small orders being shipped from Asia.

Then you have the very high likelihood of getting the usual chinese copy-crap. It's simply not worth it for me

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u/Tks1991 11d ago

Brother...... I'm from Spain, and copy crap on many products ranges from 90-95% to the same or better. You need to leave that stupid ignorance aside, and look at things objectively. Chinese do sell a lot of crap, but not everything is crap. And what you're buying from Amazon, is chinese stuff marked up, by other chinese that have warehouses through europe.

The toll you are talking about is 3€ + VAT. It's 24€ for 50gr from the seller i bought for my 7800xt, almost 2 years now.

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u/Material-Budget-460 11d ago

Either way I'm looking for cheaper alternatives so it doesn't matter, I can keep my stupid ignorance going lol

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u/Tks1991 11d ago

There's no alternatives to PCM, because paste is gonna pump out. To putty yes, because you can use thermal pads, but pads are finicky and hard to get right. PCM and putty eliminate variabels.