cutting thermal pads, exact size vs long strips. any difference?

[Camaroz06]

Hi guys,
have a question that I have been pondering. When installing thermal pads on a video card is it better to cut the pads to the exact size of what you are covering (memory, mosfets, etc). Or is it better to just cut a strip and cover groups that are close together?

For example on the gtx480 there are three sets of six mosfets all in a row. A long single strip can easily cover the three groups and that is what is show to do on the EK instructions. Now would it be any different if I were to cut three separate pads that would cover the groups of six and not have extra that would just cover the empty space between mosfet groups?

I would think the only difference would be less waste which would be a positive.

Any other thoughts out there? Can't think of anything that would be detrimental.

[Utnorris]

I go with what's convenient, if the parts are grouped together like mosfets, I will do one strip, for memory on a GPU I do individual due to their not being enough of the thermal pads to do one long strip across the top and then another across the side to cover all the memory chips.

[jinsean]

Yeah, I just went for the most convenient method. For video memory, it wasn't a big deal to cut the squares, but for the smaller VRM cooling, those squares are too small. So cutting up a strip worked out. I tried to be careful when laying them down such that I'll be able to take the entire strip off later... we'll see how that goes in practice :)