EK FC/GTF 285 rev 2 - quick sanity check

[gmat]

Ok i've spent 2 hours battling with the standoffs and now that sexy block is sitting firmly on one of my GTX 285's. Did a check to see if everything was in contact, and it was not: on the VRM side it's not making contact with the thermal pads.
So started to think "the R10 boxy things are preventing it from sitting on that end" - dismount (lots of sweat and heart tension, the thermal paste over the GPU is super thick and sticky), another hour of re-stickying the standoffs and re-applying pads and paste, now using paste only for the R10 boxy things, re-mounting, more sweat, same result.
The two last rows of components (VRMs and after the VRM's) are definitely NOT making contact. The PCB is definitely straight. Also i got only 1mm thick thermal pads in the box, some here mentioned various thicknesses, but not here. Just opened my other box (same waterblock, FC/GTX 285 rev 2), same stuff, a collection of various shapes of pads, all 1mm thick.
So what's the trick here, do i just remove the last 2 standoffs and put more tension there ?
I'll be dismounting all this again, i hope the 3rd mount will be the good one (and the 2nd card will be a walk in the park then)

[Scaniris]

The problem you have is the same I had.

Have a look there:




I shared some other photos there, but sorry my comments are in French.http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/v...23980&start=30

Issue is know. There are 2 workaround possible as far as I know and as far as I did:

1 - using an external coupling tool like this (I dont know the right word in english sorry, a picture instead of a word). You put this on the PCB + the waterblock where the contact is not good.

The contact is not good because there are no screws on the extremity of the waterblock, and when you force on the other screws, even if you put the spacers... the PCB is curved and the contact is not good on the VRM

[Scaniris]

2 - Solution 2 is the one I used. Apply some thermal paste on top of the 0,5mm thermal pads (as you can see on my photos, that's what I did).

Otherwise you can order 1mm thermal pads instead of the 0,5mm provided in the original box from EKWB.

This is not the best solution... but it works really fine, I had perfect results like this.

Hope this helps

[Scaniris]

And yes.... it was complex to mount this waterblock... it was on my Zotac GTX285 with PCB revision 2... around 2 hours... maybe a little bit more i don't remember exactly, all the photo of my mounting are on the link http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/v...23980&start=30 and http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/v...23980&start=45 (text in French but photos... )

[Scaniris]

Yeah I also remember a topic that I've read here some months ago when trying to find some information about this issue on the web.

It's on the forum here: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/....php?p=3997890 . Lexxus shared some photos and comments

[gmat]

Thanks I'll go read your posts in french (look at my location, haha)
Looks like i'm good to do a 3rd mount. Haha. I love those spacers, i do. They speak to me with little voices.

[Taskforce]

I had the same problems also, VRM wasn't making enough contact which caused overheating during gaming, had to double up on pads which solved the problem, ultimately sold it in the end, i hope EK doesn't make the same mistake for the upcoming GTX460 water blocks.