Quote Originally Posted by STEvil View Post
It depends what the stock resistance of the circuit is. The rule of thumb is start with 10 to 15x the stock resistance.

If the circuit is 1000 ohms, use a 10 or 15k vr (I usually use the higher of the two). The VR is creating a divider in the circuit causing the total resistance to be less. As you turn the VR from its highest point to its lowest point you need more control which the lower value VR provides because it adjusts the circuit a smaller amount at a time.

Also if accuracy did not matter we'd all be using 10 mega ohm VR's lol


As to the chip, heat wont do that. The expansion/contraction rates of silicone are extremely small given the temperatures it is operable at.
I've always heard 20x, but it doesn't need to be super accurate anyway.

I was speaking specific to this thread, and the stock reading on the PCB is ~5k, so most folks are using 100k VR's. The poster said he was using a 25k VR, and thought a 10k VR would work better...I disagree.

About my dead GT...It was my first time mounting on to a naked die. After the card popped while running FUR I took it out and dissected it. The first thing I noticed is that the PCB was bent from the excessive pressure I used while tightening the nuts. Then while loosening the nuts I noticed that the bracket wasn't all the way snapped in on 1 corner. When I wiped the core clean I noticed one corner looked chipped off slightly.

My conclusion was that the heat coupled w/ the uneven pressure caused disaster. It was probably a lot more due to the uneven pressure since temps were still in the 60's, but I have to assume the heat didn't help b/c it was fine up until that point.