So as Alphacool, Bitspower and Phobya are being super super super slow I decided to change up the testing by adding actual data logged temperature sensors to the back of the card. Previously I was measuring the VRM/VRAM temps with an IR sensor gun. It was inaccurate by nature and prone to error on my part. So I bought some more probes and taped them down, used some MX2 to get a good contact to two spots on the board under the VRMs and then two more on two of the VRAMS:



Yes my workbench is a just a teensy bit untidy.



Then I applied liquid tape to secure the probes. It should isolate the probe a bit from the ambient air temperatures too hopefully. Wet liquid tape:



Dry liquid tape:





There she is in action:



The idea is to do three runs on each of the blocks that I have. With good time management I can do one run per day (each run has 8 hours worth data logging if I'm on top of it). Given that I have two VRM probes and two VRAM probes, I'm not sure whether to do a maximum VRAM or VRM temperature, or average the two probes. Either way the VRM/VRAM data should be more accurate than before, even if it's still not measuring the actual chips themselves.

Earlier I had been a bit flip-floppy in methodology for thermal pads and extra TIM and stuff. Koolance didn't like the extra TIM I had added, and it turns out that that was causing the bowing issues on the card. So a big apology to them. So all the testing from here on out will be done by the letter of the instructions even if I think I can improve it However despite this I'm not expecting data to be particularly different from the earlier runs. We'll see though! I should be done with all three Koolance runs tonight. Then because of all the data doubters I'll be running the XSPC next

I'm not sure how much value all of this work really is over what I've already done, but there's something to be said for doing the testing as well as you can even if it's another 4-5 weeks of work lol.