So I took my FW Desktop apart to mount the 80mm front fan, and upon taking off the top part and seeing it from above, I feel like that heatsink connection with the motherboard looks a bit weird.
Pls see the attached pics. And a small chip on the left (I put an arrow on the second and third pic) looks a bit crooked?
The last pic is an image from the iFixit official guide on how to install the 80mm fan. And on that one, it looks much better with the heatsink flush with the motherboard.
Regarding the second point, to reseat the heatsink, do they mean to take it off completely? And put it back, applying thermal paste, or PTM 7958, as suggested in the official guides? Or should this have been included in my package? Or should I just order some and try to reseat as soon as I can. Any tips please?
Do you have the stock semi-passive CPU fan setting? Ie, does the fan not move at all during idle? That would explain higher idle temps but if they are at 50°C or so, they are perfectly fine. You can change the fan setting though and give it a slow idle movement, which also improves idle thermals of the case itself which otherwise has no active air movement.
Honestly I am not sure if you are not creating yourself a problem here. The temperatures look ok. If your temperatures at GPU, CPU load and also the memory and VRM temperatures look ok, there shouldn’t be anything wrong with the heatsink seating. The silver flim between heatsink and board that looks warped is just an isolation layer.
I would not know how else one could “reseat” a heatsink, properly, without removing the previous paste/PTM7958 and applying a new one. I found that PTM sheets can be quite hard to remove, they might need a lot of gentle rubbing with some IPA pad to really get off the die. I would only reseat the heatsink if you have a real (thermal or other) problem
My fan is set to always run at 10%. I did this initially mostly for the noise, because before it sometimes just ramped up for a few seconds and then stopped at all again. I feel like this is better this way. But from what I see, people have lower idle temps in general… so still not sure…
Yeah, that’s why I asked here, and for support, I really don’t want to start taking it off, cleaning and repasting it, if not necessary. And mostly to document that warped part, to make sure I avoid any future possible issues with a device this expensive.
Btw, that warped isolation layer, what type of material is it? Something soft and flexible or something stiffer like metal? Just want to make sure it won’t damage anything in the long run.
I am not sure what material this isolation layer is, some sort of compound film. It might contain some foils but it is somewhat flexible. I would not worry about it damaging anything.
But there is nothing wrong with taking pictures to document it, just in case.
Any tips on how to do it properly so I don’t mess it up? As I don’t have any thermal paste around right now, only some 10-year-old stuff from my old PC, which is probably not good anymore.
Should I take out the mainboard completely or just remove the top part of the case?
I was watching this iFixit video, so the isolation layer looks like this. Should I be able to gently push the sides in from the top, after I loosen the heatsink a bit?
I agree that your temps look OK. Based on various photos there does look to be some slack in the cutouts. As @Jiral said, this might just be a cosmetic issue and nothing to worry about.
To inspect the chip you may be able to move the isolation layer away from the chip a little even without loosening the heatsink. If you do need to loosen the heatsink screws then do that while the board is in the case if there’s room or remove the board from the case if there’s not. I’d use something plastic to probe the isolation layer rather than metal. If it does lift off the chip, and there looks to be no damage, I’d leave it at that and reassemble.
If you were to take the heatsink off completely you’d need to replace the thermal pad. Use high concentration isopropyl alcohol and some stiff paper (blotting paper, coffee filter, or similar) to remove any residual pad from the die and heatsink. The thermal pad has a plastic film on each side so remove one side first, place the pad on the die, then remove the other side before refitting the heatsink.
So I managed to somewhat push back that isolation layer with a toothpick without taking down the heatsink. But indeed it’s something fairly flexible and not really pushing on anything, so as others have said, this probably does not affect anything. I first thought that it was a stiffer metal layer or something.
But what do you guys think about that crooked chip on the left? Can that cause any possible issues in the future?
I can’t identify what the componet is and personally I wouldn’t worry about it. Yes, it’s not perfectly straight but, is there an identifiable fault? Will it degrade? Sure but the temps need to be high, well over 170 degrees C and at these constant temps all the solder will degrade.
So, I’d recommend you close the case and enjoy your Desktop
Looks like an inductor (small one probably for some auxilliary power rail), and it has huge pads so it being a little wonky should be harmless. Size wise it could also be a bigger smd capacitor but those usually have sharper edges and more writing on top.
