Topic: Replacing ATI 58xx/5970 Ref cards' fan (not a guide) - page 2. (Read 9033 times)

Actually it's the replacement thermal pads which does not come with a sticky side.

Less amperage does not necessarily indicate a lower rpm fan it could be an induction of a higher quality motor.

The new one looks a little smaller... Also says it uses less amps which means lower rpm... Is there a higher amperage one somewhere? I can't read chinese.

Also have you considered buying a lot and selling them to other miners whos fans have died out on them?

ah, I get it now. the times Ive had to redo nvidia cards with thermal pads they were still sticky enough (apparently the stock pads on the the nvidia folding cards Ive done this to may be different) to keep and just reuse.

The thermal glue is to glue the thermal pads to the metal casing. The VRMs will sandwich the thermal pads to transfer the heat to the casing.

I guess it's not obvious that the thermal pads do not have a sticky side.

I use proper cpu thermal compound for the gpu to heatsink contact.

Agree, also in US. Someone needs to import these in quantity and resell to US customers at a reasonable profit.

i'm in the US. any way to get one or two of those? i don't think people here in the US can go through the check out process on that website

Ive wondered where to get replacement GPU fans too, but the couple times Ive killed them I just go with straight aftermarket cooling. your way is way cheaper though. gotta remember that link.

but one question.. why the thermal glue? why not standard thermal paste. I use artic cooling MX2 with better than stock results. done like 6 GPU cards with it so far.

Hi guys,

I had 1 5870 and 1 5970 fans making weird noise (bad), so I decided to search for replacement fans, and also to perform some maintenance on the cards.
Other than replacing the fans, I found that some thermal pads were breaking apart, thus I got replacement thermal pads and thermal glue to glue the thermal pads to the heatsink/cover of the cards.

Things I bought:
1. Replacement fans from (http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=10330120683) (cheaper source: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=10794821928)
2. Thermal pads from (http://www.dealextreme.com/p/heat-sink-thermal-silicone-paste-10cm-10cm-0-1cm-35819)
3. Thermal glue from (http://www.dealextreme.com/p/fujik-silicone-thermal-glue-50ml-grease-like-4579)

The main problem was getting the replacement fans. These are from China, and they accept various forms of payment that are only available in China, though I think they ship worldwide.
RMB$50 should work out to be about US$8 (back of envelope calculation).

I tried to use Alipay and other forms of payment with my credit card (I'm in asia, not china), and none of my credit cards worked (ok, I only tried 2, as those are the 2 I expose to internet purchases). So I used a concierge service which bought the items on my behalf, paid for it, got it shipped to their office and then they shipped it to me. In the end, I paid about US$12 each including the service charges of the concierge. It took about 3 weeks.

The 3 weeks wait was fine, as the items from Dealextreme took about the same time.

I'm not writing a step-by-step guide here, just to share some information on what I found out.

So here goes the pics:

Ordered 4 replacements




Old (left), New(Right)




Thermal paste/glue




Thermal Pads




Thermal Pads (Parts to replace)



Thermal Pads (longer piece is done)




Remember to glue down the wire here



That's all.