gc-forever - Gamecube/Wii Forums

After registering, I found myself coming back to this forum a lot so I decided to say hello! Hello!

Been a proud GameCube owner for a long time. I remember the day I asked for one for Christmas when it was still a new system. It's actually the first system that I could actually call my own lol (shared atari, snes, n64 with my brother which he took with him to his house after we both grew up). I had an old wii that played gamecube games but I didn't play the wii very much... just the gamecube part. So I sold it to my brother and dusted out the old cube!

Currently installing Mega's MegaDrive to hookup the wiikey fusion (almost done Wooohoo!). Only part I messed up is tearing one of the thermal pads when opening the cube... I placed it back on the heatsink. Not sure if the tear line and my fingerprints messed it up bad. I need to do a little research on gamecube thermal pads since I don't have much knowledge on thermal pads and paste. Other than that, everything is going smoothly so far

I currently own a n64, ngc, and a ps3. Gameboy too if you want to count handhelds. Still deciding what to use as an avatar lol.

hope you like the mod when its complete...
post up a pic of that thermal pad that got torn off to see if its gonna be a concern...


welcome

welcome!
that MEGAdrive was a wise investment btw

Couldn't agree more on the investment.

As for the thermal pad: It's obvious which one is the messed up one. I tried "smushing" it back together like clay to seal the line but found out that didn't work too well.

What process did you go through to remove the heatsink? I removed a heat-sink from a spare GC mobo prior to shipping it out to a buyer and it popped off without any issues. I basically took a large flat head screw driver and lightly twisted it under one side of the heat-sink (the sides closest to the edge of the circuit board). It came off without a fight.

I twisted the screwdriver. I did NOT use it as a lever to pry off the heatsink as I suspected that would be harder to do without dinging up the circuit board. The thermal pads on mine did not tear.

Trying to remove it with your bare hands is asking for trouble. Go for something more settle and precise.

If I don't want them splitting I usually run the cube for a few minutes without the fan to get them in a more flexible state.

hehe, i didnt think it mattered if those tore...
mine have been torn for a few years and i just smoosh em back together....
as long as its all making contact to the chip and heatsink it should be fine to dissipate...


"should"

I always wondered... aren't those things way too thick to conduct heat properly? Even that super thin thermal pad that comes in intel heatsinks isn't as good as thermal paste... let alone those obscene things inside the GC.
I though of replacing them with thermal paste but I don't know if the screws will still hold the heatsink tight.

As far as I can tell the screws for the heat-sink is what holds the motherboard to the bottom shell. So yes it's usually pretty secure. I have not tried using thermal paste. Just check the spacing between the circuit board and the heat-sink. But I'm pretty sure you should be able to use thermal paste with no issue.

Looking at his pic, I see that the 'ripped' pad looks thicker than the others. So that IC is lower than the rest... it would need something besides the paste to fill the gap.