Dell Alienware Nvidia GTX 660 OEM

 Another cleaning and repasting of an older, yet still very useful, graphics card.

It was a quick job, simple copper based heatsink, a bit of compressed air to blow it out. The old thermal paste was dry and flaky, so a little rubbing alcohol to remove. The only variant for this was that between the fins of the heatsink and the plastic cover there were some foam strips, so I replaced them with similar sized strips of double sided foam tape.

Interesting that 3 of the 4 screws securing the heatsink came out no bother and left the standoffs attached to the mainboard and one stayed in the aluminum block, no big deal really, but sometimes a worry that maybe a thread becomes stripped, and then attaching the heatsink back will be uneven. A none story really, little to worry about, nothing to see here, move on....

Performance was pretty good, temperature hovered around 70 degrees Centigrade under load and the fan was quiet, running at around 1500 rpm or 40%. Yes, Centigrade, if you pushed your face on the graphics card at the peak, or anything else for that matter, it would indeed leave a mark.

In a world gone mad with new components being scarce and in demand from gamers, scalpers and crypto miners, these used graphics cards, usually around C$75, are a great deal.