I've got my controller taken apart at work atm, cut a copper shim, but it's about 2.5mm thick, and sits at the same level as the capacitors. I planned on using that, and then just dremeling out a small pocket in the case for the caps to clear. but, was hoping that I'd be able to use regular thermal paste, instead of adhesive.. so I've got another shim about 1mm thick, so i'm guessing it's about the same height as your shim zero. I see that it's a tight fit.. do you think there's enough pressure to keep your shim in place, if it was non-adhesive thermal paste?

You must, I repeat, you MUST use adhesive on this. Paste will not do anything, it's just a grease really. Try and find some Alumina, or Silver adhesive, if you can, use Alumina, as it's better for being in with electronics. I used Arctic Silver adhesive though, worked great, took about 1/2 hour to dry until it was stuck on for good. I made my alum slab 42mmx29mmx3.175mm(1/8").

However, I should made it 27mm wide instead of 29mm, as I had to perfectly align it with the board, even then, it was slightly crooked, and was tight fitting when I adhered it to the case.

Also, my board didn't seem to be flat , because the two ends were off the slab by a hair, nothing the adhesive couldn't take care of.

One more thing, the button was pushing in the top 'button cover' pretty good, although it didn't activate the button though. So I took the cover off again and took a exacto knife and scraped .5mm off of it, as there was a nipple on it. Now the button cover sits down the way it was before.



AGAIN, you MUST use adhesive for this mod, otherwise there is no point in doing it. Paste simply is simply not sticky, it's a grease, and the board will just flop around in the case.

not exactly true. that's why i was asking how much pressure there is. I test mac upgrade processors, and we basically have the heatsink, thermal paste, shim, thermal paste, cpu die. the pcb is screwed to the heatsink at the 4 corners, but there's more than enough pressure on the die to keep everything in place, even in hard impacts..

Let's just say there is no pressure in the case of the Quark, because there is none, If the board is loose, it's loose. Nothing is holding it in place but the pad, and nothing but the pad.

The problem with just using paste is that the board can move around inside the case a little. And with thermal grease (of any kind), movement of the mating surfaces will reduce its effectiveness. In your computer example, you state that the sinks are also bolted - that keeps the mating surfaces consistent. And just think what would happen if dirt gets in there and starts mixing with the grease as it moves around! Ugg. I agree with ZPB on this one - thermal epoxy is all but required.