My Shunt-Modded NVIDIA RTX 5090 Needs a Spa Day #RTX5090 #EKWaterBlocks #NotDeadYet #nvidia

My shunt-modded, water-cooled RTX 5090 Founders Edition is coming apart. Before touching the cooler, I run a ten-minute baseline test. Then we get a close look at the thermal interface, the PCB, the shunt mod and the GPU power connector under the microscope. This is Part 1 of RTX 5090 SPA: the teardown, inspection and cleaning of the card and its EK water block. From its earlier liquid-metal setup to the current paste contact and the cooling fins, we document what is actually there before changing it. The baseline averaged 66.5°C GPU, 84.8°C hotspot and an 18.3°C hotspot delta during the final two minutes. Temperatures were still climbing, so this is a ten-minute reference run, not a fully heat-soaked result. Next in Part 2: contact-surface work, replacement pads, HY-P17, reassembly and the follow-up test. Any change in cooling will reflect the combined maintenance work, not the paste alone. CHAPTERS 00:00 RTX 5090 SPA 00:23 The cooling history 00:57 The existing shunt mod 01:32 Ten-minute FurMark baseline 02:32 What the baseline can tell us 03:07 Taking the card apart 04:44 Pads and contact-area cleaning 06:06 Inspecting the contact surface 06:40 PCB cleaning and inspection 08:10 The shunt mod under the microscope 09:16 GPU power connector inspection 09:48 Opening and cleaning the water block 11:53 What comes next What would you inspect first on a water-cooled GPU like this: the contact surface, the pads or the cooling fins? Let me know in the comments. More from Not Dead Yet: https://www.notdeadyet.at #RTX5090 #WaterCooling #NotDeadYet #NVIDIA #GeForceRTX #FoundersEdition #ShuntMod #GPUTeardown #GPUMaintenance #Waterblock #EKWaterBlocks #ThermalPaste #ThermalPads #LiquidMetal #GPUHotspot #FurMark #PCModding #EnthusiastPC #Microscope #RTX5090SPA