Well, I'll soon be getting back my RMA from sapphire and I would like to lower the temperatures (since it loads pretty high...). This would be my first time taking out the stock cooler and I was wondering if all i do is apply AS5 to the core (after cleaning the old stuff) and if it's possible to just keep the old thermal pads for the ram. Would i notice a difference if i removed the thermal pads and used something else? What should I use instead of the thermal pad then (heard AS5 is bad on ram), would the thermal grease that came with my Zalman CNPS9500 work (is it conductive)?