Copper anti seize grease as thermal paste?

[8BitZ80]

I gave this experiment one more attempt to see if I could get any different results.

I found out that one of my favourite oil brands Penrite has a product called Copper Eze. This stuff looks much more like the Kopr-Kote where it's a bronze paste in appearance, rather than the Devon Stop-Seize I used that's almost totally black with some metallic fleck instead.

Unfortunately Copper Eze is a failure too, long story short. It's actually the most terrible thermal paste substitute I've tried to date. It idles at 50C and hits 100C the instant you put a load on it. A normal idle is in the low 30's. I was more hopeful with this one because it apparently uses zinc oxide (found in thermal paste), proving once again that chemistry makes absolutely no bloody sense whatsoever.

I also tried both thick and thinner-than-a-bee's-dick applications but it doesn't really make a difference. The thinner application might be a few degrees cooler but I can't verify when the CPU can't handle a 100% load for more than a few seconds.

I'd say.. Cooler Master Hyper 212 for the win. Excellent cooling, inexpensive. Win.

Cooler Master 212 is okay but it has a really weak clip-on mounting system that doesn't support the tower cooler properly. I was kind of disappointed when I got mine. Unless it's mounted in a system where the motherboard is laying flat it would be good, although that's pretty uncommon.

 

[Caring1]

I gave this experiment one more attempt to see if I could get any different results.

I found out that one of my favourite oil brands Penrite has a product called Copper Eze. This stuff looks much more like the Kopr-Kote where it's a bronze paste in appearance, rather than the Devon Stop-Seize I used that's almost totally black with some metallic fleck instead.

Unfortunately Copper Eze is a failure too, long story short. It's actually the most terrible thermal paste substitute I've tried to date. It idles at 50C and hits 100C the instant you put a load on it. A normal idle is in the low 30's. I was more hopeful with this one because it apparently uses zinc oxide (found in thermal paste), proving once again that chemistry makes absolutely no bloody sense whatsoever.

Try a Spheerol HTB grease, it's dropping point is usually rated around 180C for a quality brand and is non conductive and non corrosive.

 

[funboy6942]

Here are my temps, with my profile set to extreme, with this first at idle with programs and my browser with a bunch of tabs open running:

This is with FurMark running, in 720P for over 5 Min, and as you can see, the temps are perfect, using my HSF set up, picture below:

 

[necros]

try corrosion block grease, its designed by learjet no copper or anything like that in it. but doesnt melt its also dialectric, been using it for the last 3 years in my main machine. which is a amd fx 9790, i am one of those people who if curious about anything in life will spend probably 50 hours at least researching everything. thermal grease is still pretty much a standard grease but because says thermal they charge you more. so many things are just standard cheap stuff but as soon as you say it is for one thing only up goes the price.

 

[funboy6942]

yup
Ive tried Dielectric grease in the past, when thats all I had on hand, but stuff I used had a very low melting point, and would turn to soup between the hs and cpu. This stuff stays just fine, no signs of drying up, no liquid after a while, no nutting, just keeps my cpu cool, and Im happy with that.

 

[lexluthermiester]

try corrosion block grease, its designed by learjet no copper or anything like that in it. but doesnt melt its also dialectric, been using it for the last 3 years in my main machine. which is a amd fx 9790, i am one of those people who if curious about anything in life will spend probably 50 hours at least researching everything. thermal grease is still pretty much a standard grease but because says thermal they charge you more. so many things are just standard cheap stuff but as soon as you say it is for one thing only up goes the price.

Got a brand or product name & number?

 

[necros]

Got a brand or product name & number?

LearChem they make it for marine and invented it for their planes its the company learjet. here is the website been using it for years on a cpu thats over 200w http://www.acf-50.co.uk/corrosion_block_grease.htm

 

[lexluthermiester]

http://www.acf-50.co.uk/corrosion_block_grease.htm

That site makes some claims I would love to test. See the following;

http://www.acf-50.co.uk/other.htm

Can't find any thermal property declarations however.

 

[kiriakost]

That site makes some claims I would love to test. See the following;

http://www.acf-50.co.uk/other.htm

Can't find any thermal property declarations however.

They seem swimming at the sea of basic industrial applications and they have poor humor regarding advertisement of them self's.

Electrical Uses
Corrosion Block has the ability to remove moisture, combined with its excellent penetrating and strong dielectric properties, have brought a number of electronics 'back from the dead' with just one application.

 

[R-T-B]

They seem swimming at the sea of basic industrial applications and they have poor humor regarding advertisement of them self's.

Not sure what you are trying to say. You are aware they actually make jet airplanes, right? Maybe not reading you correctly, but you sound critical of their engineering expertise.

 

[8BitZ80]

thermal grease is still pretty much a standard grease but because says thermal they charge you more. so many things are just standard cheap stuff but as soon as you say it is for one thing only up goes the price.

I don't subscribe to such a cynical way of thinking.
Certainly you get products that overlap in their applications to an extent, but from my engineering experience there is no single "universal" product that can work effectively in different applications that have different sets of performance requirements.
Even the various requirements for greasing lubrication has led to the existence of many different grease products using totally unrelated chemistries. In my shed I've got high temp wheel bearing grease, molybdenum disulphide grease, graphite grease, heavy duty tack grease, marine grease, silicone grease, rubber grease and lanolin wool grease.
There's no such thing as a standard grease, and just because they're all called "grease" doesn't mean they're all the same shit.

 

[biffzinker]

Cooler Master 212 is okay but it has a really weak clip-on mounting system that doesn't support the tower cooler properly. I was kind of disappointed when I got mine. Unless it's mounted in a system where the motherboard is laying flat it would be good, although that's pretty uncommon.

The newer Hyper 212 mounting hardware is more refined/easier to get on, and it doesn’t wiggle around. It’s a firm hold on the heatspreader.

I’m using this one.

Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition CPU Air Cooler

The legendary Hyper air cooler is back and better than before. The Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition offers better installation and great performance, easily one of the best air cooling solutions. The aluminum top cover and nickel plated jet black fins, give the Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition a premium...

www.coolermaster.com

 

[kiriakost]

I don't subscribe to such a cynical way of thinking.
Certainly you get products that overlap in their applications to an extent, but from my engineering experience there is no single "universal" product that can work effectively in different applications that have different sets of performance requirements.
Even the various requirements for greasing lubrication has led to the existence of many different grease products using totally unrelated chemistries. In my shed I've got high temp wheel bearing grease, molybdenum disulphide grease, graphite grease, heavy duty tack grease, marine grease, silicone grease, rubber grease and lanolin wool grease.
There's no such thing as a standard grease, and just because they're all called "grease" doesn't mean they're all the same shit.

I totally agree with you, but there is allot brain-cells poisoning happening due YouTube Fake gurus and the young people they do become easy victims by choice.
How many they know that in automotive industry (their own motorcycle or car or electric bicycle ) they are potted electronics in to a box which has thermal grease too, this never be replaced ? This made to last for ever = 30 years or more.

Computing started with CPU with cooling system mounting with metal clips, next generation was using plastic clips, next generation using BIG plastic Pins.
And some one with a single VGA this having metal screws instead of clips he become high opinionated by thinking that there is only one mechanical way keeping a cooling system in place.

Some others think that thermal paste this must staying fluid for ever, there is no such thing, thermal paste this is solid material and portion of oil this added as assistance when this is applied.
Any way, the less experienced always will have narrow vision and when they will become mature they will laugh by their own past made comments.

Personally I was never though that TPU project - website, this will last that long over time due the nature of internet.
If some one uses the search he will find past contribution of knowledge produced by valuable experiences.
But such way of investigation this is time consuming and it can not help any one seeking for fast answers.

 

[Sisyfos]

This was an interesting thread to read. I came by it, because I was doing some maintenance on my living room PC and noticed that I need to remove the heatsink to clean it properly and I had no thermal compound at home (that I could find). I have copper paste that I have bought for my car some years back and I searched online if that could be of use. Anyhow, brief experience so far is that temps dropped by 20 degrees Celsius (it was DIRTY and the old compound was almost non-existent when I took out the heatsink). Anyhow, so far so good. I will look into it to see if the performance degrades and I will hopefully at that point have some thermal compound available at hand then.

 

[Icon Charlie]

This was an interesting thread to read. I came by it, because I was doing some maintenance on my living room PC and noticed that I need to remove the heatsink to clean it properly and I had no thermal compound at home (that I could find). I have copper paste that I have bought for my car some years back and I searched online if that could be of use. Anyhow, brief experience so far is that temps dropped by 20 degrees Celsius (it was DIRTY and the old compound was almost non-existent when I took out the heatsink). Anyhow, so far so good. I will look into it to see if the performance degrades and I will hopefully at that point have some thermal compound available at hand then.

Thank you for your input... Let us know how this goes.

 

[Shoog]

I upgraded my heatsink because I was seeing unacceptable temps with my stock Intel cooler and running handbrake. My combination copper slip and ground graphite past was still quite fluid after about a year of use when I took it off. I replaced it with stock silver grease but have little doubt that my copper slip graphite mix would have remained servicable for many years if I had have left it in place.

However the only empirical test of copper slip vs silver paste I came across showed that copper slip was inferior overall so i would tend to reserve it for emergency short to medium term use.

Shoog

 

[Sisyfos]

Well its been a few days only so far, but for this low powered CPU it is looking really promising. So far this is how the temps have been normally (current/min/max):

 

[funboy6942]

Attachment doesnt work on my end, getting a opps page

 

[Sisyfos]

Attachment doesnt work on my end, getting a opps page

Ah, maybe it bugged as I changed the screenshot in edit. Current: 29,5 celsius, min 17,5 and max 41,5 celsius and processor is AMD A8-3870 running at 3 Ghz (living room pc).

 

[lexluthermiester]

Well its been a few days only so far, but for this low powered CPU it is looking really promising. So far this is how the temps have been normally (current/min/max):
View attachment 168179

Not sure what software you are using, but it looks like it has a "trial" period. Below are two completely free utilities that will provide great functionality without any hassles.

Open Hardware Monitor - Core temp, fan speed and voltages in a free software gadget

openhardwaremonitor.org

Free Download HWiNFO Sofware | Installer & Portable for Windows, DOS

Start to analyze your hardware right now! HWiNFO has available as an Installer and Portable version for Windows (32/64-bit) and Portable version for DOS.

www.hwinfo.com

 

[delshay]

Well its been a few days only so far, but for this low powered CPU it is looking really promising. So far this is how the temps have been normally (current/min/max):
View attachment 168179

If your minimum temperature is 17.5c, then your room temperature must be lower than this. Isn't that a little cold for the human body.

 

[Frick]

If your minimum temperature is 17.5c, then your room temperature must be lower than this. Isn't that a little cold for the human body.

Colder outside weather and an open window close to the computer. I've met people who installed wooden panels in the windows to funnel outside air directly into the computer case (-10 - -30C).

 

[lexluthermiester]

Is there an issue with galvanic corrosion when using electrically conductive thermal grease, be it liquid metal or copper.

Not that I'm aware of or have seen.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Is there an issue with galvanic corrosion when using electrically conductive thermal grease, be it liquid metal or copper.

there is always some form of dissimilar metal corrosion, some types are more noticeable than others, which is why you need "preservatives" ( for lack of a better word ) mixed in with normal conductive pastes.

 

[dorsetknob]

which is why you need "preservatives" ( for lack of a better word ) mixed in with normal conductive pastes.

Galvanic Neutralizers.......