My thermal paste collection...how would you rank them from best to worst?

[A Computer Guy]

from top to bottom in the picture

• Thermal Grizzly Something (came with my water block)
• XTM50 (about 6 months old)
• Noctua NT-H1 (about 1 yrs old)
• EK Ectotherm (about 2 yrs old)
• TG-7 (about 2 yrs old)
• Artic Silver (about 3 yrs old)
• Artic Sliver (about 5 yrs old)

still waiting for delivery

• Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Stuff that came with the water block is likely TG hydronaut
Which is pretty good stuff
Think application matters more than the paste nt-h1 is still my favorite.

 

[Deleted member 185158]

The EK and NT pastes are about the same wm/k as the Thermal G.

The TG-7 best buy paste is garbage. I use it with my TECs. The XTM-50 is no better, also best buy. (At least that's where I get it..)

And arctic siler is..... artic silver. Every one has a tube of that hidden in a drawer somewhere. I'm sure to find a dried up tube somewhere if I looked hard enough. lol

 

[A Computer Guy]

The TG-7 best buy paste is garbage. I use it with my TECs. The XTM-50 is no better, also best buy. (At least that's where I get it..)

Yea that is where I got them too so I could test with them and save the EK and NT for final builds.

 

[AusWolf]

The Thermal Grizzly and Noctua are the best. The Arctic Silver isn't bad, either, but it's electrically conductive, so I personally wouldn't use it. I don't really know the rest.

 

[lexluthermiester]

The Noctua needs to be at the bottom of that list. It dries out within about 6 months or so and stops working well. Utter garbage in my opinion.

The Arctic Silver isn't bad, either, but it's electrically conductive

Incorrect. It's electrically capacitive. There's a HUGE difference. It's only a problem if some of it get on and bridges contact points. But even then, it's easily cleaned and resolved.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

The Noctua needs to be at the bottom of that list. It dries out within about 6 months or so and stops working well. Utter garbage in my opinion.


Incorrect. It's electrically capacitive. There's a HUGE difference. It's only a problem if some of it get on and bridges contact points. But even then, it's easily cleaned and resolved.

You didnt suggest Copper anti-seize!

I used to swear by AS5 but have seen better temps with MX pastes.

 

[lexluthermiester]

You didnt suggest Copper anti-seize!

Nor would I! It got the job done during the experiment last year, but I would not recommend it as a daily solution, only something one could use if there are no other options available.

I used to swear by AS5 but have seen better temps with MX pastes.

Arctic Silver is still to this day an excellent TIM. It performs very well even when compared to modern pastes. However, KPx is my current favorite after MX-5.

 

[BlaezaLite]

I've not used any of them, but I'd like to get a little collection like that and do some tests.

 

[micropage7]

None of them i have so i can't write something then

 

[P4-630]

#1 I'd say Kryonaut Extreme

 

[Valantar]

The Noctua needs to be at the bottom of that list. It dries out within about 6 months or so and stops working well. Utter garbage in my opinion.

That's weird, I've used a lot of NT-H1 and never seen that, even on installs lasting several years.

 

[silentbogo]

Gave up on TIM obsession a long time ago. For the past few years I've been buying 65g MX2 tubes, which works just as good as MX4 for 99.9% of consumer electronics, but costs only a fraction of MX4/MX5.
Only using MX4 on power-hungry stuff, like HEDT, Servers, hi-end GPUs.

I'm still trying to find OEM version of arctic TIM... Stumbled upon the manufacturer's name in some random review, but forgot to write it down. Even found local listings for OEM cans in bulk, but didn't bother to at least bookmark it (didn't seem urgent at the time, cause I just resupplied my workshop).

In regards to OPs collection - the new MX2 behaves similarly to the old AS5(in terms of consistency, I mean). It's a bit thicker than hi-end stuff, but for my line of work it's a bliss. Works on everything from laptops to desktops, from HEDT workstations to power-hungry servers. Heck, I even put it on my friend's RTX 3080 and temps look nearly identical to what he had with fresh MX4 when he bought it(had to re-paste anyways after swapping thermal pads to copper shims).

The Noctua needs to be at the bottom of that list. It dries out within about 6 months or so and stops working well. Utter garbage in my opinion.

Also tried Noctua NT-H1, but only because it was a freebie that came with a heatsink. Didn't notice much of a difference in terms of performance, but yeah - had the same thing. After I gave my old DeskMini to our economist - it lasted less than a year before that puny i3-6100 started to feel a bit hot(no AC in the old office, so the worst came in the middle of the summer). Totally dry and crusty, lost thermal contact even though there wasn't any vibrations and it was in a tiny horizontal chassis with a tiny Noctua L9i on top of it. Weird.

 

[lexluthermiester]

That's weird, I've used a lot of NT-H1 and never seen that, even on installs lasting several years.

Really? This has happened twice. Granted, both times are from the same tube. Maybe I have a bad sample?

Also tried Noctua NT-H1, but only because it was a freebie that came with a heatsink. Didn't notice much of a difference in terms of performance, but yeah - had the same thing. After I gave my old DeskMini to our economist - it lasted less than a year before that puny i3-6100 started to feel a bit hot(no AC in the old office, so the worst came in the middle of the summer). Totally dry and crusty, lost thermal contact even though there wasn't any vibrations and it was in a tiny horizontal chassis with a tiny Noctua L9i on top of it. Weird.

Ok, so I'm not alone. Perhaps a bad batch?

If it can happen to Arctic, it can happen to Noctua.

 

[xtreemchaos]

GD900 for me i dont waste my money virjazzles .

 

[Valantar]

Really? This has happened twice. Granted, both times are from the same tube. Maybe I have a bad sample?


Ok, so I'm not alone. Perhaps a bad batch?

If it can happen to Arctic, it can happen to Noctua.

Sounds likely. I've used it across various system builds, sticking a heatsink to a large 12V PSU, a few GPUs, and a bunch of other minor stuff, and have never seen issues. That is across 2-3 tubes of H1, all of which came with coolers.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

What was that paste a few years ago that was so bad the whole batch was recalled off the shelves?

 

[lexluthermiester]

What was that paste a few years ago that was so bad the whole batch was recalled off the shelves?

There's been a number of them.

 

[AusWolf]

Arctic Silver is still to this day an excellent TIM. It performs very well even when compared to modern pastes. However, KPx is my current favorite after MX-5.

The MX-5 is garbage, in my opinion. It's as thick and sticky as chewing gum. Performance-wise it's OK, but applying it is a real pain in the backside that I wouldn't even wish on my enemies. The MX-4 is miles better.

My favourites are
1. Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut,
2. Arctic MX-4,
3. Coolermaster Master Gel Maker.

 

[ThrashZone]

Really? This has happened twice. Granted, both times are from the same tube. Maybe I have a bad sample?


Ok, so I'm not alone. Perhaps a bad batch?

If it can happen to Arctic, it can happen to Noctua.

Hi,
I use it on everything and nt-h1 holds up very well matter of fact time makes it better not worse.
Using it on my 28-20-12 thread cpu's benching the crap out of them to so yeah it does the job.

Only weird one is nt-h2
This one dries very fast and tough to get off as well but sadly overpriced since noctua added a bunch of useless 50% alcohol wipes this one I tossed in the trash.

 

[mclaren85]

As I stated earlier on, there are only fractional differences. Thermal paste industry is partly a scam industry

 

[AusWolf]

As I stated earlier on, there are only fractional differences. Thermal paste industry is partly a scam industry

It's a scam from a purely performance-oriented point of view. Though I'd say, longevity, ease of application and cleaning, and having no electrical properties still matter.

 

[xtreemchaos]

its the todays version of snake oil and it runs off hype.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Yep hyped enough for people to fake with cheapest shit and resell as top dog paste at that time

 

[Valantar]

As I stated earlier on, there are only fractional differences. Thermal paste industry is partly a scam industry

Scam? Nah, that's too harsh. Are the advantages and disadvantages overblown? Definitely. Still, there's value to a paste that's easy to apply, lasts for a long time, and performs decently. Especially the application can differ quite a lot, with very viscous pastes requiring a lot of mounting pressure and/or manual spreading to work well. Still, I've only really had good experiences across Gelid GC-Extreme (sadly hard to get these days, and stupidly expensive when it can be found), Kryonaut, NT-H1 and NT-H2 over the past few years.