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Copper anti seize grease as thermal paste?

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well my sink is made from copper, and when I checked it, its showing no signs of corrosion as of yet. As far as testing it for high temps and pressure, I really dont see a need to test it past what I am already doing with it, under every day use. I have no way of putting my sink on tighter, nor do I was to run it at ungodly temps to blow it up to see if this stuff will turn into a liquid. It works just fine for my applications of surfing, and playing games, and the results are just like other good paste I have tried, with maybe a 1-2 degree higher in temps under normal loads and temps, so I am happy to report these finding of my long term test.
 
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looks nice but i feel you need to test it under high temp or high pressure to see how it will react.
Heatsink clamped to a CPU. That's really all the pressure testing needed. By "high temps", what do you mean? Anything above 100c is a waste of time as CPU just will not get any hotter than that before throttling themselves.
and i agree you need to see how it reacts to aluminum or copper too
That's easy, none. Copper and the suspension material have no effect on the stock heatsink being used with one of the systems being tested thus far.
 
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looks nice but i feel you need to test it under high temp or high pressure to see how it will react. and i agree you need to see how it reacts to aluminum or copper too
Having used copper grease in the automotive industry I can vouch that it works very well under extreme temps and under high pressure, much higher than an average computer or CPU will produce.
 
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I can't imagine that trying to remove a grease-based product from computer parts would be much fun. Not that removing thermal paste is very enjoyable to begin with, but lubricating grease can be pretty nasty and smears on everything (that's what it's supposed to do). Probably worth reading the Kopr-Kote MSDS and data sheet to see what's actually in it.

I finally tried this little experiment for myself and stand by my original comments: Copper seize is nasty shit that shouldn't be anywhere near a computer. It takes AGES to clean it off properly and it ends up everywhere. It performs terrible as a thermal paste. My temps were rocketing up to 90C and continuing to climb. And it's electrically conductive. 0/10 would not recommend. Give me a tube of GD900 thermal paste any day.
 
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My temps were rocketing up to 90C and continuing to climb.
Then you either applied it wrong or used the wrong type of antiseize. I'm still on the original application that was tried months backs with an i5-2500k. The temps are still doing well, within 2 to 3 degrees C of the original TIM. I've also got it on a W3680 that has been OC'd to 4.1ghz. No problems.

I'm not saying everyone should run right out and buy the stuff, but it does work and can be handy in a pinch.

(PS, hope that doesn't seem too aggressive, didn't mean to attack you directly..)
 
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Having used copper grease in the automotive industry I can vouch that it works very well under extreme temps and under high pressure, much higher than an average computer or CPU will produce.
Old gear head here and yes I can say that as well. Worked on a lot of motorcycles back in the day, until things got stupid. This reminds me of something I learned over 45 years ago (god I'm getting old) when I used to go hunting. I was taught by an old timer back then to lube your fire arms with 10/30 auto oil. It works.

I can tell you the thousands of dollars over the years saved by not buying brand name fire arm lube. Only a thin amount is needed and it will protect the fire arm in question.

It's the same concept with what we have what we have with using something from one industry and applying it to another.

Then you either applied it wrong or used the wrong type of antiseize. I'm still on the original application that was tried months backs with an i5-2500k. The temps are still doing well, within 2 to 3 degrees C of the original TIM. I've also got it on a W3680 that has been OC'd to 4.1ghz. No problems.

I'm not saying everyone should run right out and buy the stuff, but it does work and can be handy in a pinch.

(PS, hope that doesn't seem to aggressive, didn't mean to attack you directly..)
Thank you for your input. I have heard of using stuff like this and other things over the years. I never really need to use the copper anti seize due to having a great deal of Arctic Silver on hand.

I would love to see a 6 month and a year report and if it is stable then yea I'll try it just because :)
I'm also one of them guys that blows out the case every 2 to 3 months and every year change out the GPU/CPU grease just because.
 
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I would love to see a 6 month and a year report and if it is stable then yea I'll try it just because :)
That's in progress. 4ish months in on one PC and a couple months on the other, both unlocked CPUs and both being OC'd using ThrottleStop(thank you @unclewebb )
Will continue to keep things updated as things progress. So far, the copper grease works well and has no ill effects.
 
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Then you either applied it wrong or used the wrong type of antiseize. I'm still on the original application that was tried months backs with an i5-2500k. The temps are still doing well, within 2 to 3 degrees C of the original TIM. I've also got it on a W3680 that has been OC'd to 4.1ghz. No problems.

I'm not saying everyone should run right out and buy the stuff, but it does work and can be handy in a pinch.

(PS, hope that doesn't seem to aggressive, didn't mean to attack you directly..)

I checked and my anti-seize (ITW Devcon Stop-Seize Copper) isn't very different from the Kopr-Kote. Same copper percentage, same graphite percentage. Considering that grease (largely an oil-based product) is such a terrible thermal conductor, I still have a hard time believing that any anti-seize can perform comparably to dedicated thermal paste.
 
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I checked and my anti-seize (ITW Devcon Stop-Seize Copper) isn't very different from the Kopr-Kote. Same copper percentage, same graphite percentage.
Actually, there is a significant chemical difference. Please review the documents below.
As you can see from those documents there is a significant amount of graphite and zinc mixed into the Devcon product, whereas the KoprKote has copper, a slight amount of calcium and petroleum compounds.

The stuff I'm using, found a local auto parts store, has a different brand name but is still a Devcon product. But it also has a different formulation from the two above;

Those differences could be making an impact in thermal performance when used a TIM.
Considering that grease (largely an oil-based product) is such a terrible thermal conductor, I still have a hard time believing that any anti-seize can perform comparably to dedicated thermal paste.
Did you spread it out thin like I did in the picture earlier in the thread? Try it again and see what happens.
 

Shoog

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Hi,
Just registered to add my own experience.
I was caught short of thermal paste about a year ago and living out in the stixx I was going to have to wait for a while to get a delivery so I decided to experiment.
I used copper slip, but I also added graphite to the mix. I got the graphite from a lead pencil and ground it to a dust in a morter and pestal and then mixed it in with the copper slip. I run a i7-3770 and temps average about 34C and peak out at 50C under moderate load. I use a stock cooler and after a year I am more than happy with the performance with no noticeable degradation over that year.
I am in the process of reviving an old i7-2600K which I will mount a custom diy heatpipe heatsink (salvaged from an old Dell Optlex Workstation) and will be using the same formula and will see if I can overclock the CPU to something like 4.2ghz for gaming purposes.

Copper slip rocks.

Shoog
 
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Actually, there is a significant chemical difference. Please review the documents below.
As you can see from those documents there is a significant amount of graphite and zinc mixed into the Devcon product, whereas the KoprKote has copper, a slight amount of calcium and petroleum compounds.

The stuff I'm using, found a local auto parts store, has a different brand name but is still a Devcon product. But it also has a different formulation from the two above;

Those differences could be making an impact in thermal performance when used a TIM.

Did you spread it out thin like I did in the picture earlier in the thread? Try it again and see what happens.

They sell Permatex anti-seize at the auto parts store here too, but considering the cost of a small tube it will run you the same expense as thermal paste and defeats the purpose. And it's a totally different composition again: https://www.permatex.com/wp-content/uploads/tech_docs/sds/01_USA-English/80078.pdf

Thermal paste uses zinc oxide, so unless calcium oxide somehow does the same job of conducting heat, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or damn reason.
 
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They sell Permatex anti-seize at the auto parts store here too, but considering the cost of a small tube it will run you the same expense as thermal paste and defeats the purpose. And it's a totally different composition again: https://www.permatex.com/wp-content/uploads/tech_docs/sds/01_USA-English/80078.pdf

Thermal paste uses zinc oxide, so unless calcium oxide somehow does the same job of conducting heat, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or damn reason.
We can debate the chemistry back and forth. In the end though, it's about results, and there are a few of us who are getting positive results. So did you try reapplying?

I'm doing this out of scientific curiosity, not vested in a result one way or another nor do I have something to prove or disprove. I just want to see how things work out.
 
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looks nice but i feel you need to test it under high temp or high pressure to see how it will react. and i agree you need to see how it reacts to aluminum or copper too

This stuff is used on cylinder heads. Pressure, check. Temps, check. Plus, heads are aluminum a lot.
 
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We can debate the chemistry back and forth. In the end though, it's about results, and there are a few of us who are getting positive results. So did you try reapplying?

I'm doing this out of scientific curiosity, not vested in a result one way or another nor do I have something to prove or disprove. I just want to see how things work out.

So the GD900 manages to do a maximum of 78C during a full IntelBurnTest run and passed no problems. I switched out for the anti-seize where I only applied a thin layer on the IHS only, across the whole surface. It did slightly better this time but it failed after the second burn cycle when it hit 92C. Again, hardly functioning as a thermal paste.

I'm happy to experiment, so I tried something else as well: Toothpaste.

I switched out for some Colgate Advanced Whitening with the micro cleaning crystals to see how it compares against the GD900 and the anti-seize. The toothpaste thermal paste stabilised at a maximum of 89C and passed ten cycles of the IntelBurnTest run. Even toothpaste is performing better than the anti-seize AND as a bonus it's easier to clean up afterwards!

EDIT: Not that I even remotely would recommend toothpaste as thermal paste. It's consistency won't even last for one hour of use.
 
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EDIT: Not that I even remotely would recommend toothpaste as thermal paste. It's consistency won't even last for one hour of use.
It also reacts with the metal, think it was exposed copper on the heat sink base.
 
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It also reacts with the metal, think it was exposed copper on the heat sink base.

It just dries up when it's warm, so it loses contact very quickly. As for reactivity, no idea. I didn't notice any reaction and my heatsink has copper heatpipes.
I'd also like to try standard grease too. I have some moly grease that I might give a try to see how it compares with anti-seize.

Okay, so the moly grease is at 50C when it's in the bios. Forget it. At least that gives an idea of how effective regular grease is when it comes to thermal conductivity.
 
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As for reactivity, no idea. I didn't notice any reaction and my heatsink has copper heatpipes.
I’ve used toothpaste as a substitute when I ran out of compound. There was some sorta of reaction because it was difficult to clean off.
 

CubanB

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Very interesting thread guys. This may be slightly off topic but I'll give it a go since you guys seem to know your stuff. Is there anything to worry about in terms of using a thermal paste like Kryonaut or MX-4 with a copper shim. In other words.. die - > thermal paste -> raw copper shim -> thermal paste - > aluminum (or alloy) heatsink? No issues with corrosion in the long term? I'm thinking probably not but thought I would ask anyway, since you guys seem to know about this kind of thing. The only corrosion I know if for sure is using liquid metal, but what about thermal paste with raw copper?

I'd never heard of this copper grease stuff but I'm curious to look into it in the future. I don't think I'd want to replace my thermal paste on my CPU but it could be useful for other applications. The long term results (as this thread evolves) will be interesting.
 
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So the GD900 manages to do a maximum of 78C during a full IntelBurnTest run and passed no problems. I switched out for the anti-seize where I only applied a thin layer on the IHS only, across the whole surface. It did slightly better this time but it failed after the second burn cycle when it hit 92C. Again, hardly functioning as a thermal paste.
Ok, so the chemistries being different must be having an effect. KoprKote and my stuff seem to be working well.
Very interesting thread guys. This may be slightly off topic but I'll give it a go since you guys seem to know your stuff. Is there anything to worry about in terms of using a thermal paste like Kryonaut or MX-4 with a copper shim. In other words.. die - > thermal paste -> raw copper shim -> thermal paste - > aluminum (or alloy) heatsink? No issues with corrosion in the long term? I'm thinking probably not but thought I would ask anyway, since you guys seem to know about this kind of thing. The only corrosion I know if for sure is using liquid metal, but what about thermal paste with raw copper?

I'd never heard of this copper grease stuff but I'm curious to look into it in the future. I don't think I'd want to replace my thermal paste on my CPU but it could be useful for other applications. The long term results (as this thread evolves) will be interesting.
You'll be fine, no worries.
 
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I built a old rig few days ago, its running a core 2 quad, and I put a ultra thin layer of the stuff on it, and I do believe that people trying it with bad results have to know it need a ultra think layer, almost see through. You dont want any of it squeezing out from between the heatsink and the cpu getting on anything because as I have and other have mentioned, it does conduct electricity, just as liquid metal do, so apply it as if your applying that goop that will destroy your heatsink over time. But anyway, it was a choice of that or some really cheap crap I had laying around, the white stuff, with the consistency of toothpaste. With this cpu, my temps actually lowered 2 degrees, using the stock cooler. As far as a long term on my main rig goes, since its been many months. Temps have not changed, still the same, under load or not.

I just cannot stress that if you use it, it has to be see through thin, no more, no less, for thats what has worker perfect for me. And though it is a degree or two hotter then my Arctic tim I had some of, I myself dont see the need to buy anything else anymore to gain that back, for its running way cool as it is, no where even close to its thermal limits. But this is me, and Im happy, if your not, well thats you, Im not going to force you into changing your mind.

OH and as far as clean up, using a thin layer, all I use to clean it up with is 2 alcohol pads, takes but a few seconds, making sure to wipe to the center of the cpu, not the outer edges. If your having trouble removing it, then you applied way too much ;)
 
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Ok, so the chemistries being different must be having an effect. KoprKote and my stuff seem to be working well.

You'll be fine, no worries.

Well since the anti-seize doesn't need to function as a grease anymore when it's used as thermal paste, I'd imagine you could modify it by mixing in extra graphite or copper dust to get the thermal conductivity up. But you'd want to start with a product that's already pretty decent at conducting heat.
 
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OOOOO I know what Im trying next, some graphite :)
Gonna have to start shaving some #2 pencils.

There is already a butt ton of copper in the stuff I bought.
 
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Well since the anti-seize doesn't need to function as a grease anymore when it's used as thermal paste, I'd imagine you could modify it by mixing in extra graphite or copper dust to get the thermal conductivity up. But you'd want to start with a product that's already pretty decent at conducting heat.
That would be taking the experiment to a whole new level. I'm not interested in going that far. Just interested if this off-the-shelf product intended for one purpose, can function as another. That's it. So far, for me, it is. Doing a respectable job at it as well.
 

Shoog

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Just performed a handbrake test on my CPU and got some surprising results. My i7-3770 is running all cores at between 85-100% and the speed is stable at 3.4ghz - but all cores are sitting up at 100-105C. Everything is stable and this is far from a normal use case for me, but it seems to suggest that the stock cooler and copper slip/graphite paste is simply not up to this workload. Might be time for a cooler upgrade.

Shoog
 
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