Expensive thermal paste is a complete waste!

[Frick]

but seriously is anyone here addicted to heatsincs, i like their weight and how they feel, i have a whole box of I7 heatsincs i cant throw their copper goodness away, what a waste!, sometimes i put cooling paste on them just for fun and apply them to objects in the house and use a laser heat gun to measure the temperatures, i like heat sincs alot the problem is i can't throw them away and some have sharp corners and after handling them and feeling their cool radiant metallic glow all day my hands get scratched up sometimes, they feel good against the skin too

This needs to be quoted.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

I used to run MX-3, but it was pretty thick and didn't spread well. Right when they released MX-4 I grabbed some and its quite a bit better. Spreads perfectly nearly every time. Not to thick or thin.

 

[newtekie1]

Wow, 3 years and this topic is back from the grave!

I'd just like to point out that I'm still using the tube Arctic Silver Aluminia, you just get so much for the price it is ridiculous.

 

[Melvis]

I learnt this a very long time ago, the expensive stuff is way over rated.

I use a brand called Duratech and its been fantastic for me over the last 6+ Yrs. Cost about $5 AUS per tub. Its that good that my old FX-57 rig still has the original Duratech paste on it from 2006 and keeps the CPU so cool that the fan turns off when not under load. (20-25c) Stock cooler.

 

[Naito]

I learnt this a very long time ago, the expensive stuff is way over rated.

I use a brand called Duratech and its been fantastic for me over the last 6+ Yrs. Cost about $5 AUS per tub. Its that good that my old FX-57 rig still has the original Duratech paste on it from 2006 and keeps the CPU so cool that the fan turns off when not under load. (20-25c) Stock cooler.

Looks like something you can buy at Jaycar.

 

[Melvis]

Looks like something you can buy at Jaycar.

You would be correct

 

[DinaAngel]

Here's one recent review with:


http://www.xpert-oc-team.de/forum/v...es/original_images/rz_30_waermeleitpasten0134
Source

im using the Liquid Ultra for my phase cooler and waterblocks i totally recomend it but be careful as it leads electricity since its metal, and its a great conductor!

 

[Vario]

Liquid Ultra is the only one I have had any luck with, everything else seems to perform exactly the same. Liquid Pro is too hard to use and actually gave worse results than ultra most of the time because it took more luck than anything to get it to apply just right. I use AS5 most of the time but my delid and h100i have ultra.

 

[Peter1986C]

Coolink Chillaramic :thumbsup:
It's not electrically conductive, affordable and works well. According to Coollink 10g is enough for about 30 applications, but I think it is way more than that.

 

[Jstn7477]

I bought a 20g tube of Arctic MX-4 off Newegg for $20 last week. The tube is quite huge and I have barely used any for the several applications I have done already. Liquid Pro/Ultra is pretty much needed for delids though because MX-4 loses most of its effectiveness pretty quickly after a couple hours to a few days under the IHS from what I personally see. My thermals on my 3770K are only slightly better than before the delid now.

 

[ogharaei]

PK-3 is good. I have some Liquid Ultra but am too lazy to apply it right now, and I dont't think it will make much of a difference.

 

[Jstn7477]

The problem with Liquid Pro/Ultra is that it hardens into essentially a solder and it will dissolve aluminum, so usually it's just good for delidded Intel processors. Otherwise, it will form a near permanent bond with your cooler and you may have to lap both surfaces to restore them to a usable state of the bond is broken.

 

[Ikaruga]

There was a review many years ago which proved that Grandma's different kind of home made jams/jellys (dunno which is the right word for the flowing type in English) are just as good as any custom thermal paste. It was shocking and I truly loved that experiment. Sadly the guy did not test how long were the jams effective, which would have been the more important question imo.

Back to the subject; I personally tried many and settled with the Noctua NT-H1, and I'm very satisfied.


edit:

but seriously is anyone here addicted to heatsincs, i like their weight and how they feel, i have a whole box of I7 heatsincs i cant throw their copper goodness away, what a waste!, sometimes i put cooling paste on them just for fun and apply them to objects in the house and use a laser heat gun to measure the temperatures, i like heat sincs alot the problem is i can't throw them away and some have sharp corners and after handling them and feeling their cool radiant metallic glow all day my hands get scratched up sometimes, they feel good against the skin too

You dear sir, just won the Internet for today

 

[Jetster]

You get more of a change with lapping then TP

 

[silkstone]

I'm still using my tube of OCZ Freeze from about 4 years ago. It's lasted quite a few applications, but I rarely take of the HS once it's on properly.

(For some reason I thought I was using MX-2 until I saw the tube)

 

[laptop-hpc]

I recently re-pasted an older laptop with an i3-2330M in it, just to experiment with
different stuff, and found the stock paste wasn't too bad for once.

Max core temps were about 74C before changing anything.

First I tried some zinc oxide ointment, and surprisingly max temps were around 76C. That stuff is probably 10 years old.

Next, what I'm using now, Vaseline gave max temps of about 73C.
The machine has been running at 100% CPU for over a week now 24/7, and temps haven't risen at all.

I don't think I'll bother with high end paste after this, at least for stock components.

 

[micropage7]

Next, what I'm using now, Vaseline gave max temps of about 73C.
The machine has been running at 100% CPU for over a week now 24/7, and temps haven't risen at all.

vaseline? really?
wait i google for a while and yes
http://www.overclockers.com/homemade-thermal-grease/

i never use expensive paste, i rather lapping and using less paste to make sure heat transfer

 

[DinaAngel]

The problem with Liquid Pro/Ultra is that it hardens into essentially a solder and it will dissolve aluminum, so usually it's just good for delidded Intel processors. Otherwise, it will form a near permanent bond with your cooler and you may have to lap both surfaces to restore them to a usable state of the bond is broken.

only pro, the ultra is allways liquid, iv had no issues separating waterblock and cpu.
its actually the reason i didnt get pro. problem is that it conducts electric current like a solid metal like copper just as good, its a very delicate job to take it on a cpu, i used 1,5 hours to fully place the ultra over the cpu, since u dont need much of the paste, its liquid so u only need one drop then u take it over the cpu slowly and gently. i got -60 degrees on average there but its still working perfectly, funny fact is that i tried the pro on a 7990 with the evaporator for ln2 and its still stuck on it, i think the pcb would break before the paste

 

[niko084]

Agreed and glad someone said it... I can't explain how many times I've had people cry about thermal paste... Seriously if temps are THAT important, get a better cooler...

Thermal paste wont vary when properly used (without extreme cases like seriously warped IHS) by more than maybe a single degree... I've wasted countless hours myself testing it.

Then again single degree? How many other factors that I didn't know could do the same? Was I breathing in that general direction?



All that being said I buy large amounts of a basic silicon paste and mix in some nice diamond powder.
Why? So I can feel good about it and it sounds really cool to customers! (Silver? why so cheap?)

 

[DinaAngel]

Agreed and glad someone said it... I can't explain how many times I've had people cry about thermal paste... Seriously if temps are THAT important, get a better cooler...

Thermal paste wont vary when properly used (without extreme cases like seriously warped IHS) by more than maybe a single degree... I've wasted countless hours myself testing it.

Then again single degree? How many other factors that I didn't know could do the same? Was I breathing in that general direction?



All that being said I buy large amounts of a basic silicon paste and mix in some nice diamond powder.
Why? So I can feel good about it and it sounds really cool to customers! (Silver? why so cheap?)

aww i couldnt hold back posting a test i did with a test bench

 

[xvi]

aww i couldnt hold back posting a test i did with a test bench
http://puu.sh/38QWp

That last one there.. Grilled processor sandwich?

 

[DinaAngel]

That last one there.. Grilled processor sandwich?

the cheese melted lilbit but i wouldnt recomend it for more than 30 minutes
it was propperly cleaned between each test using alcohol, not the stuff you drink, thats for other times, i tried once to put alcohol as waterloop, it worked for awhile but hoses got brown and i dont even have a idea what happened but that was just a test for fun. the smells, i used gloves and face mask for such experiements

 

[danwat1234]

Liquid Ultra is the only one I have had any luck with, everything else seems to perform exactly the same. Liquid Pro is too hard to use and actually gave worse results than ultra most of the time because it took more luck than anything to get it to apply just right. I use AS5 most of the time but my delid and h100i have ultra.

But how many years did it take before the Liquid Ultra dried up and became less conductive?
Maybe the batch I have is flawed or I am harder on the thermal compound than most people - 85-95 degrees Celsius nearly 24/7
I think the next compound I'll use is Arctic MX2 since it supposedly has a durability of 8 years.

 

[DinaAngel]

But how many years did it take before the Liquid Ultra dried up and became less conductive?
Maybe the batch I have is flawed or I am harder on the thermal compound than most people - 85-95 degrees Celsius nearly 24/7
I think the next compound I'll use is Arctic MX2 since it supposedly has a durability of 8 years.

i doesnt think it will ever dry up, maybe in 250 years, its mostly only metal,
i believe they are based off the structure of gallium,
it might degrade into some lower elements in 6700000 years but i doubt i will be alive that long,
i might be wrong

Edit: its still liquid after year or so on my table

 

[Grnfinger]

LOL.

You wanna say that again?

http://www.skinneelabs.com/assets/images/TIM/TIM2010Pt1/AMDTIMCompare.png

The Cooler Master paste is your basic generic paste. The Difference between AS5 and MX-2 is 3c. With a headload of 192w, it's about the same as an average i7 @ 3.6 Ghz.

http://www.skinneelabs.com/assets/images/TIM/TIM2010Pt1/AMDSimpleTIM.png

http://www.skinneelabs.com/assets/images/TIM/TIM2010Pt1/AMDBestTIM.png

Test was done with five different mounts, and a 1055T @ 3.85 Ghz / 1.62v.

Two MCR320, six Yate Loon 2200RPM High speed. Laing DDC 3.2, Koolance CPU-360, Laing D5 @ setting 5.

I bought Indigo extreme for my 1366 chip and never used it, running the chip up to 100c is not really a smart idea imo.
Wonder if I could use it on my 3570K the whole kit is unused and it was expensive iirc