The Official Thermal Interface Material thread

[forman313]

This is how it´s done!


This poor 5600X proved to be a though one. Somehow it still managed to do Cinebench R23 loops for 20min @ 4500+ Mhz all core.

 

[Athlonite]

@forman313 oooof that's some pretty poor contact even for a stock AMD HSF

 

[Shrek]

How good is the honeycomb stencil?
Thermaltake reinvents how to apply thermal paste to CPUs | PC Gamer

 

[Pictus]

This is how it´s done!


This poor 5600X proved to be a though one. Somehow it still managed to do Cinebench R23 loops for 20min @ 4500+ Mhz all core.

WTF!
The cooler clip/base must be warped...
In situations like this, the excellent Honeywell PTM7950 will perform worse than any thermal paste due to the lack of pressure between the surfaces.
IF you are going to buy a new cooler, the Zalman CNPS20X(if it fits the case) is at very good price in Germany.

https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/kNsnTW/zalman-cnps20x-61-cfm-cpu-cooler-cnps20x

 

[forman313]

WTF!
The cooler clip/base must be warped...
In situations like this, the excellent Honeywell PTM7950 will perform worse than any thermal paste due to the lack of pressure between the surfaces.
IF you are going to buy a new cooler, the Zalman CNPS20X(if it fits the case) is at very good price in Germany.

The mounting mechanism is terrible. Fan shroud pushes the lever outwards. Sideways force as a cooler is tightened down is bad. But clearly worth it as long as it means getting RGB-lighting without having to redesign the mount. Go AMD

The Wraith Spire came with the Motherboard/CPU/RAM combo at no extra cost. Its cheaper to give something away than sending it to the garbage dump where it belongs.

I threw it out and installed an old NH-U12P with some ghetto-mod magic. Its closer to 15 years old, and not very good by todays standards, but for a 5600x it seems ok. I´m using high-end thermal paste... if the description on ebay or aliexpress is correct "Halnziue, Thermal Grease, HY810". I only use it for transistors etc. but it was all I had at the moment.

Only ran a quick load test with CPU-Z stress. Still, better than expected.

 

[Space Lynx]

just put on arctic mx-6 and cleaned up this gtx 1070.

 

[Athlonite]

just put on arctic mx-6 and cleaned up this gtx 1070.

View attachment 297786

Is this before or after you cleaned it up

 

[Space Lynx]

Is this before or after you cleaned it up

after. the stock paste around the cpu wasn't worth my time for such an old card. and temps are cold with mx-6, tested it in several games. so its fine, meh.

 

[Athlonite]

after. the stock paste around the cpu wasn't worth my time for such an old card. and temps are cold with mx-6, tested it in several games. so its fine, meh.

Fair enough maybe I'm just a little OCD when it comes to that sort of thing

 

[Space Lynx]

Fair enough maybe I'm just a little OCD when it comes to that sort of thing

if it were a newer card, it might be worth the time, but this card is already pretty outdated to be honest. i can only run very old games on it at the fps I want. I am a bit of a snob about high fps though, so thats more my problem than the cards. lol

 

[lexluthermiester]

if it were a newer card, it might be worth the time, but this card is already pretty outdated to be honest.

I find that a soft-bristle toothbrush and some IPA makes quick work of that gunk and will not harm the SMD parts surrounding the die.

 

[dgianstefani]

Time to test out Conductonaut Extreme, apparently 18-30% better than original Conductonaut. New pads too.

Very tempted to delid my X3D.

I'll post before/after results.

Currently have Kryonaut Extreme and 15 w/mK pads on GPU and conductonaut on CPU.

 

[Space Lynx]

Time to test out Conductonaut Extreme, apparently 18-30% better than original Conductonaut. New pads too.

Very tempted to delid my X3D.

View attachment 298819
View attachment 298820

I'll post before/after results.

Currently have Kryonaut Extreme and 15 w/mK pads on GPU and conductonaut on CPU.

i did not know there was a new version of conductonaut, wow! noted. i may look into this in the future.

 

[Kissamies]

Any MX-6 users here? Should I get a syringe of that or is it fine to just stick with MX-4?

 

[Veseleil]

Any MX-6 users here? Should I get a syringe of that or is it fine to just stick with MX-4?

You'll forget about MX-4 existence after using MX-6. It's on another level. Try it.
It's much thicker, keep that in mind.

 

[Space Lynx]

Any MX-6 users here? Should I get a syringe of that or is it fine to just stick with MX-4?

I have MX-6 on my gtx 1070 and on my cpu. everything is running cold, I expect I won't change the paste on either for several years

 

[Kissamies]

You'll forget about MX-4 existence after using MX-6. It's on another level. Try it.
It's much thicker, keep that in mind.

I have about ~5g of MX-4 left, but I mostly asked that should I get it when I need some new paste. I'll keep that in mind

I have MX-6 on my gtx 1070 and on my cpu. everything is running cold, I expect I won't change the paste on either for several years

Alrighty, like I posted for the other user, I may try that one day

 

[Veseleil]

I have about ~5g of MX-4 left

Me too, 8g tube purchase was too much I guess. Now it'll probably go to waste, being next to a tube of fresh and superior MX-6.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Any MX-6 users here? Should I get a syringe of that or is it fine to just stick with MX-4?

Yup! I love the stuff! If you already have a tube of MX4, finish it out because it's still good stuff. But if you need a new tube, go with MX6. Best bang-for-buck name brand TIM on the market ATM.

 

[Kissamies]

Yup! I love the stuff! If you already have a tube of MX4, finish it out because it's still good stuff. But if you need a new tube, go with MX6. Best bang-for-buck name brand TIM on the market ATM.

Alright. so I use the stuff I have before I order new one

 

[Borc]

I would like to share two thermal paste reviews (desktop CPU):

https://club.dns-shop.ru/review/t-110-termointerfeisyi/78736-sravnenie-i-testyi-35-termopast-doroje-znachit-luchshe/

HY-P15 extremely dry, what the hell is this Could be good for laptop cooling though, similar to Thermalright TFX.

Deepcool released a new paste called DM9, it's a silicone resin-based thermal compound. I will try it out on my laptop.

 

[Pictus]

I would like to share two thermal paste reviews (desktop CPU):
HY-P15 extremely dry, what the hell is this Could be good for laptop cooling though, similar to Thermalright TFX.
Deepcool released a new paste called DM9, it's a silicone resin-based thermal compound. I will try it out on my laptop.

I like dry(Shin-Etsu 7921), just use heat and no problem to apply.
The PCM based HY-P16 or Honeywell PTM7950 would be the choice for high temperature stuff and have longer lifespan.

HY-P16 16.1W/m-K thermal grease 1g syringe in the paper box_Shenzhen Halnziye Electronics Co., Ltd.

HY-P16 16.1W/m-K thermal grease 1g syringe in the paper box-Shenzhen Halnziye Electronics Co., Ltd.

www.halnziye.net

 

[80-watt Hamster]

I like dry(Shin-Etsu 7921), just use heat and no problem to apply.
The PCM based HY-P16 or Honeywell PTM7950 would be the choice for high temperature stuff and have longer lifespan.

HY-P16 16.1W/m-K thermal grease 1g syringe in the paper box_Shenzhen Halnziye Electronics Co., Ltd.

HY-P16 16.1W/m-K thermal grease 1g syringe in the paper box-Shenzhen Halnziye Electronics Co., Ltd.

www.halnziye.net

I just wish one could easily get it in consumer quantities from domestic suppliers.

 

[Suspenders]

Hello folks, I thought I'd add my $0.02 to this thread I had to sort out some trouble with a warped heatsink on my recently acquired Vega 64 reference blower edition, but after sourcing a replacement part, I decided to try using some of that fancy Honeywell PTM-7950 phase changing TIM on my Vega 64.

The PTM-7950 comes packaged similarly to a new thermal pad, sandwiched between two thin layers of plastic film. It was a real PITA to get that plastic peel off of both sides and apply it to the Vega die and HBM. Had to use a razor blade to slowly peel it apart, and once I got enough of a chunk of the plastic peeling off it became a lot easier to rip off the rest. Took about 10 minutes of nervous finagaling.

This is what the original GPU thermal grease looked like:

Good coverage all around, but very dry and crusty:

I cleaned the die and HBM up as best as I could. I don't have a molded die, and I've read that it's very easy to damage the interposer on these things, even just touching it might damage it apparently? I didn't want to push my luck so I cleaned it up as best I could with cotton swabs and drops from a REALLY ancient bottle of Tuniq TIM remover liquid.

I'm not sure what is in that liquid but it dissolves old thermal greases amazingly well.

Honeywell PTM-7950 applied over the die and HBM:

I re-attached the heatsink, then heated it all up with a hair-dryer before tightening it up again one last time, and installed it into my PC. These are the temps I am getting now (22C ambient) with an underclock to 900mV in Adrenalin (~140W):

I unfortunately have no idea what the previous temperatures might have been stock, as this card is second-hand and came to me defective, but I'm pretty happy with how it's working with the 900mV underclock. Fanspeeds underclocked hover at ~37%, and gpu temps vs hotspot delta is never more than 5C-6C. On default power and clocks the GPU tops out at 200W power, and GPU and hotspot delta is more like 10C. Fanspeed at default clocks has to go to 48% to keep it cool though, making it a lot noisier, and to met the performance difference isn't really worth the extra noise and power.

I bought the Honeywell PTM-7950 off a seller on Aliexpress so hopefully it is actually legit, lol, but it seems to be working well so far.

 

[dgianstefani]

Time to test out Conductonaut Extreme, apparently 18-30% better than original Conductonaut. New pads too.

Very tempted to delid my X3D.

View attachment 298819
View attachment 298820

I'll post before/after results.

Currently have Kryonaut Extreme and 15 w/mK pads on GPU and conductonaut on CPU.

What's your latest tech purchase?

Thanks & thanks for the tip will check it out :) I'm definitely going to get a new display sooner than later, been looking at 4K / 144Hz. The HP Omen 27qs 240 Hz / 2K panel also caught my eye if nothing fits the bill with Plan A. Waiting to see how the Omen 27k does with reviews when it comes...

www.techpowerup.com

59°C to 47°C on GPU, 79°C to 77°C on CPU.

Details in that post.