The Official Thermal Interface Material thread

[maxfly]

GD900 for me ($4 for 30g with shipping); I already have 120g

Lifetime supply for the entire forum!

 

[nomdeplume]

What is the currently preferred TIM for low to mid-range GPU?

Somehow the Arctic Silver 5 I have on hand seems like a less than evolved choice.

 

[freeagent]

AS5 is still ok, it’s just not as good as modem Tim’s.

 

[nomdeplume]

AS5 is still ok, it’s just not as good as modem Tim’s.

Is there a middle ground paste - Noctua?

 

[R-T-B]

Is there a middle ground paste - Noctua?

I feel like MX-4 is the cheap middleground paste for all purpose these days.

 

[Icon Charlie]

I feel like MX-4 is the cheap middleground paste for all purpose these days.

Still use it on my rig and it runs just fine.

 

[freeagent]

Is there a middle ground paste - Noctua?

Honestly?

The tube of NT-H1 that came with my old D14 was not as good as the AS5 I was using imo. I haven’t touched it since..

Edit:

I do have a tube of AS5 still, but I don’t actually use it anymore unless I have to

 

[P4-630]

Around Jan, 2010 I've used AS5 for the CPU of my dads rig, the E7200 is still running cool today!
Almost 13 years without re-applying, AS5 isn't the coolest anymore but it sure is still long lasting...

 

[Shrek]

For me long life is more important than 2 degrees saved.

 

[P4-630]

For me long life is more important than 2 degrees saved.

Even better if you can have both!

 

[Franz]

I've been using some gd pastes since that bad experience with kryonaut. So, gd900 was 1ºC worst than kryonaut and the concistence was the same as mx4 and when I removed the plate it seems like new and even bether than mx4. After that I tested the gd007 and till now is the best paste I've used. I dont check for the consistence but I believe it still liquid and like same when aplied.

I dont recommend the tube version, it seems like it perform poor and those syringues with 4gr are very cheap.

 

[Shrek]

Another one for GD900

 

[nomdeplume]

Honestly?

The tube of NT-H1 that came with my old D14 was not as good as the AS5 I was using imo. I haven’t touched it since..

Edit:

I do have a tube of AS5 still, but I don’t actually use it anymore unless I have to

LOL at defense followed by distancing in your edit.

Glad I didn't go buy the Noctua. Cooler Master master something or other gel is what I was trying to think of. I knew something was wrong with what I was about to do or I wouldn't have asked here.

Almost 13 years without re-applying, AS5 isn't the coolest anymore but it sure is still long lasting...

My cpu sits around 28 C at idle most of the year. I probably should've left it alone for another 5 years. Felt good to get the heatsink fins totally clean though.

Worst case I clean the AS5 off after discovering a latent fixation with OC'ing.

 

[Tomgang]

Ah yeah when I had X58 and a I7 920. Artic silver 5 ess used. Dit not reapply for 8 years. Good long lasting paste.

However temp is more important for me as I overclock. All throw not so much right now as we in Europe has a energy crisis. It's to expensive in electricity to overclock right now.

So with a i7 980x i switched to thermal grizzly kryonaut and managed to oc i7 980x to 4.75 ghx on aircooling. All throw it ran hot. But had not been possible on artic silver 5.

So after jumping to Zen 3 with 5600X and 5950X. I also switched to kryonaut extreme paste. Got my 5950X to a manual all core oc to 4.65 ghz and ran at 86 c on aircooling. Stock is 56 c all core load while single core boots is 72 C. With pbo all core load raises to 76 c. So all in all temperatures I am very pleased with for aircooling.

 

[Franz]

Europe has a energy crisis.

This was caused by the interruption of gas from Russia?

 

[Tomgang]

This was caused by the interruption of gas from Russia?

Yes partly. But it is also caused by the sanctions the west has put on russia. For not to forget climate changes. We had a dry summer with little water and wind. Causing the supply of shipping goods to be low because of rivers drying up. Ship has to be heavy so it does not run on ground. Only little water to water power plant and cooling water to cool nuclear power plant to produce electricity. It all causes a perfect storm for an energy supply crisis

 

[Icon Charlie]

I've been using some gd pastes since that bad experience with kryonaut. So, gd900 was 1ºC worst than kryonaut and the concistence was the same as mx4 and when I removed the plate it seems like new and even bether than mx4. After that I tested the gd007 and till now is the best paste I've used. I dont check for the consistence but I believe it still liquid and like same when aplied.

I dont recommend the tube version, it seems like it perform poor and those syringues with 4gr are very cheap.

I've had issues with Kryonaut as well. I've tried the company's products to test with in 2019 since they made some great claims about temperature reduction. Overall, not impress in what you get as well as their claims of performance increases. In my case they were minor enough to not warrant any changes to what I use overall.

 

[Athlonite]

Glad I didn't go buy the Noctua. Cooler Master master something or other gel is what I was trying to think of. I knew something was wrong with what I was about to do or I wouldn't have asked here.

Coolermaster Master Gel maker or pro are pretty good I switched to master gel pro from AS5 because I'm not paying 20 bucks for it

 

[mclaren85]

Is there any separate thermal "pad" topic?

 

[lexluthermiester]

Somehow the Arctic Silver 5 I have on hand seems like a less than evolved choice.

Nonsense. AS5 is still an excellent TIM for daily driver CPU's. If you have some, use it, enjoy.

 

[maxfly]

Is there any separate thermal "pad" topic?

Not yet...

Tbh there aren't enough different brands to have much of a discussion. Even if we lumped the gpu memory types in with the cpu kinds we may only have enough to count on one hand.

 

[Shrek]

Even better if you can have both!

May have to pay more than $1 a gram ($1000 a kg)

 

[Nike_486DX]

Nonsense. AS5 is still an excellent TIM for daily driver CPU's. If you have some, use it, enjoy.

i had as5 on a HD 7970 back in 2018ish, the temperatures would go up (like 5C iirc) after every 2 months or so, after every repasting it always went back to normal. But come on, who wants to repaste a card 4 times a year?? Liquid metal solved the issue for me, since nov 2021 using a repaired rx 580, i have the furmark graphs saved (alongside with ambient t), and 11 months later it plots the exact same graph, with maybe +1C increase.

 

[Space Lynx]

Is there a middle ground paste - Noctua?

I use Noctua NT-H2, haven't had any issues. It's less about the paste for me and more about supporting Noctua, who has shown me unparallled customer support over the years, including shipping me an extra fan brace all the way from Austria one time. Amazing company.

 

[Shrek]

Would be nice to have a thread on indium and carbon thermal pads along with phase changing pads.