The official thermal paste thread

[abactuon]

Thermal Paste Round-up: 85 Products Tested​

Thermal Paste Round-up: 85 Products Tested

This much-needed update to our thermal paste round-up now includes 85 contenders. It's one of the most comprehensive comparisons available, so we hope you find it useful!

www.tomshardware.com

 

[P4-630]

Thermal Paste Round-up: 85 Products Tested​

Thermal Paste Round-up: 85 Products Tested

This much-needed update to our thermal paste round-up now includes 85 contenders. It's one of the most comprehensive comparisons available, so we hope you find it useful!

www.tomshardware.com

Thats from 2017, however it still has some value and they tested 85 products.

This roundup is from 2019:

Guru3D Thermal Paste Roundup 2019

Thermal paste is an often-overlooked part of most computer setups. You can simply use the pre-applied stuff, or the thermal paste that comes with your motherboard, and still get reasonable processor t... AIO cooling for i9 9900K@5.0 GHz 1.35V

www.guru3d.com

 

[Hyderz]

how often do you guys re apply the thermal paste say for AiO cooler?

 

[Borc]

It depends a bit on the CPU if it's a direct Die or Heatspreader CPU. From my experience with a direct Die (laptop) CPU the best traditional paste in the market with the best performance is Thermalright TFX but also the worst in application. A bit down but also really good are the likes of Noctua NT-HT2, Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut Extreme and CoolerMaster MasterGel Maker Nano. Some of them may be struggling in the long term, there are reports that the Coolermaster and Kyronaut can dry out over 80 degrees and lose performance. Laptop CPUs can reach 100 degrees, this needs to be considered.

 

[P4-630]

there are reports that the Coolermaster and Kyronaut can dry out over 80 degrees and lose performance.

Got any links to share?

 

[Borc]

Got any links to share?

Different notebooks threads like this...

Thermal paste on laptop CPU/GPUs (avoiding pumpouts)

Hello, I've recently tried using Arctic MX4 and my experience has been almost identical to Noctua NT-H1 several years ago. Within the first month or...

forum.notebookreview.com

Which Thermal Paste to buy and apply (Traditional and Liquid Metal)

This thread will serve as a guide for new comers to the forum and will possibly reduce the time reading through long never ending threads. TL.DR; This...

forum.notebookreview.com

The Kyronaut is well known for this problematic, if you use google you should find a lot of reports.

edit, or this: https://www.overclock.net/threads/kryonaut-drying-out.1723590/

 

[P4-630]

Different notebooks threads like this...

Thermal paste on laptop CPU/GPUs (avoiding pumpouts)

Hello, I've recently tried using Arctic MX4 and my experience has been almost identical to Noctua NT-H1 several years ago. Within the first month or...

forum.notebookreview.com

Which Thermal Paste to buy and apply (Traditional and Liquid Metal)

This thread will serve as a guide for new comers to the forum and will possibly reduce the time reading through long never ending threads. TL.DR; This...

forum.notebookreview.com

The Kyronaut is well known for this problematic, if you use google you should find a lot of reports.

edit, or this: https://www.overclock.net/threads/kryonaut-drying-out.1723590/

So nothing from official sources or reviewers.

I use kryonaut myself (not the extreme though), no issues.

 

[Borc]

So nothing from official sources or reviewers.

It basically is impossible to test for a typical reviewer who can test each paste some hours at best and also most thermal paste tests are based on CPUs with proper cooling, the dry out effect is not really a problem there. You have to search for user reports with real long time experience. Here is another thread for you: https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/9n6tkh

 

[P4-630]

It basically is impossible to test for a typical reviewer who can test each paste some hours at best and also most thermal paste tests are based on CPUs with proper cooling, the dry out effect is not really a problem there. You have to search for user reports with real long time experience. Here is another thread for you: https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/9n6tkh

Thermal Grizzly High Performance Cooling Solutions - Kryonaut

Hochwertige Wärmeleitlösungen für Computerchips

www.thermal-grizzly.com

 

[Borc]

Their page confirms this paste is ok up to 80 degrees without drying out process. Yes it's widely known the problematic starts over 80 degrees. On a laptop this can be problematic.

 

[P4-630]

Their page confirms this paste is ok up to 80 degrees without drying out process. Yes it's widely known the problematic starts over 80 degrees. On a laptop this can be problematic.

Usually the drying out shouldn't be an issue as long as there are no cracks in it.

 

[freeagent]

That's why I never bought a tube. I read that a couple of years ago, mainly from the laptop guys. Some of the first TF8 reviews I read were from the laptop guys and it was their words that inspired me to try it.

 

[pantherx12]

My liquid metal from AliExpress arrived.

Read the smaller print for a chuckle.

 

[StormLightningSL]

So what is the best TIM in February 2021? (not talking about liquid metal)

Why not talk about Liquid Metal if it is so effective? What don't I know? A few $$ for a lifetime (say 5 years of CPU life) of peace should be worth it, imho.

Thats from 2017, however it still has some value and they tested 85 products.

This roundup is from 2019:

Guru3D Thermal Paste Roundup 2019

Thermal paste is an often-overlooked part of most computer setups. You can simply use the pre-applied stuff, or the thermal paste that comes with your motherboard, and still get reasonable processor t... AIO cooling for i9 9900K@5.0 GHz 1.35V

www.guru3d.com

Again I see that the Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut tops the list with a big margin of almost 5-6* C. If it's so good, why go for something less effective? I checked the price on my local Amazon, and it's like $15 for a 1 gram syringe. Doesn't sound fatal to me. Could probably use it in my CPU and GPU both and have enough left over for emergencies.

I'm sure there must be a reason for not using such a product exclusively, so if someone can help me out here, I'd appreciate the information!

 

[dgianstefani]

The other thing is the smallest Conductonaut syringe is typically enough for approximately five applications. So that $15 is more like $3 per application. Peanuts in a budget for your average $1-2k PC, and probably one of the cheapest ways to shave 5°C off a cooling system with enough dissipation capacity to actually get rid of that heat. That's another point, unless you actually have the radiator/heatsink capacity and efficient means of getting the heat to that, before getting it out of the case, LM/Conductonaut only removes the Chip/coldplate bottleneck. This is probably one of the reasons some people have 10°C+ improvements, and others only see changes within margin of error.

One of the most common mistakes people make is using way too much LM on application. You should have as little as possible while maintaining full coverage applied to both the chip and the coldplate. You want a chip sized coating on the coldplate in the right spot, and a full coverage coating on the chip.

You can't simply use the typical thermal paste application method, putting a dab on in the middle or an X or whatever. You have to apply it thinly and evenly across both surfaces to get ideal results.

It's tricky to achieve this, as it has a very high surface tension and tends to ball up, refusing to spread, especially on a recently cleaned surface, it doesn't behave like a typical liquid or paste.

The way i've had most success after tens of applications, is to use the syringe with the needle tip included in the kit, put a small ball on each surface, then use the included bud stick things to spread, before using the syringe again, in suction to remove any excess puddles of the stuff. This results in a very thin layer applied evenly.

 

[lolokaa]

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut has very satisfactory testing results from a variety of independent sources.

 

[freeagent]

So.. I took my cooler off today and when I went to apply my paste the line got thin just before the halfway mark lol. So in a pinch I went to the shop a few blocks away and picked up tube of AS5 lol.. haven’t used this stuff in a few years! Because I’m not entirely sure exactly where the hotspots are I just spread it with a spatula for the very first time lol. It’s really not that bad.. pretty good actually, only a c or two off the mark vs the TFX I was using before. But I don’t want to start throwing numbers around just yet. My kid is using the computer right now so I will play with it later. I also removed an intake fan and two exhaust for a new total of 3 in 1 out. It’s probably still moist

 

[lolokaa]

Spoiler: Thermal results - Tom's Hardware (High pressure, water cooling)

Spoiler: Thermal results - Air cooling

Robert Hallock from AMD on application method: Reddit comment by Robert
Application method comparison video

Highly informative talk on Thermal paste in general: Gamers Nexus Steve and Roman "Der8auer" - Timestamp on "bubbles" misconception, shortly followed by "curing" explained

TL;DR:
Application method 'X' pattern performs slightly better across all CPUs compared to 'dot' and others.
Bubbles are a myth -- there won't be any from proper installation.
The "curing" concept is misunderstood, and in reality is just the thermal paste slightly further properly spreading over time as heat rises.

 

[Chloe Price]

Personally I don't use liquid metal between heatspreaders and heatsinks/blocks. Only on GPU/CPU dies.

 

[delshay]

For CPU (High mounting pressure): Kingpin KPx, Kryonaut, Noctua NT-H2, Gelid GC-Extreme
For GPU (Medium mounting pressure): Conductonaut, Kingpin KPx
For Laptop (Low mounting pressure): Kingpin KPx, Thermalright TF-X

I was not aware of LM Product below, just found out. ..I'm going to check it out. ..EDIT: On order.

Silver King 1g – Thermalright

 

[nguyen]

I was not aware of LM Product below, just found out. ..I'm going to check it out. ..EDIT: On order.

Silver King 1g – Thermalright

Just make sure you have nickel plated cooler and LM will give the best thermal result out of any paste.