The official thermal paste thread

[weekendgeek]

Hi all,

I have just bought an Intel Core i5 12600K and was wondering which is the best way to put thermal paste on it. Usually I use the "pea" drop technique but that is for "square" CPU. Since LGA 1700 is a rectangle I'm not quite sure how to put thermal paste on it. I have a Gigabyte AiO cooler.
Any advice?

Thanks

I did a small line down the center over where the die is located and allowed the cooler to do the spreading.

 

[Shrek]

How much paste do you use to spread it on the CPU?

The least possible such that the whole surface is covered very thinly.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Saw the following and thought it was just bizzare, but it works! I want to try this stuff out.

 

[80-watt Hamster]

Hi,

thanks for the answere.
How much paste do you use to spread it on the CPU?
In a post MSI suggested to do as you say (the important thing is to avoid air bubbles between the CPU and the cooler surfaces), but they did not show how much of thermal paste to use.

Thank again

What @weekendgeek said, or if you're feeling more hands-on, run the line down one side of the heatspreader and smear a thin layer across with the edge of a credit card.

 

[jhelton48]

I use IC Diamond Thermal Compound.

 

[micropage7]

I did a small line down the center over where the die is located and allowed the cooler to do the spreading.

View attachment 230462

i usually using small dabs method, but any method that you use just make sure you put small size of paste there and avoid over paste since it will be harder to clean up and it may affect the heat transfer

 

[mama]

Cross with dots in the pie wedges.

 

[GamingLove]

What @weekendgeek said, or if you're feeling more hands-on, run the line down one side of the heatspreader and smear a thin layer across with the edge of a credit card.

Thank for the reply. I will try to do as you say.

 

[seth1911]

Coollabotory Liquid Metal Pads = on PC, Laptop and PS4

 

[Shrek]

An interesting discovery of 3 thermal pastes from the same manufacturer
Thermally conductive compound_Foshan High Conductivity Electronic Co., Ltd. (ourgd.net)
where the better the thermal conductivity, the worse the performance

• GD900 (4.8 W/K m)
• GD900-1 (6.0 W/K m)
• GD007 (6.8 W/K m)

(1) AliExpress Thermal Paste Comparison (feat. GD900, GD900-1 & GD007) GD900 is AWESOME - Bing video

My conjecture is that the higher thermal conductivity may be being achieved at the cost of the paste being thicker which can itself result in a higher temperature drop.

GD900 is good to 392°F (200°C), while the other two are only good to 248°F (120°C)

 

[lexluthermiester]

GD900 is good to 392°F (200°C), while the other two are only good to 248°F (120°C)

I really don't think that'll ever be a problem for PCs. Just throwing it out there...

 

[freeagent]

My pc reboots at just over a 100c so looks like there might some wiggle room there.

 

[Shrek]

Maybe I should not have mentioned the top operating temperatures, as the main point was increasing thermal conductivity seemed to have led to decreasing performance.

My point being that thermal conductivity is not the only factor to take into consideration.

 

[MaddoggMiranda]

In my experience's Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut is my go to its definitely one of the best if not the best before going Liquid Metal route, Second to that i use Arctic MX-4.

 

[doyll]

What duskw4lker said.
I switched from Thermalright CFIII to Thermalright TFX a couple years ago and saw definite improvement. I warm tube (w/ hot water in summer or on radiator in winter) up before applying so it's nice and soft.
Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut is rated 12.5 W/mk
Thermalright TFX is rated 14.3 W/mk.
That's 1.8 W/mk better.

 

[freeagent]

Good to see you @doyll

 

[Franz]

And yet it seems to be up there with the very best.
(1) Best thermal paste for laptop: Arctic MX-4, Zalman ZM-STG2, Noctua NT-H1, GD900 - Bing video

I have a theory that the thick pastes (good for longevity) do not do well if they were applied too generously.

Thats gd900 is that tube?

 

[Shrek]

I prefer the tub

 

[cvaldes]

Is the stuff in a tub any better than the same stuff in a syringe?

Perhaps it's pure luck but the CPUs/GPUs I've repasted the past year don't seem to require followup repasting. A couple of small syringes seem to be adequate for my needs.

I can see how a tub of this stuff might be useful if you were running a popular PC repair shop (or the PC media site test lab) but I don't see much of a usage case for Joe Consumer.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Is the stuff in a tub any better than the same stuff in a syringe?

It's likely the exact same stuff made in the same plant on different production lines.

 

[Franz]

Kryonaut can have some mediocre batches where you have liquid sandpaper.

I wish read that earlier, I think got the sandpaper batch here

 

[oobymach]

I wish read that earlier, I think got the sandpaper batch here

Most expensive paste on the market and they released a legit crap batch and it's still circulating unfortunately. I got one too, luckily I only bought the 1g tube but yeah, lesson learned, now I use NT-H2 and Mastergel Pro V2 which are top performing non-electrically conductive pastes and also easier to use and cheaper than kryonaut and perform better.

 

[Ferrum Master]

NT-H2

One of the worst PoS paste out there. Low shelf life, abysmal pump out effect.

 

[oobymach]

One of the worst PoS paste out there. Low shelf life, abysmal pump out effect.

One mans trash, performs better than kryonaut and for less money and is easy to work with, buy what you want but for my money NT-H2 is one of the best pastes out there.

 

[Ferrum Master]

One mans trash, performs better than kryonaut and for less money and is easy to work with, buy what you want but for my money NT-H2 is one of the best pastes out there.

Stick with MX-2 or MX-4 and call it a day. Seriously NT-H2 is one of the worst pastes for long term usage.