• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

What are the worst TIMs?

Toothless said:
What would you say is good for 200w+?
Click to expand...

freeagent said:
I like SYY-157. It is cheap and it is good. Old reviews say it is thick, now it is perfect. Thermalright TFX is pretty good too. But its pretty thick. I have some TF8 on my GTX 580 Matrix Platinum.. seems ok but hasn't been running for a bit so.. doesn't count I reckon. I have SYY-157 on my GTX 980 Classified. Ran great for a year and a bit before I swapped it out for my old 3070Ti. Both of my Ti cards still have stock paste and pads.
Click to expand...
Another vote here for SYY-157. My 13900k is going on a year without any change in temp behavior. Regular use to 253w and it sees 300w every now and again. :laugh:

 
While I don't think it's the absolute worst (there are some very, very inadequate thermal compounds out there), from a common perspective, silicone-based "white paste" should be considered the performance baseline. These are many times worse at heat transfer compared to midrange thermal compounds, with thermal conductivity as low as 0.4 W/mK. For comparison, the venerable Arctic MX-4 has a thermal conductivity rating of 8.5 W/mK, and it has been greatly outperformed by state of the art compounds which exceed 12.5 W/mK and newer solutions like carbon and graphene pads. In terms of sheer performance, nothing will beat gallium-indium liquid metal compounds like Conductonaut, but as you know those are both electrically conductive and highly corrosive, so they should be used with utmost caution.

I like Gelid's GC-Extreme. Tends to be affordable and behaves well with high-TDP scenarios, but it has been made obsolete by better compounds like the Prolimatech PK-3 and Thermal Grizzly's Kryonaut Extreme (expensive!). Need to check out the SYY-157 though, I don't think I ever saw that one before. Thanks for the heads up, guys.

noatmo said:
Tim cook.
Click to expand...

Tim Epic is best Tim. Sorry not sorry, Tim Apple!

hat said:
Worst I've ever seen is IC Diamond 7. There was much drama over that here at TPU...
Click to expand...

Best forum fight I have ever had the pleasure to read. Shame I wasn't there to witness it!
 
To TPCEA watch the YT video in the link below carefully, you might learn a thing or two about what is TIM all about and how time consuming and hard it is to do proper testing.
If you are to produce a list simular to TH's list, make sure you do your testing right to have some credibility. Otherwise you'll just end up on the pile of testers with good intentions but spreading misinformation due to lack of consistency of test reproduction and controlling variables.


And just for the record, the differences they have in cooling efficiency for everyday computing are marginal (personally I'm using Arctic MX-4 for years to my satisfaction).
Proper application of TIM and the mating surfaces is just as much or even more important than the thermal condictivity, that is something that is often omitted in these discussions.
If you're an overclocker and want to squeeze every bit of performance out of your hardware to reach a new (personnal) record, it is logical to go for the extremes, for the rest in my opinion it does not matter so much.

Still I'm curious of new technologies and will try one of these graphene pads in the near future ;).
 
Dr. Dro said:
Tim Epic is best Tim. Sorry not sorry, Tim Apple!
Click to expand...
licensed-imagez.jpg
 
The worst TIM is the one that comes with no name budget air coolers. NTH2 is currently the one I like to use from Noctua.
 
Dr. Dro said:
Need to check out the SYY-157 though
Click to expand...
I preach about this stuff like I do Thermalright coolers lol.. someone needs to pay me :D
 
Dr. Dro said:
Need to check out the SYY-157 though, I don't think I ever saw that one before. Thanks for the heads up, guys.
Click to expand...
According to @freeagent , it's not as good as TR TF-7.


Dr. Dro said:
While I don't think it's the absolute worst (there are some very, very inadequate thermal compounds out there), from a common perspective, silicone-based "white paste" should be considered the performance baseline.
Click to expand...
Thank you. Does any particular one come to mind?
Noci said:
To TPCEA watch the YT video in the link below carefully, you might learn a thing or two about what is TIM all about and how time consuming and hard it is to do proper testing.
Click to expand...
Thanks! I've watched some of his videos before and I'm impressed. Looks like I'll need a poor man's version, though, because that hc unit he's got is really expensive iirc. I've drooled over cheaper ones...
 

Attachments

  • super lube.jpg
    super lube.jpg
    30.6 KB · Views: 47
Last edited:
If the gap is small, the thermal conductivity does not matter too much.

For a power of 100W from a 3cm x 3cm chip and with a gap of 0.05 mm, then even if the thermal conductivity is just 2 W/m K the temperature drop is just 3°C
temp drop.jpeg

However this does not include surface effects which may be important for TIMs of the future.
 
Last edited:
TPCEA said:
Thanks! I've watched some of his videos before and I'm impressed. Looks like I'll need a poor man's version, though, because that hc unit he's got is really expensive iirc. I've drooled over cheaper ones.
Click to expand...
You're welcome.
I think that timer he uses is quite affordable, but the chiller and measurement devices on the other hand....o_O $$$$$


Poor man's version doesn't have to be bad, it's just less accurate in terms of exact measurements. It is good for comparison of how the products relate to each other and that is actually what the mass is interested in. Just based on an everyday computing scenario.

The technical peeps here are a different kind of audience.
Just make sure you know what happens and why (physics) than organize your testing accordingly with eliminating/controlling as much variables as possible. In fact the only variable should be the TIM.

Also don't forget that the TIM is just a thermal barrier in the whole cooling system and the impact (if properly applied and of sufficient quality) is marginal. It is not a miracle solution despite some over enthusiasts opinions I see popping up here and there. Keep the added value to premium TIM on what it is, no need to be euphoric about the best performing one. The ease of using/applying it, life expectancy and price are also aspects that can make or break a product. Besides the thermal conductivity the electrical conductivity is also an aspect to consider. Electrical conductive TIM'S may be amongst the best, but are surely not the be recommended to the regular user.

If you manage to pull that of, kudos.
If you screw up, prepare to be roasted online with the according reputation damage.

Best of luck with it.
 
Last edited:
TPCEA said:
Thank you. Does any particular one come to mind?

Thanks! I've watched some of his videos before and I'm impressed. Looks like I'll need a poor man's version, though, because that hc unit he's got is really expensive iirc. I've drooled over cheaper ones...
Click to expand...

Generic white silicone paste that you get from electronics shops, such as this one:

implastec.jpg
 
Last edited:
Noci said:
You're welcome.
I think that timer he uses is quite affordable, but the chiller and measurement devices on the other hand....o_O $$$$$


Poor man's version doesn't have to be bad, it's just less accurate in terms of exact measurements. It is good for comparison of how the products relate to each other and that is actually what the mass is interested in. Just based on an everyday computing scenario.

The technical peeps here are a different kind of audience.
Just make sure you know what happens and why (physics) than organize your testing accordingly with eliminating/controlling as much variables as possible. In fact the only variable should be the TIM.

Also don't forget that the TIM is just a thermal barrier in the whole cooling system and the impact (if properly applied and of sufficient quality) is marginal. It is not a miracle solution despite some over enthusiasts opinions I see popping up here and there. Keep the added value to premium TIM on what it is, no need to be euphoric about the best performing one. The ease of using/applying it, life expectancy and price are also aspects that can make or break a product. Besides the thermal conductivity the electrical conductivity is also an aspect to consider. Electrical conductive TIM'S may be amongst the best, but are surely not the be recommended to the regular user.

If you manage to pull that of, kudos.
If you screw up, prepare to be roasted online with the according reputation damage.

Best of luck with it.
Click to expand...
Hmmm... I'm no physics expert. I'll do my best. Any suggestions on an inexpensive system are welcome, keeping in mind that I have no skill in circuitry design. My audience is the average person building a PC, not the technically advanced, and I will leave it at that.
 
If you're looking for "the worst", consider some common grease that was never intended as a TIM (yet is stable enough at high temperatures). Lithium grease would be one such example.

Also, the "Nothing" TIM, at least if you can ensure very good physical contact between the two surfaces.
 
I'm aware toothpaste didn't score too highly.
 
Wirko said:
If you're looking for "the worst", consider some common grease that was never intended as a TIM (yet is stable enough at high temperatures). Lithium grease would be one such example.

Also, the "Nothing" TIM, at least if you can ensure very good physical contact between the two surfaces.
Click to expand...

When I suggested that, I was told it was 'Borderline nonsense'

www.techpowerup.com

What are the worst TIMs?

Other than what is at the bottom of the comparison list on TH, what other thermal pastes are the worst, including those from the past? By worst, I mean greater than 5 degrees worse than the best. I know, I know, that is probably a lot. I guess I should've made this statement: I'm actually a...
www.techpowerup.com www.techpowerup.com

www.techpowerup.com

What are the worst TIMs?

Other than what is at the bottom of the comparison list on TH, what other thermal pastes are the worst, including those from the past? By worst, I mean greater than 5 degrees worse than the best. I know, I know, that is probably a lot. I guess I should've made this statement: I'm actually a...
www.techpowerup.com www.techpowerup.com
 
I've seen mayo and Nutella used as TIM in tests before as well. Neither with the great degree of success though.
 
The absolute worst TIM I've ever used was some crap made by Titan way back in the day called Nano Blue it was watery and runny AF and if you tried to use it a couple on month later it was a solid in the syringe with some watery shit that would squirt out and then nothing it was so bad it worse than any crap Corning Silicone grease (You know the shit I'm talking about that little packet of white goop) they used to give away with HSF's of the day
25tcompound.jpg


They did make a silver TIM (before Arctic Silver 5 was a thing) also which was quite good for the time it was easy to spread did a reasonably good job of keeping thermals under control and lasted well when stored. But yeah Nano Blue was thee worst crap I've ever had the misfortune to have used even lipstick would have been better
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top