Thermal Paste suggestions please.

Vlad Drac · 16 May 2014 at 10:10

Hi all.

Can someone please recommend a good thermal paste?
I seem to have been using Artic Silver for years and there must be something better on the market now.

wazza300 · 16 May 2014 at 10:12

ic diamond seems good,

Anonymous_0172 · 16 May 2014 at 10:20

I always see MX-4 being recommended, although I've never used it myself

MorleySA · 16 May 2014 at 10:36

wazza300 said:
ic diamond seems good,

This, i've just used IC Diamond after using MX-4 and i'm seeing lower temps!

Vlad Drac · 16 May 2014 at 22:24

So is this IC Diamond a cement or is it more of a grease?? I've had problems trying to get some heat sinks off when using thermal cements before.

Mark This Day · 16 May 2014 at 22:28

wazza300 · 16 May 2014 at 22:31

Vlad Drac said:
So is this IC Diamond a cement or is it more of a grease?? I've had problems trying to get some heat sinks off when using thermal cements before.

tbh I don't know,but I quickly read the giveaway thread on here and saw lots of folks reporting 3c drop over mx4

the daddy of paste's would be the coollaboratory liquid pro,but that's conductive and can be difficult to apply/remove

mx4 is decent ive used that aswell but id rate the ones above higher

Admetos · 16 May 2014 at 22:43

I've used IC diamond on various machines, when I replaced my MX4 paste it reduced temps but can't remember now by what. I was impressed enough that now when buying artic coolers I replaced the included MX4 with IC diamond without default.

Used it on graphics cards also, it took 3-4 degrees off the stock paste if I remember.

One thing i've noticed is IC diamond works better the hotter the heat sink gets. At idle temps I recall the MX4 being better.

OLDPHART · 16 May 2014 at 23:14

Used all the MX range MX2/3/4 > MX4 for me is the best of the 3 easy to spread and to clean off and gives good temps.

But its a conbination of a good heatsink, case airflow and thermal paste thay all play a part in your over all temps.

los · 16 May 2014 at 23:58

Theres a review on them here
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18416534
I use mx4 personally

Stuen4y · 17 May 2014 at 00:21

los said:
Theres a review on them here
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18416534
I use mx4 personally

Great review/roundup. I would also add Noctua NT-H1, Thermalright Chill Factor III, and the Tuniq pastes - TX-3 and TX-4. Anyway the difference in the temperatures are not that dramatic any more and most high end TIMs will be more than sufficient. Generally all decent coolers come with included TIM and it is more than enough. I would definitely say that Gelid GC-Extreme is THE best thermal paste for normal use and is the de facto choice given the price of all the pastes is pretty much similar.
P.S. I did catch some amazing offers for TR CFIII and bought 2 4g tubes for 7 quid. Replaced use of my Tuniq TX-3 that is very hard to spread and have seen no differences in the temperatures even though on paper the Tuniq one is superior. I guess it does not matter for CPUs that much. GPUs are a different thing and the GC-Extreme excels even more on bare dies.

Tee Hee Johnson · 17 May 2014 at 00:25

Mx-4

subaru_swift · 17 May 2014 at 00:37

I use Prolimatech PK-3 Nano Aluminium Thermal Paste ( TH-008-PL ), but I might try this mx-4 next time.

RetrogamerX · 17 May 2014 at 12:51

I always use MX-4.

Stuen4y · 17 May 2014 at 13:41

I see a lot of people are fully committed to Arctic MX-4. Why? It's not the strongest performer, it's not the cheapest, it's not the best at spreading, it's not the best at anything actually.

RetrogamerX · 17 May 2014 at 14:19

Stuen4y said:
I see a lot of people are fully committed to Arctic MX-4. Why? It's not the strongest performer, it's not the cheapest, it's not the best at spreading, it's not the best at anything actually.

Disagree. It's better then most. Also you shouldn't IMHO spread tim. One grain size in middle, then run prime for 30mins to let heat spread. I find MX-4 is one of the best. It's the best performer out of all others. At least for me.

pastymuncher · 17 May 2014 at 15:01

MX-4. It's good stuff, can be had cheaply (i paid £12.99 for a 20g syringe), and is easy to work with. Gelid Supreme GC4 is good as well.

I took part in the IC trial a couple of years ago and their Perihilion paste was worse than MX-4 in my rig while IC24 was around the same (maybe 0.3 degrees C better) performance but was awful stuff to work with. As soon as i completed my tests for the trial i went straight back to MX-4. What was left in the tubes of Perihelion and IC24 set like concrete after around 18 months.

Smoogels · 17 May 2014 at 15:13

I like MX-4 - good temperatures and never really had any problems with it.

OLDPHART · 17 May 2014 at 15:59

Stuen4y said:
I see a lot of people are fully committed to Arctic MX-4. Why? It's not the strongest performer, it's not the cheapest, it's not the best at spreading, it's not the best at anything actually.

Yes a lot of peeps use it, l wonder why?

Helios1234 · 17 May 2014 at 16:21

OLDPHART said:
Yes a lot of peeps use it, l wonder why?

Marketing, people see MX-4 and immediately think it's better than MX-3 and MX-2 just because of the higher number. In reality, the MX-3 is actually better and the MX-4 was meant to be cheaper with similar performance. Unfortunately it wasn't as good but because people know the reputation of Arctic's thermal paste and this is their latest iteration, they immediately think it's better.

Thermalright ChillFacter II/III is better and cheaper. Prolimatech's thermal paste is also very good.

I also don't rate Gelid GC-Extreme that highly and I don't understand why people are suddenly recommending it. It came out a long time ago and was very good at the time, only for the MX-3 to come out and outdo it. Given there are even better alternatives these days as above, the GC-Extreme lags behind.