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Best Thermal Compound

Antony101

Antony101

Antony101

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Joined
4 Jul 2011
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Sorry if this gets asked a lot, I tried to search but didn't have much luck.

What is the go to thermal compound these days? It's been a while since I've had to use any and have just got a new motherboard so need to move my CPU over.
 
Unless you go extreme with liquid metal (which you shouldn't really do between IHS and cooler anyway) pretty much everything is within 1-2 degrees of each other.

Personally I use MX-4 if I don't have somthing that already comes with a cooler/waterblock.
 
Tom's Hardware's monster 85 product round-up from last year:
https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/thermal-paste-comparison,review-33969.html

But pretty much every summary I can find says "it's not what you use, but how you use it" i.e. how you apply it, quantity, etc.

But even then I don't deviate from the "pea size blob" (mainstream CPU) or "8-way star lines" (GPU) and just let the pressure of mounting the cooler spread it out.
 
LePhuronn said:
Tom's Hardware's monster 85 product round-up from last year:
https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/thermal-paste-comparison,review-33969.html

But pretty much every summary I can find says "it's not what you use, but how you use it" i.e. how you apply it, quantity, etc.

But even then I don't deviate from the "pea size blob" (mainstream CPU) or "8-way star lines" (GPU) and just let the pressure of mounting the cooler spread it out.
Click to expand...
How much of your life do you want to have not thermal pasted?
 
Thermal grizzly kryonaut, running on both CPU and GPU. Slightly better than AS5 for me but only by 1-2c. It's more about the application as already mentioned once your buying something decent unless your into high end overclocking. Arctic silver 5 is good value, very easy to apply and gives good results.
 
MX-4 here, get it in big 25g tubes because I go through a lot of it. I like it because it doesn't dry up, and seems to work just fine. I didn't see any difference between MX-4 and Cryonaught.
 
The general consensus from those in the know (i.e. 8Pack) seems to be that Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut is the best. Which seems to be backed up by this recent review here.

https://www.gamingscan.com/best-thermal-paste/

I bought some when my MX-4 finally ran out and while my idle temps seemed slightly higher my load temps were marginally lower. I wish I had done more tests prior to debunk/confirm my notions.

My advice would be that unless a degree or two is going to be critical then get the cheapest of the MX-4/Noctua NT-H1 (which I also used)
 
LePhuronn said:
Mainly because if you're not careful you'll squirt it out of the sides and all over your motherboard. Also liquid metal will react with the copper in your block (and utterly destroy aluminium coolers).
Click to expand...

If you know about aluminium then that won't be an issue. What if you're copper is nickel plated? And I've seen evidence copper polish will get heat sinks looking like new. I've done an experimental application to an old monoblock heatsink and there is is zero spill when pressure against it is applied (I used a transparent acrylic cutting).

warning_metal.jpg
 
Gallium and Nickel won't react, so a Nickel-plated block would be fine with liquid metal TIM. Found this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-compatibility-with-copper-heat-sinks.800890/

tl;dr: an electrochemical reaction will occur which results in the gallium plating the copper, essentially "drying out" (layman) the TIM and tarnishing the heatsink. There is no discernible electrochemical reaction between gallium and nickel.


If you've not had any spillage when using liquid metal on top your IHS then you did it correctly! You didn't use too much of the stuff.
 
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