Best Thermal Compound

Safetytrousers · 26 Sep 2018 at 17:11

LePhuronn said:
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.

If you start off with the recommended amount then you can't really go wrong. Unlike some of the videos the current formulation of Conductonaut didn't for me require any working to get moving, it is very liquid. I stood the monoblock on end overnight and none of the application dripped off.

Panos · 26 Sep 2018 at 18:07

Safetytrousers said:
If you start off with the recommended amount then you can't really go wrong. Unlike some of the videos the current formulation of Conductonaut didn't for me require any working to get moving, it is very liquid. I stood the monoblock on end overnight and none of the application dripped off.

I confirm what safetytrousers said.

Using Thermal Grizzly condactonaut for years with GPUs and delided Intel CPUs. If you follow the rules to apply it, is safe. (especially the rule NEVER PUT THE BLOB DIRECTLY TO THE SURFACE, ALWAYS ON A PLASTIC MEDIUM AND TRANSFER IT)

Hagar · 28 Sep 2018 at 23:02

I have used arctic silver for two decades at least (it seems), I have just ordered some more AS5. It has always performed well for me, is easy to apply and easy to remove and clean off.

It is likely to be within a degree or two of the best.

Chrisc · 29 Sep 2018 at 13:33

What is the general consensus regarding paste which comes with the cooler?

Hagar · 29 Sep 2018 at 14:39

Chrisc said:
What is the general consensus regarding paste which comes with the cooler?

Prolimatech, Gelid and Noctua pastes in syringes, I have tried and they have usually been good. No name pastes coming in a sachet, I would not use.

Skorpion · 29 Sep 2018 at 14:39

Another +1 to thermal grizzly kryonaut.

Ree · 29 Sep 2018 at 14:45

thermal grizzly kryonaut here also.

TaKeN · 29 Sep 2018 at 15:16

I'll never understand this obsession people have with knocking 2-3 degrees off their temps by using fancy conductive pastes, just buy some MX-4 in the massive tube and be happy?

Hotwired · 29 Sep 2018 at 15:26

TaKeN said:
I'll never understand this obsession people have with knocking 2-3 degrees off their temps by using fancy conductive pastes, just buy some MX-4 in the massive tube and be happy?

^

You need to really make an effort to get paste which is meaningfully worse than the "best" paste. A couple of degrees even if honestly reported is irrelevant to the performance of the computer.

Liquid metal is meaningfully better at temps but if it's not letting you get performance you wouldn't normally have then... big deal?

Hagar · 29 Sep 2018 at 20:24

TaKeN said:
I'll never understand this obsession people have with knocking 2-3 degrees off their temps by using fancy conductive pastes, just buy some MX-4 in the massive tube and be happy?

Hotwired said:
^

You need to really make an effort to get paste which is meaningfully worse than the "best" paste. A couple of degrees even if honestly reported is irrelevant to the performance of the computer.

Liquid metal is meaningfully better at temps but if it's not letting you get performance you wouldn't normally have then... big deal?

There is also user skill which may knock off a couple of degrees, but yes that is why I stay with what I know, Arctic silver.

Chrisc · 30 Sep 2018 at 09:41

nkata said:
Prolimatech, Gelid and Noctua pastes in syringes, I have tried and they have usually been good. No name pastes coming in a sachet, I would not use.

Cheers, I used the syringe which came with my Cryorig, it seems to be doing the job.

McGraw · 30 Sep 2018 at 19:29

I use MX4. Not tried anything else but seems ok to me

Wommers · 30 Sep 2018 at 19:51

I've use Arctic Silver 5 for 20 years, thermal paste is thermal paste!

EsaT · 1 Oct 2018 at 08:27

nkata said:
I have used arctic silver for two decades at least (it seems), I have just ordered some more AS5. It has always performed well for me, is easy to apply and easy to remove and clean off.

It is likely to be within a degree or two of the best.

With overall rather small performance difference margin, even the best paste would likely perform well below average, if badly applied.
So for use of average PC user that ease of applying/how well paste spreads should be important aspect in recommendation.

Thermal paste reviews don't often go much into viscosity/easy of applying, but Tom's hardware's comparison puts AS5 to below average:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thermal-paste-comparison,5108-13.html
MX-4 would be better recommandation in that aspect, besides not having problem risk from AS5 being slightly capacitive.

Dervious · 1 Oct 2018 at 21:01

I use MX4 (20g cost about £13 about 3 years ago).

Seems to do a good job.

Phil2008 · 2 Oct 2018 at 01:14

Im still using good old Arctic Silver 5 with the spread technique and take off any excess, so there's no chance of it dripping on stuff.

easyrider · 2 Oct 2018 at 01:19

Rroff · 2 Oct 2018 at 04:09

EsaT said:
With overall rather small performance difference margin, even the best paste would likely perform well below average, if badly applied.
So for use of average PC user that ease of applying/how well paste spreads should be important aspect in recommendation.

Thermal paste reviews don't often go much into viscosity/easy of applying, but Tom's hardware's comparison puts AS5 to below average:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thermal-paste-comparison,5108-13.html
MX-4 would be better recommandation in that aspect, besides not having problem risk from AS5 being slightly capacitive.

Viscosity and in that respect ease of application of AS5 is irrelevant (although due to people and even reviewers persisting in ignoring the application notes they've changed it to be more tolerant of different approaches) if applied as it was originally intended it is as simple as it gets.

If people want to persist in hand spreading use MX-4 (or another paste) which was actually designed for (option 3) hand spreading and will likely produce better results versus AS5 when applied in that manner. AS5 works optimally when not manually spread.

edscdk · 2 Oct 2018 at 06:11

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.

Pretty much every video I watch concluded unless you put too little or way way too much on it makes no difference.. I think even way way too much hardly made a difference (it just made a mess).

nlel1975 · 2 Oct 2018 at 06:50

I just used the TIM that came on the stock cooler with my Ryzen, it's good enough, better thermal compound may knock 1C to 2C off temps if applied correctly but I hate doing that ****. It was one of the things that put me off dropping in an ivybridge CPU into my old sandybridge system.

The thought of disassembling my CPU cooler and applying new paste, I wasn't even sure if I had any.