How do you choose a thermal paste?

robfosters

robfosters

robfosters

Caporegime
Joined
1 Dec 2010
Posts
53,766
Location
Welling, London
I need a new tube and there's so many choices. How in the world do you decide which one to get.

Do they have different properties and strengths?
 
Performance wise theres only one or two degrees between the top ones.

Make sure you have good air flow through your case and your heatsink is sitting properly and your case, fans+filters are clean even that can lower your temps a few degrees.
 
Stulid's TIM review should be re-named " Stulid Tested the Application of all OcUK's Thermal Paste Range" He put a lot of work into his testing and the spreadabiliy comparsion is very good, but he did not monitor the room temperature for a baseline reference temperature for each test we have no way of knowing how well each TIM was actually performing.
 
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For me it has to be MX-4

One of the best at cooling
Spreads easily
Lasts - does not it seems dry out (although I doubt that I've left any on for more than 2 yrs before re-doing - for one reason or another)
Non-conductive - VERY IMPORTANT to me - as I don't then have to worry about either me or it spreading somewhere it should not!
Inexpensive and , wrapped in cling film, the tube has not , to date ,dried out.

Stulid's review is excellent- mine is based on using a few and listing 'my' favourite:)
 
If you really believe his testing is excellent, I have some desert property in Devon I want to sell you. : D

He did an excellent job of showing how different TIM applies, but as his temperature measurements have no accurate reference point they are worthless. Sorry, but posting readings in his charts with two decimal points 0.00c when the baseline temperature is based on "The pastes were tested on similar days and times. I'm sure I got it as close as possible ..."
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=22702907&postcount=56
Makes them worthless at best, and posting them as meaning anything is irresponsible.

I'm surprise OcUK has not removed them.

To measure heat dissipation we need both air and CPU temperatures to the same degree of accuracy as the CPU temperature .. even better, know the air temperature going into cooler in case the fan speed changes causing the cooler intake air temperature to change.

His idea of burn in time is leaving the TIM on the shelf for a month.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=22203315&postcount=9

He totally ignored the questions about ambient temperature and when pushed replied
"Bitchy.
If you read their posts you will see they are statements/opinions and not questions for me."
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=22702852&postcount=54

Finally after more pushing he says
"The pastes were tested on similar days and times. I'm sure I got it as close as possible ..."

And that is the reference temperature all of his testing is based on. Sorry, but that does not make it an "excellent review." It only shows ignorance .. and arrogance for not correcting or removing the temperature results.
 
I found IC-Diamond gives amazing results and it's easy to handle just a bit stiff to get out the tube at first unless you warm it up under your armpit
 
If in doubt MX-4.

Personally I can make AS-5 do magic but doesn't seem everyone can quite get the same level of performance out of it.

ICD is generally fairly well regarded by a fair few people I talk to on the subject but not tried it myself.
 
I got contacted by a German company called Thermal Grizzly who claim they have a new leader in their "Kryonaut" TIM. Looks like Der8aurer helped in development and Dancop has very good things to say about this also so my interest in this went up and I agreed to test out a sample. From everything I have so far, Gelid GC Extreme and Prolimatech PK-3 are the best overall including installation, ease of use and performance but we will see how this is.
 
Liquid metal pro/ultra are the out and out best from my own experience. But they are hard to remove. As for standard pastes there doesn't seem to be much difference between them all.
 
Not the stock tim on AIO's

aHYAuwG.jpg


http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/corsair_h110i_gt_vs_nzxt_kraken_x61_review,14.html

Why is Corsair's TIM so bad?
 
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