How important is Thermal Paste?

[Deleted member 209350]

I know its a necessity to put on a chip, but im wondering if the brand is important? Is a £1 thermal paste going to essentially perform the same as a £20 thermal paste?

I've bought a cpu cooler to go with my 2600, and I plan on overclocking it and I'm trying to keep cost down as much as possible, so im wondering if there's a big enough difference between different thermal pastes, o a cheap one from ebay works just as well

 

[bremen1874]

Is a £1 thermal paste going to essentially perform the same as a £20 thermal paste?

No, but you'll have diminishing gains as you spend more

The quick Google will find you plenty of comparative reviews that you may find useful.

 

[Deleted member 209350]

No, but you'll have diminishing gains as you spend more

The quick Google will find you plenty of comparative reviews that you may find useful.

Damn okay.

Was hoping someone was gonna tell me they're essentially the same so i can save as much money as possible

 

[Armageus]

It will make very little difference unless you are pushing everything to the absolute limit.

Correct application (e.g. technique and amount), and cpu cooler design make a much bigger difference.

Some reasonable testing here (including a comparison with shows that even toothpaste doesn't make a terrible thermal interface material):
https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/thermal-paste-comparison,review-33969-10.html

If you are using the stock AMD supplied cooler then it will have pre-applied paste, and wouldn't even be worth changing for anything slightly better.

If your cooler doesn't have any pre-applied paste though, I would look at something like MX-4 as a minimum:
My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Arctic MX-4 Thermal Compound (2g)= £4.49

Total: £7.23 (includes shipping: £2.74)
​

Whilst it's not the "best" thermal paste, it's reasonably priced, seems to last without degradation (both applied or stored) for a long period of time, and easy to apply.

 

[Deleted member 209350]

It will make very little difference unless you are pushing everything to the absolute limit.

Correct application (e.g. technique and amount), and cpu cooler design make a much bigger difference.

Some reasonable testing here (including a comparison with shows that even toothpaste doesn't make a terrible thermal interface material):
https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/thermal-paste-comparison,review-33969-10.html

If you are using the stock AMD supplied cooler then it will have pre-applied paste, and wouldn't even be worth changing for anything slightly better.

If your cooler doesn't have any pre-applied paste though, I would look at something like MX-4 as a minimum:
My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Arctic MX-4 Thermal Compound (2g)= £4.49

Total: £7.23 (includes shipping: £2.74)
​

Whilst it's not the "best" thermal paste, it's reasonably priced, seems to last without degradation (both applied or stored) for a long period of time, and easy to apply.

I have the pre-applied paste on the stock cooler that comes with the Ryzen 5 2600, however as I plan on overclocking the processor I bought a better cpu cooler to do so:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Alpenfohn Ben Nevis Advanced Black RGB CPU Cooler - 130mm= £29.99

Total: £37.38 (includes shipping: £7.39)​

​

Unfortunately this cooler doesnt come with any paste, so im looking to bu some and I want a high price-performance ratio

 

[Armageus]

Unfortunately this cooler doesnt come with any paste, so im looking to bu some and I want a high price-performance ratio

It does actually come with a sachet of thermal paste as per the link you provided and the installation instructions:
https://www.alpenfoehn.de/images/Pr...edBlackRGB/ManualBenNevisAdvancedBlackRGB.pdf

However as above, something like MX-4 or Thermal Grisly Kryonaut would be a decent price/performance:
My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Arctic MX-4 Thermal Compound (2g)= £4.49
• 1 x Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut High Performance Thermal Paste - 1 Gramm= £4.99

Total: £12.22 (includes shipping: £2.74)​

​

 

[Rroff]

Some reasonable testing here (including a comparison with shows that even toothpaste doesn't make a terrible thermal interface material):

What I hate about many of these roundups in the name of "consistency" they often ignore the application notes and apply them all the same - while not a huge difference there can easily be a 2C difference between some of those pastes when applied in less than optimal ways compared to the ways they are designed to be used which can completely reshape the lineup even though ultimately they are so close it doesn't really make any odds.

Arctic MX-4 is as strong a contender as any and those Arctic pastes do seem to have decent lifespan - some of the newer pastes that have higher performance do not.

 

[Deleted member 209350]

It does actually come with a sachet of thermal paste as per the link you provided and the installation instructions:
https://www.alpenfoehn.de/images/Pr...edBlackRGB/ManualBenNevisAdvancedBlackRGB.pdf

However as above, something like MX-4 or Thermal Grisly Kryonaut would be a decent price/performance:
My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Arctic MX-4 Thermal Compound (2g)= £4.49
• 1 x Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut High Performance Thermal Paste - 1 Gramm= £4.99

Total: £12.22 (includes shipping: £2.74)
​

well ill be damned, I didnt notice the little packet of gel that came with it haha!

But either way, thank you for your help! Ill probably get some thermal grizzly as based on reviews it seems to be one of the best ones and I can use it in the future!

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Thermal G all the way, specially on GPUs , drops temps nicely but in theory need to crank up fan speed as heatsink is taking more heat out quicker .

stock paste is something like 2/5 wm/k worth of heat transfer , nothing specially and normally - to much has been pre-applied

 

[Big Frank]

Funny you mentioned this I watched a video comparison on YouTube about mx2 vs mx4 paste and the test found very little difference.

In most cases I can't imagine mx2 not being good enough and for like 4-5 quid a tube price shouldn't be an issue.