IC-Diamond WATER cooling thread

IC DIAMOND at the GBT Overclocking championships.

Every fancied what our staff-members actually DO with our IC-Diamond thermal paste?

Well here is one..
CUE Gigabyte Overclocking (GOOC) 2010 (UK OC championships)

The scene is set (the venue at milton keynes before everyone else arrived)

4637908755_caa7a8982a_o_zps6b813d5e.jpg


Our staff member pouring in the DICE pellets.

4638508084_2db39705f6_o_zpsdbf888b5.jpg


fizzing away..

4638507256_4d9159d27f_o_zpsae22395c.jpg


the setup.

4637896349_33bbf42c5f_o_zps30a86a54.jpg


Note at this time (back in 2010) it was our staff-members first time at sub zero overclocking..But still he took second place.

4637894225_4b77340bb5_o_zps08d4929f.jpg


Obviously he used our IC-DIAMOND 24 carat on his setup:)
 
Ok thanks for that. On my cpu I tried to spread it evenly over the ihs but I ended up wiping it off and just applying a line straight down the middle. The gpus as they are small just a blob in the centre. I have to recommend ic diamond to anyone it's the only one I'll be using. :)

Indeed the compression method is the best. As ICD (or as i like to say 'the boss in the office:) said there is no need to make extra work for oneself. Simply do a bead or my personal favourite the X mark with blobs and bobs your uncle.
 
Right folks next project is that we feel that ICD has been limited to CPU's and GPU's to a lesser extent. So as a result we are in the process of setting up some motherboards to demonstrate to you how effective they are with ICD-diamond installed as opposed to the standard TIM.

Obviously we are unable to put ICD on mosfet's as they need a physical pad. However on ICH,MCH and PCH' chipsets this is fair game.

So with that in mind WE WILL DEMONSTRATE IC-diamond and how much of difference on motherboards it makes also.
Motherboards we are planning in test

DFI LANPARTY P45 T3RS UT
DFI LANPARTY P55 MINI ITX (old 1156 motherboard)
DFI LANAPRTY X58 TE3H8 UT
ASUS RAMPAGE 3 FORMULA 1366

MSI X79A GD65 8D
MSI X79A XPOWER 2 BIG BANG
 
Just looked at the amount of TIM on the GPU's and could not believe it what a waste.

When l do my CPU and GPU's for my custom loop and apply the TIM > CPU a small pea size blob, GPU's large pea sized blob and use a lint free cotton bud to evenly spread it and just stop short of the edge of the core's.

Then as l place the block on and just move it from side to side slightly before l evenly tighten the blocks down.

Have tried a few make's of TIM and settled with AC MX-4 as l think its the best of the three > MX-2/3/4, as it gives good temps easy to spread and clean off.

With ICD there is no need to manually spread the paste.ever:) If you do spread it you will actually introduce oxygen bubbles into the TIM layer and thus reduce performance. Small IHS AND GPU IHS pea-sized blob will do, large ihs and gpu the 'X' pattern is the best:)
 
I am running my CPU without the IHS.

I am using IC Diamond on the die itself, connected straight to the EK Supremacy WB using the EK Naked screw fittings.

CPU is so cool its amazing!

Can see a few Pics in this post:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=25368385&postcount=396

Or in my build log.

I love this stuff and recommend it at work too.

It is people like the above gentleman is what makes my job fun and interesting. I love creative solutions, now if you have a image with the ICD actually used on the chip die itself, you win yourself a tube of ic7.

Well done!

Can you please show a before and after temps with your setup using icd? If so and if you can still show a photo with icd installed ill upgrade you to a nice IC24 tube.

Once again well done

Frost Dragon
 
SOCKET 1156 CONTACT Impressions.

As promised here are some more contact impressions that we have undertaken, however this time using a different motherboard and CPU.

Below is a photo of the motherboard used and do not worry x79 owners 2011 pin CPU impressions will come soon.

DSCF7278_zps5c5ef3ad.jpg


As usual we performed two mounts per test, with the holes (inlet and outlet) parallel to the main board and then a remount with holes across.

Swiftech Apogee HD

DSCF7281_zps78db5f5f.jpg


EK-Supremecy full nickel.

DSCF7283_zps585702ca.jpg


Koolance 370.

DSCF7282_zps692de0c0.jpg


So now we have two motherboards and different CPU'S of which are having the SAME concave IHS issue.

The point of why we are doing this is that PERFORMANCE (temps) is only one part of the equation! If this was the only concern then quite simply ANYONE with a computer and google can learn how to make their own TIM. However the other half of the aforementioned equation is RELIABILITY. Better contact/pressure with your CPU promotes the latter-mentioned ergo less chance of a TIM FAIL. This rule applies on all paste and not just ICD (if that helps)

I have seen many on here using TIM where every so often they have to re-apply their compound ever so often; even without a CPU or block change. With ICD there is no need to do this as this is built not only for performance but reliability too.

Better contact and pressure promotes higher TIM reliability on ANY make of compound. However only ICD is designed from the ground-up for a high heat- high stress environment.

Anyway 2011 pin CPU tests next.
 
Last edited:
As promised 2011 pin results :0

Right as I promised here are SOME of the 2011 pin x79 contact pressure testing results.

First up.

Mayhems briefly produced a water block known as the Mayhems 'DT5NOZ'

So here it is:

I have only completed holes parallel to the board as this block has been connected to my wc system already.

DSCF7413_zps4d19a814.jpg


as one can see there is REASONABLE contact in the centre but the pressure is not all that great. With little or no contact anywhere else.

We are trying to point out that THIS information is important and DIRECTLY IMPACTS your temps!

The below realtemp results bare this out when one examines the diffierence between all the cores.

Test on a 3960x

dt5nozrealtempresults_zps4645abc4.png


So more contact/pressure lower temps across the board AND they should be of a similar temperature to each other. Obviously with contact being just in the centre and little else will produce the results shown above.

EK Supremecy full nickel, holes parallel and across the board.

DSCF7414_zpsf8bc3be2.jpg


Overall great contact but pressure is poor. Also the second remount has overall less pressure (pink indicating less pressure than the red on the left)

Lastly the Koolance 370

DSCF7416_zpsd60a0808.jpg



More contact overall on the right, however a great deal less pressure than the EK block.

Bare in mind that the same back plate has been employed throughout all tests as x79 mounting system is the same on any water block.

So what have we learned on the 2011 pin tests? Great contact and pressure not only increases the reliability of your TIM but DIRECTLY IMPACTS CPU temps!

Hope you all find this helpful and sorry for the marketing spiel here. We are the ONLY TIM manufacturer that seeks to educate our customers and explains the information in a direct and open manner.

PS: Still have to perform the swiftech apogee HD tests.

Regards

Frost Dragon
 
Last edited:
To sum up what i suspect is this. The back plate on water blocks is a MASSIVE contributing factor on contact and pressure.

Even the slightest bow on the motherboard can force the heatsink away from the cpu ihs and thus promote poor contact.

The 2011 pin testing is the BEST way that anyone in these forums can replicate t he same results for themselves. The reason for that is that the back plate will be the same for all tests.

Reasoning part two.

If the back plate, motherboard, cpu, block ,mounting are all the same then we have the SECOND half of the equation and that would be the water block itself.

So what have we learned?

Motherboard backing plate is a MAJOR contributing factor to contact or poor contact on your cpu/ihs

Poor contact and pressure = higher cpu temps and DECREASED lifespan of your TIM.

Waterblock itself comes into play.

As we we were saying if we have the same backing plate (as we used in the 2011 pin tests) then we know that with all the differing results we know that some water blocks have better contact than others and that ANY CPU IHS is far from flat unless lapped.

We also have found out that waterblock mounting plates are not exactly doing their job properly either.

Frost Dragon
 
Last edited:
Right folks

Just asked OCUK to create a nice graphic for the giveaway.

Once this is completed we will start the aforementioned

Here i will point a link to the giveaway itself, when it is set to go.

Enjoy

Frost Dragon
 
IC-D reliability testing

We performed a reliability questionnaire some months back in the highest heat impact environment possible for a computer and that was in laptops.

Some interesting observations are made here.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ra-any-tips-before-i-start-5.html#post9527000

Well, here are some tests we can use as a baseline for comparisons. I ordered a tube of Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Compound and a tube of Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra for testing. I will replicate the same tests using identical overclock settings with the other pastes to see how they work on a fresh repaste compared to an application of IC Diamond that has already been subjected to 30 days of use, included some pretty severe overclocking.

Control System Conditions
Thermal Paste IC Diamond - applied on December 8, 2013 (30 days of overclocking) - see extreme benchmarks run on this fresh ICD paste [LINK]
Tested CPU / Clock Speed 3920XM / 4.3GHz (43x4) - Note: this is my normal everyday clock speed for this CPU, running with c-states disabled 24/7
Flex VID / XTU Add'l Turbo Voltage 5 / 19.53125mV (Flex bumped to 10 for 3DMark11 and Vantage for improved stability)
Pri Plane / XTU Core Current Limit 896 / 112.000A
ThrottleStop Settings TRL: 43, 43, 43, 43 - Flex 5; TPL: Long: 200, Short: 200, Turbo Time Limit: 0.0010s, Package Current Limit: 112

If anyone else, including [Nikos], would like to jump in and use these same settings and replicate the tests, it would be awesome to see how consistent the results are. We may see different temps, but from the results we might be able to calculate a reasonably accurate percentage of change. Even if we can't be reasonably accurate with calculations, we might be able to get an accurate pulse on which paste is the consistent winner among multiple systems running at the same or similar overclock speeds.

Be sure to run the tests before repasting, just as I am doing today. To keep it interesting, I ran some tests in both Windows 7 and Windows 8.


Another link
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...iamond-24-giveaway-reliability-survey-28.html

cheers Frost Dragon
 
Back
Top Bottom