Thermal compound self life ??

cbr

cbr

cbr

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ok folks I am doing a new build tomorrow i hope,
Few things. . . have a few different makes here and dont know what one would be best to use.

Whats the shelf life of thermal compound (opened & not opened) or are all the makes different ?

I have . . .

MX-2, but its been opened and sitting a few years, used it before was'nt keen on it, it seemed really thick and that was when it was new.

Thermalright chill factor, not been opened/used but its been sitting a few years.

Gelid GC2, not been used but yes, its been sitting around a few years,

Would one of these be ok to use or Should i just bin the lot and buy a new one?


Be fitting a Raijintek Ereboss Core
From what i'v read,, i dont want to fit it twice lol
That is if it even fits :eek:

And if this is'nt long enough...
for years i had always spread compound on, seemed to work!
But now it seems i'v been doing it wrong, and most people seem to go with the rice/pea thing,
From what i'v seen it dont spread out too well unless too much is used,
But then does this just not make a thicker layer of compound.

Anyway Sorry for the long post,
I hope some of you have read this far.

Would appreciate any advice ;)
 
Ive always liked the chill factor stuff, not familiair with the other two. Regarding shelf life, if the tubes have been stored at room temp they should be grand. Squeze a little out to make sure the consistency is good. A while back i used some 4-5 year old as ceramique for the build in sig. Temps were pretty much the same as the MX4 i replaced it with a bit later.

As for application, a rice grain sized blob in the middle of the heatsink is plenty. The pressure of the cooler will spread it out fine.
 
setter said:
Ive always liked the chill factor stuff, not familiair with the other two. Regarding shelf life, if the tubes have been stored at room temp they should be grand. Squeze a little out to make sure the consistency is good. A while back i used some 4-5 year old as ceramique for the build in sig. Temps were pretty much the same as the MX4 i replaced it with a bit later.

As for application, a rice grain sized blob in the middle of the heatsink is plenty. The pressure of the cooler will spread it out fine.
Click to expand...

What Setter says but I'd up the blob to the size of a pea. Not a massive marrowfat pea, just a nice little garden pea :)
 
ok thanks for the info

while doing this build,
I am thinking should i also change the compound on my now years old R6870,
 
Iv always used arctic silver 5.

Iv always had a few spare tubes with literally just enough for a cpu heatsink in them in the draw, some of which have been there for years, they have gotten a little runnier, but they work just the same.

I remember reading a tip years back, store your thermal paste in the fridge upright, iv done that with my latest tube of AS5 which is half full, its about a year old stored in the fridge, used it the other week it looked brand new and thick.

So I guess that works. but aye, it does get runnier over time iv noticed but different pastes do different stuff ofc.

But from now on, any new stuff, I will keep in the fridge and stood upright not laid on its side :)

upright being with the hole where the paste comes out facing downwards, so any runny liquid that might form will rise to the top and hopefully not come out, just like if you don't shake a tomatoe ketchup bottle before use and you get that, watery ketchup pre stuff if you know what I mean.
 
bainbridge said:
What Setter says but I'd up the blob to the size of a pea. Not a massive marrowfat pea, just a nice little garden pea :)
Click to expand...

Far too much IMO! That's a lot.

I'd rather rub on a tiny bit with a food bag than use loads.

It's only supposed to fill microscopic air holes, not form a thick layer.
 
There's only a few things worse than putting in all that effort to build the perfect bacon sandwich, only for it to be ruined by ketchup pre-ejaculation.

I agree with setter, the thermal paste works better as a thin layer.
 
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@ Mcgraw

See thats the way I have always thought about it, and still do !!

But everyone seems to let the heatsink spread it.
I just dont think Any heatsink pressure is never going to spread it thin enough, therfore leaving too much (too thick) layer of compound.

But im always willing to learn
 
cbr said:
@ Mcgraw

See thats the way I have always thought about it, and still do !!

But everyone seems to let the heatsink spread it.
I just dont think Any heatsink pressure is never going to spread it thin enough, therfore leaving too much (too thick) layer of compound.

But im always willing to learn
Click to expand...


The pressure of the heatsink does spread the tim, then a few on off cycles will settle it down to its optimum thickness. The pea sized blob assists this, but a thin smear isn't enough, and IMO neither is a grain of rice.

Granted the pea sized blob leaves a bit of surplus at the edges of the mating surfaces once properly bedded in, but this is well away from the cores.
 
cbr said:
@ Mcgraw

See thats the way I have always thought about it, and still do !!

But everyone seems to let the heatsink spread it.
I just dont think Any heatsink pressure is never going to spread it thin enough, therfore leaving too much (too thick) layer of compound.

But im always willing to learn
Click to expand...

It'll depend on the compound but most current ones are designed for the heatsink to spread so it naturally fills the geometry, hand spreading will usually produce less optimal results albeit to the order of 1-2C worst case unless you do an epically bad job. (Arctic silver, ICD and probably others have fairly detailed information on how to (and how not to) apply their pastes).
 
Liquid metal is a pretty fun paste to apply, just need the tiniest drop then brush it out to the edges. Overdo it with this stuff and things could get very expensive. But the results compared to normal pastes are worth it.
 
Hi Setter
Just noticed, your at my side of the pond.
I bet Armoy has it's share of snow tonight..

Well thanks to everyone for all the input.

any of you think I should renew the Conpound on my GFx card cooler while im at it.
its a few years old now, ATI 6870
Or just leave it alone
 
For the record I use the amount recommended on the arctic silver site (but I use mx4).

I don't rub on thin layers but I would rather do that thank use a pea sized blob.

The same amount as intel put on the stock cooler seems right to me too.
 
cbr said:
Hi Setter
Just noticed, your at my side of the pond.
I bet Armoy has it's share of snow tonight..

Well thanks to everyone for all the input.

any of you think I should renew the Conpound on my GFx card cooler while im at it.
its a few years old now, ATI 6870
Or just leave it alone
Click to expand...
Yep, we had a fair dusting of snow. Not as bad as I thought it would be thankfully.:)

Regarding your gpu, what sort of temps are you getting at present, idle and load?
 
GPU temps

Idle=42
Load= 84

Maybe these temps are ok.

Reason I thought of doing it was, last 6 moths or so i can hear the fan spinning up more than i used to.
Maybe my amb temps are higher now and thats whats doing it !!
 
Im using a syringe that I bought 20 years ago from maplin. Yep and it still works. Thermal paste will last forever it may separate just mix it up.
 
Just cleaning my PC now and re-doing my CPU cooler. I always put pea size AS5 on before but in a recent Custom PC they did a build and showed a photo of putting a cross of thermal paste on the CPU. Think I'll still stick to my pea size method though.
 
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