Thermal paste... advice

tecnologika · 16 May 2011 at 13:11

I have 20 Xeon CPUs to fit to SuperMicro motherboards this week for a trading company. These are six core xeons and top spec mbs so I don't want to be messing around with cheapo thermal paste!

Any recommendations on decent thermal paste (and quite a lot of it)? Arctic MX-3 looks OK and is pretty reasonably priced on here but how many applications will I get out of a 4g tube?

Blue160 · 16 May 2011 at 17:12

MX3 is very good

I'd think you need four tubes to be sure of having enough. You'd need seven applications per tube to get away with three, and I'm not sure that's possible.

UrbanTerror · 16 May 2011 at 21:35

MX4 is very cheap if you look around. Non conductive as well, should prevent any headaches if you lose the ability to apply after cpu #17

I'd get 3 tubes of that.

panyan · 16 May 2011 at 22:39

UrbanTerror said:
MX4 is very cheap if you look around. Non conductive as well, should prevent any headaches if you lose the ability to apply after cpu #17

I'd get 3 tubes of that.

from when i was looking, i think mx4 can be bought in larger quantities (20-50g) for a lot less per gram than the retail stuff

EDIT: sorry, it was arctic silver 5 i was thinking of, can be bought in 12g tube and 50g tub

UrbanTerror · 16 May 2011 at 22:41

Cool, didnt know that

MX-4 it is then!

Randall8686 · 17 May 2011 at 09:54

Always used AS5 or MX-4 both perform equally as good in the real world TBH

philjohn · 17 May 2011 at 10:24

Randall8686 said:
Always used AS5 or MX-4 both perform equally as good in the real world TBH

indeed. But if buying now for the MX-4 as it's not conductive so you run less risk of frying components.

Jokester · 17 May 2011 at 10:31

Just use what comes with the heatsinks to be honest, it'll do a perfectly fine job.

Randall8686 · 17 May 2011 at 11:49

Jokester said:
Just use what comes with the heatsinks to be honest, it'll do a perfectly fine job.

+1 for most applications, if you are over clocking then yes the best of teh best
Philjohn you are right the advantage of non conductive is good if your not careful, Yet to kill anything with my AS5 that i have had for the last 5 years lol.

tecnologika · 17 May 2011 at 12:03

Cheers for the info guys - think I'm going to go with MX4 as it's not too pricey. It would be good to be able to buy in bulk though as I now have another 20x W3690 to fit and another 40x W3580 to remove and re-market.

I think non conductive might be a sensible route to take as any mistakes could be pretty costly.

Next think to do is work out what to do with the old W3580 CPUs... think i hear eBay calling!

MikeTimbers · 17 May 2011 at 13:46

I'll give you £25 for the lot!

tecnologika · 17 May 2011 at 13:59

£24?

MikeTimbers · 17 May 2011 at 14:03

You want me to pay you less? Done!

Admiral Huddy · 17 May 2011 at 14:10

I've noticed no difference in any brand of thermal material and that which comes with most heat-sinks, even when over clocking. Efficient cooling is only as good as the cooling mechanism, the air flow of the case and it's environment.

Merlin5 · 17 May 2011 at 14:16

You Dons are doing a great job of how not to sell any more of OcUK's thermal paste

tecnologika · 17 May 2011 at 14:27

Ha ha - only kidding Mike. Well I've bought some Akasa paste and some MX4 from OC so will try them both out.

Cheers chaps

Plec · 17 May 2011 at 14:51

Admiral Huddy said:
I've noticed no difference in any brand of thermal material and that which comes with most heat-sinks, even when over clocking. Efficient cooling is only as good as the cooling mechanism, the air flow of the case and it's environment.

Too true.

When I read that someone has had radical temperature changes when applying ‘quality’ gunk – I can’t help but feel that, this time, they’ve managed to apply the correct amount combined with a better reseating of the HS (that or remembered to remove the protective film off the base).

I'm not denying you can knock off a few degrees with quality gunk (i use mx3 myself) - just not the huge numbers that sometimes get bandied about.

Merlin5 said:
You Dons are doing a great job of how not to sell any more of OcUK's thermal paste

Heh, I’ve just talked someone out of fitting a handful of Antec Kúhler H2O 620s to their workstations. Instead, they’re now, sensibly, thinking of fitting the stock coolers.

EDIT: Infact, speak of the devil, it was tecnologika - i didn't realise it was 20 Xeons - that's quite a saving you've made

xsistor · 17 May 2011 at 15:13

MX-4 is generally an improvement over MX-3. Roughly the same performance and easier to apply, so I might go with that.

Speed · 17 May 2011 at 15:37

xsistor said:
MX-4 is generally an improvement over MX-3. Roughly the same performance and easier to apply, so I might go with that.

+1. Although the improvement is only slight.

It is what I would go with, I've almost gone through a tube of MX-3 and while it is good stuff it has separated a bit.

MikeTimbers · 17 May 2011 at 16:44

If they're Retail Xeons, I really would just stick with the retail heatsinks and pre-applied paste. Partly for CYA, and it depends on your organisation as to whether that matters but unless someone has specifically asked you to make these systems "better" if you step outside of the Intel standards and then there is a problem, you'll be in the firing line.