Which paste to use

Lord Alibaski

Lord Alibaski

Lord Alibaski

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I have been having issues with temps on my 9950X3D which is being cooled by a Peerless Assassin 120SE even though it's idling at 44/47degrees. My main issue I know I didn't put the paste on correctly I did it the blob way and let the cooler do the spreading, I just haven't had the time to reseat it but I have now. Since having this on release date I have had nothing but temp issues mainly when opening video files and playing them via VLC or MPC-BE and also opening certain webpages via Chrome.

So anyway cut the long story short I have 3 tubes of paste but no idea which one would be the best.

1 - Thermal Right TF7 - This come with the Peerless and which I am using at the moment.
2 - Cool Master Mastergel Pro
3 - Artic MX-4

Which one would you use out of these 3? I had a quick look into it and it did look like the Artic MX come out on top slightly.

Thanks for any help.
 
No idea about the CM paste but the other 2 are when applied correctly as close as makes no difference really. That said I might err towards MX-6 with the 9950X3D while it won't make much odds to MX-4 at light to moderate loads it has advantages with higher wattage CPUs under heavier load conditions.

The layout of the packages on the 9950X3D makes optimal thermal paste application a little trickier than some CPUs.
 
I was just about to put an order in for some mx-6 but I had already purchased some 8 months forgot all about it, it was inside my motherboard box so might as well use that.
 
I've never noticed any difference, let alone a gain, from using X paste.
These days if a cooler bundles some with it, I just use that, I will only buy it if I don't have it, and at that point I have zero preference.
 
Lord Alibaski said:
I was just about to put an order in for some mx-6 but I had already purchased some 8 months forgot all about it, it was inside my motherboard box so might as well use that.
Click to expand...

Mx-6 is what I use with my 9950x3d, you don't need to spread it though, X on CPU and let pressure do the rest.

 
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Lord Alibaski said:
I have been having issues with temps on my 9950X3D which is being cooled by a Peerless Assassin 120SE even though it's idling at 44/47degrees. My main issue I know I didn't put the paste on correctly I did it the blob way and let the cooler do the spreading, I just haven't had the time to reseat it but I have now. Since having this on release date I have had nothing but temp issues mainly when opening video files and playing them via VLC or MPC-BE and also opening certain webpages via Chrome.

So anyway cut the long story short I have 3 tubes of paste but no idea which one would be the best.

1 - Thermal Right TF7 - This come with the Peerless and which I am using at the moment.
2 - Cool Master Mastergel Pro
3 - Artic MX-4

Which one would you use out of these 3? I had a quick look into it and it did look like the Artic MX come out on top slightly.

Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...
The difference in temps because of higher / lower WM/k rating is almost non-existent.

Difference in how good cooler to IHS seat makes way more difference.

Also, temp of air entering component coolers makes a big difference.
This means good case airflow is important.​
Every degree warmer air is entering cooler is same degree hotter that component will be (at same load and fan speed). If case isn't doing a good job flowing air thru case and components are working hard some heated air out of them mixes with cool intake air increasing air temp entering coolers. Room ambient of 21c into case can easily become 28-38c .. meaning component that would be 66c if air entering cooler was 21c will be same number of degrees hotter. A component at would be 73c if air entering cooler is 21c will be 88c when air entering cooler it is 36c.​
This is why in new builds I monitor air temp entering coolers. I use cheap indoor / outdoor digital thermometer with wired remote sensor with sensor place an inch in front of cooler intake will show you what air temp is entering cooler.​
​
 
Lord Alibaski said:
Glad you told me this I would have spread it other wise, thank you.
Click to expand...

Personally I'm very much in the camp that if you want to spread thermal paste use a thermal paste designed for it like certain Thermal Grizzly products which come with a tool for spreading. A lot of thermal pastes, despite people persisting with hand spreading, are not designed for hand spreading and will impact performance and/or longevity - though whether to a problematic extent can vary.

That said with IHS with large surface areas and/or package layouts beneath them like with the higher end AMD CPUs sometimes the best results come from hand spreading as you can run into the limitations of some pastes spread under mounting pressure - though again I say use a paste designed for it. Some pastes actually cover it in their application notes and yet people still persist with incorrect handed down methods. At the end of the day often the difference is small but still, and sometimes it isn't small - I know people who refuse to connect the dots and wonder why they are reapplying paste every couple of years for example.
 
It's not the actual temps I am worried about its the actual amount of paste I put on which I don't think was enough. The main issue I have with this cooler is the fans spinning too much when all I am doing is opening a video file or zynga poker in Chrome. This doesn't happen in Opera only Chrome. I thought it could just be a windows issue but I have tried 3 different Linux distro's and it worked OK in only 1 which was fedora KDE plasma but I couldn't keep using Linux I was having other issues with finding alternative software so had to come back to windows for now.
 
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Lord Alibaski said:
It's not the actual temps I am worried about its the actual amount of paste I put on which I don't think was enough. The main issue I have with this cooler is the fans spinning too much when all I am doing is opening a video file or zynga poker in Chrome. This doesn't happen in Opera only Chrome. I thought it could just be a windows issue but I have tried 3 different Linux distro's and it worked OK in only 1 which was fedora KDE plasma but I couldn't keep using Linux I was having other issues with finding alternative software so had to come back to windows for now.
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Probably not a TIM issue at all.
Sadly modern CPU temps spike all the time but often motherboard fan control software doesn't smoothed them out in temperature : fan rpm curves causing fan speeds pike up and down.

Not sure how your fan control software works. Some can be set to smooth fans curves so they don't spike like yours are doing. Sometimes changing curves by raising temp to rpm a little in area of curve they are now spiking. It's what I've done on my newer builds.
 
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Short spikes in temp in general usage is normal as the chips boost very aggressively. It sounds like you just need to adjust your fan curves and/or the time it takes for the fan to react to temperature changes.
 
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