Which thermal paste to get ?

Meridiusuk

Meridiusuk

Meridiusuk

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Joined
9 May 2009
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1,072
Hi all

I am building a new pc and I was woundering what is the best thermal paste out there, I uses artic silver 5 about 5 years ago and was woundering if there is anythng better.

I have herd this Arctic Cooling MX-3 Thermal Compound is better is that true

thanks on any help
 
How hard is it to appliy the mx-3 is it resaly that hard to get on have been toled to use a thin line of paste on the i5 chip to make sure it covets the4 cores.
 
herd this stuff is hard to appliy and peoples cpus burning up is this becasue there spreading it ?

the only method i would use is the pea size or the 1" line across the 4 cores would i be ok by doing that it just seems a lot of people complaining thats its a pain ?
 
now around the 5:30 min mark it looks too me (noob)that it Has'nt been spread evenly over the surface, 1 side seem's to have more.will it move or flow around once hot ? making it even over whole surface ?
 
+1 for the MX-2, excellent compound. Regarding how to spread it depends on what cpu you have. Take a look at AC website for instructions. If you have a quad core intel then its a line across the cores, then directly place the heatsink ontop of it. Once in position twiddle the heatsink a few degrees left and right once or twice to get rid of any air pockets and you will have the perfect application spread...(This from AC instructions)
 
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mx3 is proven to perform better the more you put on, dont ask me why i looked into it before doing it and i put on a pea size blob onto my i7 lapped and my temps are the same as ambient on idle and 40 degrees with 10 passes at ibt.

for more info take a look over at xtreme system forums there's a big write up on it there.

HTH
 
just got the mx-3 paste seems to be very hard is it best to use it on some paper first as i have tried this and seems to be very dry compaired to AS5 is this normal ?

how do you keep it or make it grab the cpu ? doe sthis stuff spread far as it seems to be very very thick mm
 
I find MX-3 a real PITA to use as well, but it is really good TIM imo.

What I do is put a small blob in the center of the IHS, and then with a piece of cling film over my finger I push it down and then start working it out towards the edges of the IHS with my cling filmed finger, and just keep doing this until I have covered the entire IHS.

It can be tricky, but it does start to get easier once the TIM has warmed up from the heat off your finger.
 
I use Tuniq TX-3 or AC5, depends what i have lying around, but tbh, most newer thermal compounds only have slight differences in temperature
 
I used IC7 made from diamonds for better heat transfer this time and you know what?

WOW!!!

It made no real world difference to be honest. AC5, TX-3, IC7 all seem to do the same job.

The only difference seems to be ease of use, in which case stay away from IC7 as it's pretty tough unless you warm it through.
 
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