Which thermal paste should I buy?

Hello im planning into putting a new thermal paste for cpu and gpu?I heard positive stuff about arctic mx-4?should i buy that or you suggest some other type?Im also interested how much i need cause in mine country they sell mx-4 of 4g and of 20g?is 4g sufficient for both gpu and cpu?

 

MX-4 is the worst thermal paste for notebooks. It really isn't meant for low pressure mounts. I personally would recommend GC Extreme or IC Diamond. I don't like IC Diamond because if you aren't careful removing it, the die gets completely scratched up. It doesn't actually hurt anything and is totally cosmetic but GC Extreme works just as well and doesn't have that issue.

You also don't need much of any thermal paste, you just want enough to fill in the gaps between the heatsink and the core. A 1.5g tube is more than enough. My IC Diamond tube still isn't completely gone and I've used it for at least 7 applications.

 

4 grams is more than enough but mx-4 is not a good paste longer (only average). Choose the best; Gelid extreme or IC7. Remember that the application is just as important as a good thermal grease
http://www.gelidsolutions.com/products/index.php?lid=1&cid=3&id=42
http://innovationcooling.com/index.html

 

I repasted with Gelid Extreme.

 

Another vote here for IC Diamond or GC Extreme. IC Diamond to set and forget for the most part, it really seems to do well with long term cooling, doesn't dry out. Or GC Extreme because it doesn't scratch die, performs as well as if not better than IC Diamond, just tends to need an annual removal and replacement for best continued performance.

 

GC extreme and prolimatech PK3 are the best ones on the market right now.

 

Another vote for Gelid GC Extreme... Currently using ICD but with be getting Gelid... Had ICD given to me hence used it.. before that used MX-4 which was useless..

 

thank you for replies i found one internet store which sell gelid extreme btw is Noctua NT-H1 also good?One store near me has it in stock so i wouldnt need to buy on a internet store

 

No... Garbage. I've also tried that one. Only use Gelid extreme, Ic7 or Liquid ultra.

 

GC Extreme is definitely the better option. I hate IC stratching everything.

 

With proper removal (i.e. letting it soak in solvent for a bit before trying to wipe it off), you shouldn't have issues with scratching from IC Diamond. And even if you do, it is just cosmetic. I think the bigger reason I would recommend GC Extreme over IC Diamond, at least to a person who is new to repasting, is the ease of application. IC Diamond is just so thick; it's fine if you know what you are doing, but getting proper coverage with such a thick paste can be challenging. GC Extreme is easier to work with, so I think it is the better option for newbies.

 

Not sure about the newest paste, but the diamond ones were the rage the last time i looked, I still prefer Arctic Silver.

Below is a video on how thermal paste spread, i was laughing at the smiley method.

John.

 

It took me an hour to remove it by making sure it was dissolved completely and just soaking it up with a qtip. No scratches that way but what an annoyance.

As for spread, it shouldn't matter because you should not spread thermal paste anyway. Pea in the center of the die on the GPU, dash in the center on the CPU. Let the heatsink spread it for you or you risk introducing air bubbles

 

Thank you guys i will order gelid extreme this week already its one of more expensive thermal paste but i hope that it will be worth 12,5euros plus delivery

 

I can´t use dot on my cpu, the pressure from the joint heatsink seems to low and I end up with a thick blob in the center but no spread do the corners. I need a thin cross in which case the thickness matters. Gelid in room temp is also difficult to do a thin line with, i have to pre-heat it.

Agreed you shouldn´t spread, just saying for cross method it matters.

 

Why make it so hard. A thin line of heated thermal grease on the processor die, should work great.

 

Hour? I just soak it with alcohol for 10 minutes and it comes off relatively scratch free. But I am too impatient and haven't found it to really matter, so now it's just soak for about 60 seconds and wipe it off. If I am troubleshooting and remove and replace the heatsink frequently I will use another paste. But once I get it figured out I will repaste one more time with ICD.

 

Desktop CPUs need the X method, I was speaking about mobile chips that come with no lid.

I should have noted this was the stock Sager factory CAKE of IC Diamond they put on there that got under the black plastic around the core that took so long...

 

On my desktop 5820k I used a large/thicker line of PK-3 with my corsair H55 water cooler and I have amazing temps at 4.0ghz X6 cores.

AIDA64 Stress test temps settle around 50C.

 

To answer the title of this thread:

If you're new to pasting, grab IC Diamond or Gelid GC Extreme. Stay away from Liquid Ultra until you're absolutely certain you can re-paste and know exactly how the process works. That stuff is not a paste - it's liquid metal.

 

Arctic Silver 5 x MX-4, anyone?

 

If you are new to repasting I would also suggest skipping ICD cause due to it's high viscousity (pea or line application method is really not the best choice with ICD) - poor contact might ruin it's perfomance.
Gelid Extreme is much easier to apply, cause it is fluid and spreader can be used to apply it evenly, although it tend to dry pretty fast in my experience (less than a year).
+1 for Prolimatech PK-3

 

Pea or line application with ICD is what everyone uses - as well as what Innovation Cooling recommends. http://www.innovationcooling.com/application.html It's really not that thick either. I've never even had to warm up the tube to thin it out like some people recommend.

 

It depends on a cooling system, on laptops as a rule one could not get high heatsink pressure, so it is more like a hit and miss to me.

 

Definitely Gelid.

 

ICD7
The best...

 

No ... Liquid ultra

 

How effective is thermal paste, when the the pre-installed Intel Heat-spreader is stuck on with god knows what, If it was not for the separate cpu and gpu chips i would prefer to go bare back, some people remove them, a bit risky, Amd did this for years and had four little round pads on the corners for the heat-sink to fit on, I use to buy a metal spacer to distribute the pressure on the core, you have to be careful as the cores can be brittle and crack.

I use to do this on desktop cpu`s , I don't know how reinvent it is on notebook motherboards.

John.

 

Dude mobile CPUs are bare die. No IHS.

 

The "pea" method is the most common method but that doesn't make it the best method. It depends largely on the system. I've owned several and have tried multiple methods, and sometimes one is better than the other, other times they're pretty much the same.

ICD is great for a gamer (comparing cost for what you get). It's the easiest to use. Liquid Ultra & Gelid are great for overclockers.

How "good" a paste does depends also on how it is applied. Watch the gameplay video in my signature. This is using IC Diamond, and temperatures are pretty much the same as Liquid Ultra/Gelid GC Extreme users, and for half the cost.

 

Liquid Ultra is like liquid death

 

What about those new prototype thermal pad type material that was being beta tested on NBR a year or two ago, what happened to it.

John.

 

I think people were group buying it, not commercially available. Called Heat Spring or Indium I think. Can't quite remember. I haven't heard anything since that first thread.

 

I think Gelid GC Extreme FTW for newbies, Easy to apply & Good results

 

I repasted my and my sister's lappy with MX-4. It seems to be working fine.

 

Yeah, I tried it, the clamp force of the laptop heatsink is not enough to make it viable.

But there is really no "wrong" choice for TIM (thermal interface material). But I would highly recommend using line method if it's a rectangular die, or large enough pea on a square so that it covers the entire die. With exposed dies in laptops you're better off using a little more than not enough, because any amount not covering the die can result in localized high temps and possibly killing the chip.

If you're new to applying your own paste, then I recommend putting some one, securing your heatsink, and removing it to check for coverage. Be sure to remove all thermal paste and reapply again before reseating the heatsink. Securing a heatsink with paste that's already been spread is going to end badly.

 

Everything is better than an even poorer thermal grease . Weaker hardware = less need for cooling.

 

Also weaker cooling system.

 

HaHa... maybe so. But "all" thermal grease is generally much better than the junk pc manufacturers use

 

Oh definetly.. MX-4 was better then stock Dell thermal paste before it pumped out for me just like the Dell paste

 

I have been using MX-4 in not just my system but various others and I hadn't encountered any issues with the paste performance or it drying up very fast.

 

You would think that Dell would at least put a proper paste in AW, considering how much they cost... But sadly that's not the case...

Same here. Last time I did a repaste was 3 or so years ago. When I clean out the dust once in a while, I still get the same temps as after a fresh repaste job.

 

Dell / <Add any OEMs> pastes are worst than a toothpaste..

 

True dat. And toothpaste also makes CPU/GPU smell fresh (not to mention it protects them from caries). And when you have 'em fans blowing air over CPU/GPU into the room, the whole environment smells very minty. Noice!

 

Remember even the best thermal greaase dries out with more powerful hardware running at high temperature over time(powerful hardware = hotter hardware). Processors or graphics cards running normally at high temperature dries out the thermal grease faster than hardware that runs cooler due to low performance.
A proper overclocking of the processor or graphics card requires a better thermal grease than one of medium quality like MX-4

 

MX-4 didn't even last two weeks with my 4940MX and it went to hell in a week each time I used it on my 880s...

 

Nearly two weeks? Incredibly long time... I thought you had to shift to a new application after only one week

 

Not everyone here has low-end hardware in which MX-4 shines lol ... It's absolutely useless the minute you use it for anything other then a dual core CPU...

I'm surprised it lasted that long.. MX-4 pumped out when I used it on my 3940XM in like 3 days lol..

 

Different pastes suit different hardware.
MX-4 is evidently not suitable for high end hardware, so I wouldn't recommend it for that either.

 

just get gelid extreme - problem solved