Official ICD7 Thread

It hurts to apply it!

 

what?!?

 

It's so gloopy that one really has to strain one's thumb to force down the plunger....obviously this task is made slightly easier by heating up ICD7 beforehand.

 

ah... i had all sorts of weird thought going through my head with the initial statement

 

Ok so do I need the shim? no right so I just place the paste on the gpu and place the heat sink on top. No spreading right?

I have to spread the paste on this step though right getting a nice even layer right?

 

If you are using ICD7 you shouldnt need the copper shim. With the ICD7, do not spread it just put a large glob on the center of the chipset and the heat sink will spread it out.

As to using a different thermal compound on the CPU, follow the directions for that compound, as they all have different methods.

 

OK, first, here are my scores:

Using "out of the box" TIM (system in my sig)

Idle:

Core 1 - 27
Core 2 - 27

Stress:

Core 1 - 60
Core 2 - 57

After ICD

Idle

Core 1 - 26
Core 2 - 26

Stress

Core 1 - 55
Core 2 - 53



I don't know if my original temps were either high or unusual, but the drops in temps certainly is comforting. I also feel, based on what I've read here, that I now have a good TIM install.

Thank you, IC Diamond and Capper5016.

 

Just how difficult is it to get to the GPU?

 

DestruyaX -

on which Gateway system?

 

ok ive been tubed ill have my results up in a little while (it takes a while to play each game and test bench) ill have em up as soon as possible.

 

Ok thank you can I still register to participate in this ICD 7 testing I think all be using this compound in my copper mod its very appealing so far Thank you Anyways I'll post my results whn I can get some ICD 7

 

The 7811FX.

 

you gonna have to take the whole thing apart, i pretty sure you have to with any FX.

 

So this is supposed to be that good? I'm tempted to try it now. The only thing keeping me back is the fact that applying as5 last time was horrendous with my laptop using nclive's method. The GPU is pretty easy to get at if Andrew is willing to take those results.

 

Question for IC Diamond -

Since I didn't need to use all of the ICD that you sent me, I'm wondering if there is anything I can do to "preserve" what remains in the tube for future use?

Thank you for the opportunity to test ICD and thanks in advance for the response.

 

Cap it.

I have samples from every batch since day 1. The oldest being 3 years, I check them every so often and no problem so far.

 

Did that. Seemed like the logical thing to do.

Thanks again.

 

Yes, you can send that to me

 

Man, now I really want to try this. Is the testing still ongoing?

EDIT: Got a tube. I want to test it but I'll have to wait until this problem with the 4670 is over. I'll try to post results on both the MSI and Acer by the end of this month.

 

Is this testing still ongoing? I was forced onto my old laptop, which me being young and naive I took off the heat sink and didn't reapply thermal compound. (yes i know i'm stupid) Temps are 60 idle hitting 83 under load. And this being an semi old laptop, its pretty much at load all the time.....
could i get a tube if testing is still ongoing?

 

ok just an update to let you know i havent forgotten about posting my result its just that life decided to hit me like a brick wall so i havent had enough time to finish my testing although i have made a bit of progress the last few days (about a little over half ways done now) hopefully ill have them done by the end of the week. the next few days show some promise though as ambient temps are said to be around the same as initial testing done with mx-2 so this should be about as good as results are gonna get

 

Thank you IC Diamond, I received it today! I plan to do the copper mod on XPS M1330 this weekend and then post the results. Thanks again!

 

These are going to seem low, but it's only because my cooling fan is a Vornado blowing across and under the laptop:

Before:

P8400 (stock, non-undervolted)

CPU Idle/Load (Before): 29C&26C / 38C&36C
After: 26C&25C / 35C&34C

During the colder months I routinely go under 20C for the CPU.

 

Is it too late to get a tube of ICD 7? I wanna use it for my copper mod

 

finally wnt round to my cousing house today and finished applying the ICD7 to both my p7805u and his MSI GT725:-

p7805u (X9100 C0 Stepping; undervolted + Cryo LX mod + overvolted Evercool NB-MA1)

Idle TZS0: 71C
Idle TZS1:72C
Idle core0: 58C
Idle core1: 61C
Load (OCCT): 93C

p7805u (after ICD7 application 2nd time round)

Idle TZS0: 67C
Idle TZS1:67C
Idle core0: 54C
Idle core1: 52C
Load (OCCT): 83C

MSI GT725 (generic/stock TIM compund from factory; p9500 no OC)

Idle TZS0: 48C
Idle TZS1: 46C
Idle core0: 39C
Idle core1: 38C
Load (OCCT): 67C

MSI GT725 (after ICD7 application)


Idle TZS0: 44C
Idle TZS1: 45C
Idle core0: 32C
Idle core1: 30C
Load (OCCT): 63C

 

I believe you have to change the CPU_0_TJMAX=100.0 value to CPU_0_TJMAX=105.0 in the hwmonitorw.ini file, this is 100 by default, but the x9100 has a tjmax of 105. Hwmonitor will give the same readings as Everest for the cpu core temperatures.

 

Good point. You are right Omexis, few just know about this and that's the reason for faulty temp. reading.

 

oh cheers for that, Omexis. + rep

 

MSI EX625 (Stock)

CPU (Idle/Load) - 39C & 35C / 58C & 56C
GPU (Idle/Load) - 45C / 75C


MSI EX625 (ICD24)

CPU (Idle/Load) - 41C & 36C / 56C & 55C
GPU (Idle/Load) - 44C / 73C


Right now, I have the temps for the Acer Aspire 6930G's GPU but I'll turn that in when I have time to apply it to the CPU as well. So far, not too shabby.

 

Posting results after getting ICD7 today

Sony VGN-c190
T5500 @ 1.66
2 gigs
removed heatsink, no reapplication of thermal coupound
CPU idle: 63c
CPU load: 86c

After ICD7
CPU idle: 30c
CPU load: 43

 

ok i finally got some time to finish my testing and here are my results. sorry it took so long...

here are my initial tests with stock and mx-2 paste

 

Sorry if this was already covered. I read the first half of this thread and didn't see it. But how much thermal compound do we need to purchase to cover a GPU, CPU and some TIM? 1.5g is ~7-$10 from your distributors and 4.8g is ~$20.

 

the 24 carat tube should accomodate your needs quite nicely.

 

I'm trying to avoid spending twice as much as needed though. I know the 24c will cover my needs but what about the 7c o.0?

 

7c tube is definitely enough to cover CPU and northbridge. Not too sure if you will have enough to cover the GPU + its RAM (4 chips IIRC) as well though.

 

Alright. I'll just have to see how it works out. I'll post back here once I get my shipment and apply it to let you guys know how far it went. It shipped out today so within the next week you'll have my results.

 

I just got my ICD7 in the mail about an hour ago and I applied it to my laptop which is a 6850FX and I'm running a stress test now as we speak. I was happy to find when I opened my computer that the GPU did not have a notorious gap between it and the heat stink.

What was weird though was that the CPU and GPU were using two different kinds of thermal compounds. Here's a picture below. The grey stuff was on my gpu and the red stuff (looks/feels like clay) was on my GPU. There is a key in the picture to give you a good idea of a scale. Also notice I have plenty of ICD7 left for later application. I'll have my idle/load before/after temps up shortly.




Wow... These are some amazing results. Here are the Load temps before and after the ICD7 application for the CPU. Ignore the GPU as I didn't include that in this test. I'll be running that seperately (You can still see that there's a 7 degree idle temp difference in it though)

BEFORE


AFTER


For My GPU load temps:
Before ICD7: 87 Celcius
After ICD7: 72 Celcius

I'm very happy for the $10 I spent on this product. It was very worth it.

 

As promised (gentleman's agreement!), I am posting my results.

First of all, a HUGE thank you to Andrew from Innovation Cooling and for the free sample of IC Diamond 24. It's an amazing product, and I definitely recommend it! But let's start from the beginning.

My wife has a Dell XPS M1330, which is known for extremely overheating 8400M video card, because of that thermal pad between the GPU and the heatsink. When I just bought it, it worked fine, but after about a year of usage, and the thermal pad losing its effectiveness, the temps were as following (all temps in degrees Celsius, taken with HWMonitor):

Code:

Component            Startup         Stress
-------------------------------------------
CPU Core 0             39                93
CPU Core 1             38                94
GPU                    62               100
HDD                    30                48

Yeh, I know, it's crazy, GPU running at 100 degrees C under load. Because of that overheating, it was impossible to use the computer for more than 30-40 minutes -- the palmrest was so hot that the palms were sweating and burning, and the touchpad felt like a hot frying pan, literally roasting fingers at every touch. Because the computer was barely 11 months old and still under 1 year warranty, I sent it to Dell and they replaced that thermal pad between the GPU and the heatsink. When the computer arrived, it was pretty good, just like when I first purchased it, with the temps like so:

Code:

Component            Startup         Stress
-------------------------------------------
CPU Core 0             38                74
CPU Core 1             38                74
GPU                    60                83
HDD                    29                34

Even though the temps now looked good, I knew that in one year, the situation will repeat, so to squeeze some more effectiveness and making the laptop cooler, I decided to undervolt the CPU, and the temps become as following (I only measured them under stress):

Code:

Component          Stress
-------------------------
CPU Core 0             55
CPU Core 1             55
GPU                    81
HDD                    38

Even though it started to look promising, I knew that with the thermal pad losing its effectiveness, the temps will start to go up in several months, so after looking for a remedy, I decided to perform a copper mod on this computer.

The "Copper Mod" thread on this forum suggested getting a copper shim 14 x 14 x 1.5 mm and Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound, as the recommended way to do the copper mod. So I posted an ad here in the NBR Marketplace, requesting to buy a piece of copper and AS5. One good fellow offered me a piece of copper, and eventually sent it to me for free (thanks again man!). He also mentioned that I can use IC Diamond instead of Arctic Silver 5, and pointed me to this thread, where I requested a tube of IC Diamond from Andrew (from Innovation Cooling), and received it in about 2 weeks. After doing some more reading, I learned that it's better to use IC Diamond on its own, without any copper piece in between (well, I realized that it's logical: the less different layers, the better). Here's how the computer looked with the heatsink removed, when it just arrived from Dell, after they put a new thermal pad:



There was a clay-like substance on the CPU, which I removed:



And here's what that thermal pad on the GPU looked like (just a piece of sponge-like material):



So, I removed that pad from the GPU, removed the clay-like stuff from the CPU, cleaned both with alcohol swabs (isopropyl 70%), making them nice and clean, and then applied IC Diamond on both the GPU and CPU. As suggested I put a large pea-sized blob of the grease and with a flat wooden stick spread that slightly to cover the area of contact to the heatsink. After that I placed the heatsink back, secured it, closed the bottom and turned on the computer right away. During the very first session, the temps were:

Code:

Component            Startup     Idle   DVD-playback   Stress   
-------------------------------------------------------------
CPU Core 0             33         33        41           50
CPU Core 1             31         25        41           50
GPU                    59         55        73           74
HDD                    31         31        39           37

I knew that IC Diamond 24 cures fast, in a matter of hours. I took temps measurement again in 2-3 days, and here's the max temps under stress:

Code:

Component          Stress
-------------------------
CPU Core 0             50
CPU Core 1             50
GPU                    73
HDD                    37

So, after the grease cured, the GPU under stress ran 1 degree cooler than when the grease was just applied, 8 degrees cooler than after undervolting, and 10 degrees cooler than when I received it from Dell with a fresh thermal pad (and the CPU under stress runs 0, 5, and 24 degrees cooler respectively). Of course, under light usage or when idling, the temps are much much better. My wife is very happy now, the computer is completely usable and runs pretty cool. So, all in all, I am very satisfied, and I highly recommend IC Diamond grease / thermal compound. Thank you everyone once again!

 

Good job! Your post is great. I have been a fan of IC7/24 four about 2.5 years now

 

Does Artic Silver 5 fill gaps good like ICD7?
(i do have some artic silver 5 at home but I am not sure how well AS5 fills gaps.)

with no thermal pad i was thinking the ICD7 may do a better job when there are larger gaps?

PS. I have a 7811FX.

and is Andrew still giving out free samples for testers?

 

For larger caps IC7 is definetly better.

 

you mean:

ICD7 is better for larger gaps versus artic silver 5.
okay thanks... I will get the ICD7

 

or ICD 24.

 

Same stuff, bigger tube.

 

Ah, I didn't know, I thought they are different. Thanks.

 

I'd like to give this product a shot and post results. HP DV9000.

 

I bought some ICD7 2 weeks ago and my cpu temp drop by 20 degrees running prime95. I have one before and afters temp graphs, but considering i bought my p-7805u on ebay and it came with a x9100, i cant really trust the guy to have applied his thermal paste properly.

 

oh man i would love to test this out and put it h2h with AS5 on my laptop and desktop as well. still hoping Andrew might have some leftover samples that he might give out

 

Testing is always relative, you can compare thermal compounds one on one which is commonly done or you can test against absolute limits for a reference point.



Notes On The Limits Of Thermal Grease Performance

The best possible performance for any thermal grease would be 100% heat transfer from the CPU to the heatsink – which is impossible. We have measured thermal performance for the best possible case – directly soldering the CPU to the heatsink. In this extreme case using a solder joint, the difference between the CPU and the heatsink was 0.5 degrees C.

Based on test results from 391 users among 11 PC Forums and IC tests, IC Diamond Thermal Compound showed 0.8 – 0.9 C difference between the CPU and heatsink – a difference of only 0.4 C compared to the solder joint.

User results showed other thermal compounds ranging from 1.1 C to 4.7 C difference less performance than IC Diamond, as shown on the performance graph, a difference due to the ingredients in the thermal compound used. Twenty years of thermal compound development have reduced the difference between using a solder joint to about 0.4 C. Further development may reduce this difference by a few tenths of a degree.



In our final market analysis before we launched ICD to market, IC tested the most competitive retail compounds and performed the solder test. These tests gave us the confidence to incorporate the giveaway's for forum testing/market introduction as we were confident ICD would transition well into real world user testing and that at best a competitor may match our performance but will never definitively outperform ICD. IC Diamond and has since been proved out so far with 400+ independent tests on 11 forums with experienced users nationally, internationally in a comprehensive sampling of hardware, software and environmental conditions.

 

Ok, well here are my temperature graphs with stock and ICD7. The old compound was rubbish as when my CPU was on full load, it used to down throttle to reduce heat. Although when i applied ICD7 i dont get this anymore .

With the old compound i got around 96°C at full load, with ICD7 i get around 76°C at full load for the duration of the short test i did. I did run an over night test and the max temps came to 85°C, which is ok by me as long as the CPU doesn't throttle down when fully loaded.

Does anyone here with an x9100 have these sort of temps when using ICD7? I may have not applied enough pressure, but i pressed it down hard enough and applied it on two occasions just to make sure it was correctly applied. Both time had very similar temperatures.

As for ICD7, i found it very easy to apply and have plenty left in the tube for another few uses.

The attachment on the left is the old compound and the one on the right is with ICD7