Non-conductive thermal paste that lasts a decent time?

Hey, so I have a laptop that I repasted with Kryonaut, temps were great but after just 2 weeks it dried out and it's back to the 95ºC nonsense. I was wondering what's the best non-conductive thermal paste in terms of actually lasting for long.

I've read about IC Diamond and Noctua NT-H2 or NT-H1. What's better? Thanks.

 

Was in a similar boat: Kryonaut lost its mojo after a couple of months. Repasted with Phobya NanoGrease Extreme and all good 6 months later. You'll find there is reasonable consensus here regarding this being the best non-conductive thermal paste.

 

Even better than IC Diamond? It's almost 15€ more expensive

 

I have no experience with IC Diamond, but apparently even better + there is no risk of scratching. Yep, Phobya isn't cheap and delivery from Germany took like a week for me.

 

Arctic MX4 is good in my experience. Yeah the temps increase after a few months, but still acceptable. I have laptops that haven't been repasted in years

 

MX4 is just average in my experience, here is how I would rate them:


1) PHOBYA NanoGrease Extreme FTW
2) IC Diamond
3) GELID Extreme Thermal Compound
4) Arctic MX4

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut is the worst thermal paste that I've used, I'd rather use toothpaste than use that again. It deteriorates in performance quickly, I'm talking after 3 days I started seeing an increase in temps and it kept going up within a week to a point where I wouldn't trust it to cool my CPU anymore.

 

What application method do you guys use for NanoGrease? Dot in the middle? For both CPU and GPU? Thanks

 

Spread works best for NanoGrease as its thick and won't spread easily using the pea dot method or X cross

 

Any chances you can show me pictures or a video of either the process or the final result of the application? I already ordered it, and I wanna do it right since it's stupid expensive so I don't wanna waste it

 

Use this kinda tool to do a full and even layer spread:

 

Just go for PHOBYA if your that concerned about kryonaut. I must have had a god batch I assume as mine hasnt dried out, and its been over 6 months. The stuff is also literally just a rebrand of Junpus DX1.

Ive had IC diamond and nt-h1, I didnt like either.

 

Yeah MX4 is average - good enough.

Interestingly, I did try Gelid GC Extreme and it seemed to last less, that's the reason I went back to MX4.

I'm kinda tired of trying new stuff, for 2-3 degrees it's not worth my time right now

 

the reason why gelid and kyonuat doesnt last long is because of the pump out effect.. when the cpu heats up or cool down the heat sink contact of the die area expands and contract.. the more this happens the more the paste pumps out causing the deterioration of better temps.. phobya and icd diamond is thicker which makes the pump out effect less.. hope its understandable.. english is not my first language.. i have not tried liquid metal but in my understand the liquid metal sticks to the heatsink in due time..
hope this helps..
phobya and icd best for laptops..

 

Just repasted the wife's 7373 after 2 years of having kryonaut on it (I was bored), still no issues with it. No real difference in temps. I'm not a huge believer in the whole kryonaut is not good for laptops line...

 

Wife's thin Inspiron 7373 sounds unlikely to had been subjected to heavy CPU loads that we reasonably hypothesise are a major contributor to Kryonaut pump out. Heatsink geometry and pressure uniformity are further, or perhaps primary, factors too - I know these are bad in my m15, hence the very clear Kryonaut deterioration was hardly a surprise in retrospect.

 

Yes it's not something she does intense work on, but she frequently uses it on top of the covers and totally blocks off the vents, it does get hot. The single heatpipe heatsink is not likely well made (although it does have 4 points of attachment). If I kept a gaming laptop for more than a couple of months, I'm sure I would have other examples of how it's not as bad as it sounds. In the 40-50 laptops (many with tripods) I've had over the past 5 years, I've never had an issue with kryonaut. And yes some of them I did keep longer than a couple of months, lol.

 

I keep hearing good things about Phobya nanogrease extreme and the pricing looks very competitive for its specs, might try it out on my older bgabook.
I've used MX4 for a good long time, prior to LM, and it's been a solid go to for me back then.

 

But, Artix MX4 is less viscous than Kryonaut and doesn't suffer as much from pumping, I have used both for a long time(using Kryonaut since it was on the market), and after lapping my heatsink there is no pump out in a short time, but for 2-3ºC(when already at 75-78ºC under load), just grabbing Artic MX-4 for 20€ for a 20gr tube that is enough for at least 100 repastes is a far better ROI than Kryonaut.

 

Don't most thick pastes thin out a bit when warmed up? I know ICD7 does.