Adding IC Diamond TIM to your order? Read this.

My friend and myself both ordered a P151HM1 2 weeks ago. I gave XoticPC specific instructions to hold until shipping mine out because I am on vacation. However, my friend received his last week.

Anyway, he ordered the IC Diamond TIM for $40 extra. However, he later regretted it and couldn't change his decision since it was in the final stages of building.

When he finally received it, he loved the notebook. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it and I am sure XoticPC's customer service was as good to him as it was to me. However, he opened up the chassi of the laptop and added his own TIM, Arctic Silver 5. A tube of this costs $6 and can be used 5-7 times depending on how much you use.

Instantly, he had lower temps when Prime95 and Furmark testing. As soon as he swapped it out, temps were about 5 degrees lower, and this is without cure-in time. AS5 has a 200 hour cure in time, which means temps will drop even more after 200 hours of continuous use.

Anyway, I would recommend going with the stock TIM and buying your own tube of either AS5 or some other TIM which you like. I hear MX2 and MX4 are great too. And you would save a lot of money, and be able to use the compound on other laptops/desktops too.

 

I would like to hear what to other have to say as well.

 

How difficult is it to apply the thermal compound on our own? Would the warranty be still valid if we did that?

 

And some screenies of temps before and after(idle & under load). Sounds nice

 

Of course, people who... aren't quite as smart as you like having the thermal compound professionally installed.

 

It's extremely simple. Think of it as applying butter to toast, except you don't spread the butter, it will simply melt when you attach the CPU cooler and use the PC after a while (except TIM doesn't melt, it just spreads out).

Also, I don't have any pictures of this test, but I will be more than happy to try it out when I get my NP8130. I have AS5 at home and I can just go out and buy some IC Diamond.

When I went from my stock AMD cooler with stock TIM on my desktop to a Hyper 212+ and AS5, my load temps dropped from 60 degrees to 45 degrees. AS5 just works wonders. It's been one of the best TIM's for a very long time now.

 

‪How Thermal Compound Spreads‬‏ - YouTube

 

Nice video, thanks for posting it. Its interesting to see how effective each method is at spreading the compound.

 

It all depends on the application of the thermal compound more than anything. IC7 is more on the dummy proof side for installations and hence why it seems to give better results the majority of the time. A proper application of AS5 should do the same.

 

This is pretty awesome...I'll be getting a P151HM1 here in the next two weeks or so and I think I'm going to do this...Thanks!

 

That was my logic when not ordering the IC diamond. I've built a half dozen or so computers in the last 10 years for myself, family, and friends... had 1/2 a tube of some good thermal paste left and figured I too would do that. I will post before and after pics tonight.

 

Or get your own tube of IC Diamond? The $40 is basically paying a premium for the labor and increasing the profit margins of the reseller. It is not something all users are comfortable doing despite it's simplicity. Heck, I've read some posts from IC Diamond reps that offer free IC Diamond tube samples if you do a review on their product on some forums before. It could cost you nothing at all if you look around.

The only issue with AS is the slightly electrical conductivity and the possibility of getting some on the other surface mount components of the GPU despite the black plastic cover that is on there.

 

is all about the job you do with the thermal paste not the kind I try all kind of products before and I end up having worst results with good TIM but like I say is not the TIM is how you apply it

 

True. After an extensive shootout comparison between various TIM solutions I see no real difference between most high-end compounds. MX-3/MX-4/TX-4/AS-5/ICD-7/24 they all fall into a single category. You might get 1-2C advantage with ICDiamond but I'm yet to see it on a consistent basis to believe.

I'd much rather go for something that is easy to apply and clean

 

Heres my new temps after IC Diamond repaste.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...veaway-reliability-survey-27.html#post7723637

When i opened up the notebook i saw they used a little too much thermal paste, and also the cheap kind. D:

 

Wish you would test another paste with proper application
Stock paste is usually not a good reference point, it's often poorly applied.
Still, the final result is very good.

 

Here a more realistic review.