Sager's idea of proper thermal paste for a high end graphics card

So my temps have decided to skyrocket so I got some Thermal Grizzly paste to replace whatever Sager stuck on there.

This has to be the worst thermal paste I've ever seen...



Yeah that's not going to keep anything cool. It has the consistency of glue. I actually had to pop the heatsink off in two points to get it to release. This stuff is worse than the last paste they used... Its taking ArctiClean forever to eat through it too.

 

Wait I'm confused, that is what Sager put on your GPU or is that your Thermal Grizzly?

If it is what Sager had on your GPU, what do you think that is? dried up IC Diamond? Looks like ceramic to me rather than paste

 

That's definitely not IC Diamond. And yes that's whatever Sager used, not the Kryonaut. The CPU was fine and appears to be the application of GC Extreme I sent it in with but both GPUs... That stuff was a mess.

That paste obviously pumped out. Both GPUs looked like that.

 

Haha,that looks nasty. What kind of Temps were you getting?

 

this is why I always chose the normal thermal paste compound to save extra bucks then re-paste the better stuffs with noticeable lower price than what the companies offered.

 

DIY repaste with highend paste FTW

good choice with Thermal Grizzly btw

 

That looks like cement.

 

Definitely not good old Diamond IC7....

Looks like toothpaste for me.

definitely toothpaste.

It's insane how it's all dried up ! if you're having trouble cleaning it, use some nail polish remover (no need for acetone) it's stronger than anything I've used, but it makes me dizzy when i smell it ^^.

 

I'll pass this on and see what they say.

 

Looks like dried up, extremely old MX-4.

 

Using MX-4 here, I don't think it looks that bad...

 

87C with max fans. =/

Well what makes me mad is they stopped putting IC Diamond on RMAs even if you originally ordered it with IC Diamond.

I like it on the GPUs, dropped temps to about 82C auto fans which is good for me, but its not performing well on the CPU at all. Probably applied too much because I did the CPU first and was expecting a fight to get the paste out. Yeah that didn't happen.

That was the closest thing I could think of. MX-4 pumps out like that within about 2 weeks but it doesn't turn to this hard to remove glass like coating.

 

Clevo ships the Heatsinks with thermal paste pads pre-applied (a builder here may be able to confirm this). If you apply your own (or your builder does it for you) then they usually have to remove the pre-applied stuff first then apply their own.

This'll just be the typical crappy stuff used by most manufacturers. It's also oversized by default in order to deal with any variances in the mounting system etc. Generally it's expected to last about a year.

The more worrying thing is how baked it looks. Even the pads should not dry out like that (on the core at least, the spillover always gets a bit crusty) unless air was allowed to get trapped in there with it (effectively boiling it).

I'd be checking the mounting and heatsink to make sure it has enough pressure and that the heatsink doesn't have any dents in it which could allow that to happen.

 

You should see the heatsinks themselves. The copper has a brown burnt look to it from whatever they used. I've had nothing but problems with this machine and to add insult to injury they managed to almost completely strip two of the GPU screws so I had to replace those or risk not being able to get the screws off again without a lot of hassle later. Either way, I've had heat problems with the machine since I got it. I had successfully gotten Liquid Ultra on the CPU but then one of my 880Ms failed and I had to remove it in case they took the CPU heatsink off. I didn't want to risk them frying it and blaming me. But of course they stripped the screw on the CPU heatsink and had to replace it and the new one didn't make good enough contact with the die so bye bye 4.3GHz and liquid ultra.

 

Yeah I use MX-4 on everything and I haven't seen anything THAT bad. I'm guessing it's an extremely old, crusty tube of MX-4 or maybe even an old generic thermal paste.

 

Can you take a photo of the heatsink? They will be discoloured by normal use. Typically going a bit brown in colour, but the surface itself should still be smooth. I've also noticed the GPU side will tend to discolour more than the CPU. This may be some sort of reaction between the thermal pad and the contact material on the GPU die. Alternatively it could be due to the more concentrated or uniform heat dissipation (CPUs dissipate heat rather unevenely due to their layout, primarily half the chip is basically the GPU which does nothing).

I've attached a picture when I had my W230SS. Top is the old one (broken heatpipe), lower is the replacement from Metabox (Australian clevo reseller). The replacement has the pre-applied pads under the peel-off stickers.
Note, this is my own pasting job on the upper one which is why it looks decent. The original paste/pads spilled over everywhere creating a bit of a mess. But you can see the outline of where the copper has discoloured on the GPU heatsink (right side) on the old one.

Unfortunately I didn't take more pictures at the time.

 

When I get a chance to repaste them I will. It's literally a dark brown, it's darker than the heat pipes. Looks like a burn. I haven't seen any or my heatsinks have that issue before and this is my third set so they must have switched thermal pads or something. Both look like they have been burnt. I want to give the Kryonaut a few days to see if the performance gets better but I don't have any other thermal paste at the moment.

 

Man, I feel bad for you, its like you got a lemon or something you have had NOTHING but problems if the experience you are having was my first experience with Sager/Clevo I would never buy one again, it seems like there has constantly been problems with your laptop, some of the temps you get I have never even seen once on my laptop my gpu's stay around 77 average when gaming for hours...if I can ever help you in anyway please let me know, I really wish there was a way that they could just replace your whole laptop, It seems like you have had almost every part replaced at one point or another so its just very confusing to me....

 

Just use very fine grit sand paper and do light strokes in a very flat manner.

 

I had a check, it is the stock clevo compound but that does seem to be an abnormal condition of this so it is being raised with Clevo.

Some compounds do discolour the copper but it should not impact performance.

EDIT: RMA's should ship with the original paste that was ordered, so if you have ordered an IC diamond upgrade and not had it applied on a replacement you should contact support as this is an error.

Ethrem I will send a PM with some details.

 

Not sure if this helps but here's my CPU and GPU and their previous thermal paste (picture taken before I repasted with MX-4 just now)

CPU was pasted with some generic thermal paste cos I ran out of MX-4 while GPU was pasted with MX-4

Even then, I don't think these are as bad as what was shown here so far...

(Yes, I think I used too much paste, hence the amount of paste accumulated on the sides of the chips)

 

the amount of paste is actually fine, its obvious that the layer covering both chips was really nice and thin, so good job there

Sent from my Huawei Mate 8 NXT-AL10

 

Thanks lol, kinda thought I messed up cos' of the way the paste looked like when I pulled off the heatsinks, but then again, I realised that I was squishing the paste with the heatsinks in the first place

 

A little too much is better than a little too little after all

But that looks decent to me too.

 

Thanks! But on the flipside if you keep using too much paste, you have to go buy more paste more frequently...

 

True, I suppose it is a waste, though most people don't do it that often.

 

That's what I was saying too.

 

Hahaha true, I think most people won't know what is thermal paste for the matter

 

The look on people's faces when I say I use diamonds or liquid metal too