Stock or IC Diamond 7 Thermal Compound?

Hi, i'm new here and this is my first time buying a laptop. I am planning on buying a sager np8170 with amd 6990m and I have a question about it's cooling.
Is the stock thermal compound good enough or should I go for the $40 ic diamond 7 upgrade? I'm going to use it for gaming and I don't plan on overclocking.

PS: How do i become a NBR member? I heard you can get discounts by becoming one when buying from XoticPC. Thanks in advance.

 

You already are an MBR member. That's how you posted on the forum

PM an Xotic rep for discount details..

$40 is a lot for ICD7. I'd say go with stock, see what temps are like. If they seem good, great. If they're high, but some ICD7 for under $10 and do it yourself. It easy and there are plenty of guides.

 

Ive had stock paste, then mx4,then ICD. Well ICD forever.
I was getting good results with mx4, even oced the temps were around 85c.
With ICD I'm hovering around 81c the worst, average 75c when oced. At stock I rarely hit 70c.
I'm using a laptop cooler with fans shooting directly to the gpu/CPU (notepal u3) with a grilled laptop back cover.
The setup was the same in both cases, so I'm fairly safe to say that ICD really helps improve heat by loosing 4-5c.
As the applying method, it changes based on hardware IMHO. As an example due to the rectangular shape of the 485m core I'm forced to use a small straight line instead of a pea size blob. If I use the latter method te TP will not spread correctly leaving the core exposed without TP.
Hope it helps.

 

Thanks for the replies. I don't really want to open the laptop and mess with the stuff that's inside because i'm afraid i might ruin something, so is the icd7 really needed even without overclocking or is the stock thermal compound good enough without the worry of ruining and decreasing the performance of my cpu and gpu?

 

for the piece of mind if you're not comfortable in pasting then I suggest you shell out the 40 bucks, even if say the stock paste is good enough lower temps will always be beneficial even if you're not overclocking.

I shelled out the 40bucks thinking it might be more complicated than a desktop's cpu in repasting and was surprised when i replaced the factory ICD 7 paste 3-4 months later how easy and straightforward it was on this machine.

 

My vote goes to ICD7, the heat dissipation and lower temps do make a difference. If you're comfortable doing it yourself by all means go for it if not then it's a great upgrade if you ask me.

 

ICD...your paying a premium for the labor to do it. This way you don't have to. Manufacturers use mediocre paste and are sloppy in their application.

 

lets see....
$40=9g+ icd
9g icd=40+ repaste
40 icd orders=$1600 income but just cost $40
so ofcourse resellers recommand icd

 

ICD has been reported to have adverse effects to the applied surface,

after reading it I have never even thought of using it.

MX-4 works the same but without any negative effects.

 

I thought that was proven false, the part where i scratches the heatsink and die?

 

After reading all of the 6990m running too hot threads, I would pay the $40 for the compound. I know it stinks since its only $7 per tube but I would still do it.

 

I would do it to avoid voiding the warranty on your laptop.

 

I'd be interested in seeing where you got the information on that. I've seen it rumored on the board once before but I've never seen it proven (never seen it myself either).

Changing the thermal paste yourself won't void your warranty

 

Thanks for all the replies guys! They are all helpful on making up my mind.
I'm leaning towards the $40 upgrade and have the pros do it.
I just hope that they will do a great job on applying it so it will be worth the money. Again thanks everyone!

EDIT: WHAAAT?! there are risks on using icd7?!

 

It's really not that big of a deal. Every reseller offers it, and therefore warranty it. They wouldn't be using it if it meant they were going to have to perform warranty work because of it..

I still think you're better off trying it yourself. It'll give you a chance to learn the inner workings of your laptop, and you can make sure it's done right. I'm not doubting xotics ability to apply thermal paste, but they do probably dozens of pastes a day, mistakes happen.

But it's up to you! Good luck!

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/647270-best-thermal-compounds-use-gpu-cpu.html

Also,

These are google hits from forum searches, words from those who apply TIM themselves and have repasted so many times.

I do not use IC Diamond any more after reading those experiences on stains and scratches. (I too noticed hairline scratches on my die when I tried to repaste with MX-4. Given the MX-4 does not provide any scratches, I assume all scratches came from the ICD 7 that was applied only once before switching over to MX-4.

I now use MX-4 or PK-1, but both are similar in terms of cooling effects.

 

That's quite interesting. Thanks Ryan

 

Thanks ryan, i will go for the upgrade because i'm not comfortable opening my laptop(cause it's expensive and i'm not rich lol).
Maybe when i get a desktop I'll try different kinds of thermal compounds.

 

Yeah, with the amount of money you are shelling out for your laptop. Another $40 won't hurt. It will only do you good =)

 

As Ryan said, ICD will leave scratch marks and/or burn marks on the surface of the die. Ive expirienced this myself on a CPU and GPU and its not pretty. I also didnt see any improvement over MX-3 & MX-4 and its very expensive compared to the rest to boot so ICD is not a TIM id recommend .

 

i changed my paste several times to archive the bests temps both on gpu and cpu and the icd 7 is way better from mx-4.mx-4 cant handle high temps so good like icd 7.room temp is 22 celsious in house.now the cpu temps are even better.

 

I could just recommend the use of high quality thermal paste as it really lower your temps and you could be surprised when you see how your retailer has pasted your GPU and CPU...

ICD7 is apparently the best paste, I am only using AS5 and this one is not bad also.

 

hmm, weird results lol prolimatech pk1 gave better results for me than ICD 7

 

can u post a screenshot from a vantage run pls?only gpu and cpu test!!!

 

Hhmm, say I try changing the Thermal compound and mess something up in there, is it covered by warranty, even at a deductible?