Thermal Paste Roundup - Performance, Price, Recommendations (Update: Thermal Pads!)

I've ordered another round of thermal grizzly pads and liquid metal for round two.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I wasn't expecting you to go and ruin a perfectly good Liquid Metal application.

I was afraid a lot of folks may have had too high of hopes when it was billed as "alternative to thermal grease" and "IC Graphite Lacks the “Sticky” side of the equation and loses performance there but with it’s thick sponge like nature allows it to gap large voids along with the high 35W/m-k thermal conductivity compensates for the loss of that part of the contact resistance"

I use Kryonaut and will try Gelid Extreme and Phobya Nanogrease in the future. I was hoping performance would have proven to be better.

 

@jaybee83 @Meaker@Sager you should maybe also check out the graphite thermal pads which came out not long ago:
https://www.innovationcooling.com/products/ic-graphite-thermal-pad/
Supposedly revolutionnary, reusable and so on and so on... big fuss around it, big ads and stuff, could be *cool* to have them in the list!

 

yeah, we are already trying to figure out how they perform. atm the results are ambiguous at best, so theres some more user based research necessary...

 

Only tested and known materials with a proved benefit would be considered.

 

Given the non-sticky particularity, I would say mounting pressure is a big deal, the exact "profile" of the surfaces too. It may be the game-changer in your results.
Also, as it's an unusually solid & stiff TIM, and as some IHS and cooler contact surfaces are else a little bit concave or convex (commonly saw as an optimization for TIM spreading and heat concentration/diffusion) , it might play a role in the contact quality and results.

Where I see it would particulary shine tho, it's on laptops and other delidded chips, or even (thinking about it), in "nostalgia" hardware **, as it eliminates some potential mess-ups, AND those surfaces are usually perfectly flat and mounted on with a stiff and equal pressure.
Also, supposedly, even with a lot of motion or vibrations, it shouldn't move at all, so in laptops/handheld devices... I don't know... a GPDwin for example, it could have some good use cases, where liquid metal based TIMs (and excesses) at high temps may move if you giggle it around or if it takes a hit.

**in the compaq n610c I saw the chipset (more precisely supposedly the northbridge) is just under a pink-taped thermal pad under the keyboard, and heats up so much with a high clocked P4 that it raised the HDD (just under it) up to 64°C before emergency shutdown.
On mine, I used the loose metal shield of a dead laptop case to build a DIY heatsink, polyimide-taped the contacts and thermalgrizzlyed the chip, and polyimide-taped the heatsink on it.
Solved the issue, dropped 25°C.
A graphite pad could perform better than the original pads, and would be less messy than my DIY HS+tape
I also actually had for few months a left wrist burn scar in the shape of that northbridge, when I opened it prior to that DIY, just after a stress test.

 

Heatsinks actually have performed better by setting against the curvature of the Intel IHS for better contact. You need to make sure the IHS is flat too if going for a total flat finish.

 

I don't know if this is mentioned but, what thickness shim should use with a p377? Also since the Liquid Metal was reapplied And added to. (Only pulled the GPU heatsink because the GPU was idling at 70c+ before adding TGC it was at 64c.) Now I have a combo of TGC and Thermaltake TG-7. Mainly because the TGC wasn't spreading. Idle temps have gone down since mixing. Ordered more TGC to add to the mixture.

Any advice is welcomed.

 

tried CLU on my Clevo p670rs

GPU temps lowered by about 5-8C on load
CPU temps doubled was thermal throttling T_T mainly because of the mounting pressure not giving enough contact so now im on MX-4 backup after repaste trusty thermal paste

 

Try Gelid GC-Extreme or similar.

 

yep, LM is only viable if contact is basically perfect.

 

Plus you need it on both the core and the heatsink. Assisted pressure while tightening can also help.

 

Modern day da Vinci is running a thermal paste shootout on his channel in the near future. He has a fantastic science & engineering background and some interesting videos from his cabin in New England.

 

sweet, ill be sure to keep an eye out for his shootout, should prove quite interesting! altho to be honest, not much has changed among the highend pastes and pads, kryonaut/clu/conductonaut/gc extreme/ic diamond and arctic pads/fujipoly aka XR aka alphacool eisschicht for up to 1.5mm pads and phobya ultra for thicker pads (3/4/5 mm) are still the recommendations from my side

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Indeed not much has changed. It will be interesting to see what angle he takes for testing.

His professional specialties seem to include jet engines and lasers and he has a strong handle on materials in extreme environments. His videos are just fantastic.

 

wish i had more time for youtube videos

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Hi, i still got and use my artic silver 5 from my first buy, 10 years ago. I repaste my new laptop, and still working (this paste can be stock for long time) but wanted to try Thermal grizzly Kryonaut but read on the net and saw a video, from a guy who said be care, this paste scratch IHS cpu.
From users, i would like to know if you noticed it, thx .

 

What is it they say?? Don't believe everything you see / read on the Internet.

I can say, 100% without a doubt, Grizzly Kryonaut will NOT scratch the IHS, unless perhaps you're removing it with sandpaper or something. Whatever you saw was probably in reference to Innovative Cooling Diamond TIM. IC Diamond has been known to create superficial scratches every so often.

 

If Grizzly Kryonaut was able to scratch up the IHS... Then wouldn't Silicon lottery recommend this thermal paste. Because their advertised 1 year warranty require that you RMA scratch free chips.

 

I don't know for Silicon Lottery ( not my country ) but thx for this info.

Do you know what is this pink "bubble gum" xD , around the gpu or cpu and under the thermal ''block'' ( sry, forgot the english name ) ?

With the pink ''thing'' :

https://imgur.com/a/Ip7eGCW

Normal or stock :

https://imgur.com/a/vj7yDPO

 

"bubble gum"... To protect against a possible leakage of Liquid metal. You can clearly also see Kapton tape around Cpu die.

 

@Papusan THANKS A LOT.

I saw this type of tape ''Kapton'', on my older HP pc , but i thought it was on the motherboard to protect it from static electricity, or dust, not temps too...

 

I have a question, what is the biggest gap that one can use thermal paste for because on the ASUS G74SX notebook motherboard, there is I believe a northbridge/southbridge as seen in the photo here https://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/ProductImage/A50Z_1_201701121696639968.jpg
that is held down by two screws that is right above the GPU's memory chips and it appears it's a 0.75mm pink thermal pad but the gap when measured with a feeler guage is 0.50mm, the metal plate does not come in contact with anything else other than the northbridge/southbridge, is this gap too big to replace with thermal paste? Thanks!

 

0.5 mm should be fine for using thermal paste. just be sure to use a thick one like ic diamond and not a thin runny one

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Would I be better off using Arctic 1.0mm thermal pad since I will have sheet of that already. At what gap size would should one actually use thermal pads instead? Thanks!

 

sure u can try the arctic pads first, see how that works

basically any kind of gap that does involve direct touch should be dealt with by using thermal paste. actual gaps thermal pads.

aside from that, it also depends on the wattage and heat output of the component to be cooled: if its low then pads are fine, if its high then go for thermal paste instead. the above conditions still apply here though!

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Makes sense. I always thought it was the other way around and it was anything that was direct touch or almost direct touch that required thermal paste but if there were gaps to use thermal pads because if the gap is after a certain size, wouldn't the bad part be since the thermal paste is exposed to air, it will also dry out? I haven't actually ordered the arctic pads yet as I needed to order a new motherboard because in the past on other computers or notebooks for that matter, the surface surrounding the core or IHS for a CPU/GPU in a desktop had always been the plain circuit board with the electronics on top and I had used either Arctic Silver 2, 3, 5 or Nanotherm PCM+ without any issues but on this specific computer, it had this yellow film which is Kapton tape that was cut so only the core was exposed. I couldn't find my 99% Rubbing Alcohol so I used 70% so I left the Kapton tape on since I didn't know if it was a good idea to remove it and just repasted with Thermal Grizzly Kyronaut which thankfully I had 2 unopened 11gram tubes of and I was able to turn the computer on and everything and it completely booted into Windows 10 and I logged in only and everything which worked for about 10 minutes then it BSOD and was saving the dump file which took I think 30 minutes and it was extremely slow, when it got to 10%, there was some weird color blocks on the notebook display which never disappeared. When it finished the dumpfile, I held down the power button for 10 seconds to power off the machine. Then I tried to turn the machine on with battery only and it still had the same weird color blocks on the upper left of the screen and I can still power down with the power button by just tapping it but then I guess because my battery was dying as I usually use it plugged in 99% of the time since 2012 24x7x365, it turned off so I turned it back on and it would still post but lasts probably 30 seconds before it shuts off. So I turned it on after everytime it powered off which had a shorter time each time until it will no longer turn on. But at that point, I used the power brick and all that would happen is no video at all, no post, the caps lock and num lock leds are solid and then the only thing that happens is the Blu-ray burner keeps trying to read over and over again until I manually turn the machine off by holding the power button. So it seems either I corrupted the BIOS, corrupted the CMOS data or most likely fried/shorted the GPU and/or CPU because it appeared that there was still liquid alcohol under the Kapton tape. So this time, I removed the kapton tape and completely cleaned everthing and repasted but the same problem is no video at all, no post, the caps lock and num lock leds are solid and then the only thing that happens is the Blu-ray burner keeps trying to read over and over again until I manually turn the machine off by holding the power button. I already tried taking the CMOS CR2032 battery, battery and power supply out of the equation and it didn't make a difference. Same thing with the CPU taken out.

As this was almost a month ago being April 25, 2019 - I ordered everything but the motherboard and the arctic thermal pads which included a new CPU (i7 2860QM as a upgrade/replacement for the i7 2670QM which is known to work for this model), a 180watt power supply to replace the 150watt that others have successfully upgraded to, a new battery, a roll of 15mmx100 ft kapton tape to tape down the wires, Sally Hansen Ultimate Shield Base & Top Coat Clear Nail Polish, 20mm x100ft ft roll of black acetate insulation tape to replace the tape that sealed the gap between the heatsink and the 2 blower fans which I had lubricated with Super Slick Stuff, 32 blade feeler guage.

I have the 3D version of the motherboard so there are few sellers and it seems other than the display connector being the only difference, the 2D versions of the motherboard is $80 while this one was closer to $300 by one seller and another at $449. The $300 seller still had a $9.99 shipping charge and then every week or so, the price would go down so it went to $278 with $9.99 shipping and then $230.85 with free shipping and yesterday at $222.00 with free shipping so I am just asking questions ahead of time after measuring the gaps where there were thermal pads.

In any case, I will use dkillone who posted a image on NBR instead to illustrate everything for the motherboard with that side facing down and just label things on it:



1) For the CPU and GPU, I will repaste with Thermal Grizzly Kyronaut
2) For the Northbridge/Southbridge labeled as NB which has a 0.75mm pink thermal pad between that heatsink and top of the core with a 0.50mm gap, it will either be Thermal Grizzly Kyronaut or Arctic 1.0mm thermal pad since that heatsink does not have contact with anything else.
3) For the Video Ram which is labeled V1-V6, I will replace the original 6 1.0mm pads with Arctic 1.0mm thermal pads as the gap is 0.50mm
4) For A that has a 0.50mm gap with the silver colored metal piece that is soldered to the heatsink copper pipe, I will use 1 x Arctic 1.0mm thermal pad to replace the original one piece 1.0mm thermal pad
5) For B that has a 1.00mm gap with the silver colored metal piece that is soldered to the heatsink copper pipe, I will use 1 x Arctic 1.5mm thermal pad to replace the original one piece 2.0mm thermal pad

So that leaves me with two questions really.

1) Any ideas what A and B are actually called? Are those Mosfets or are those called VRMs?
2) The heatsink copper pipe touches the entire part being the middle piece I labeled C which actually has is identical to what is written on top of A but there are no gaps at all between that piece and the heatsink copper pipe that I could measure. I guess my question is would the idea of putting a one piece thermal pad covering all 3 of the pieces that I marked with the red line be able to transfer the heat to the heatsink copper pipe if the heatsink copper pipe only sits on top of the middle piece? If that is doable, that means either I need to get a separate 0.5mm Arctic Thermal pad or just use the 1.0mm Arctic pad that I will be buying.

Before reading this thread, I was actually considering using K5 Pro but I think someone mentioned earlier in this thread or another thread on NBR that it did damage to something so seems safer going the thermal pad route as there are also no real reviews other than maybe the 2-3 dozen comments on amazon with a few bad ones. I guess Thermal Grease is fine as long as that specific part like the Northbridge/Southbridge, CPU, GPU is held down individually with screws but the other part seems like it can get really messy.

As this is a Intel Sandybridge based notebook, it appears that there is no longer a separate Northbridge as that's part of the CPU which if I am correct, this would be a Southbridge chipset or PCH instead, would this be a high or low heat output item? I also noticed that while there are 6 VRAM chips on the bottom side, there is also 6 identical VRAM chips at exactly the same spot on the other side of the motherboard except only the chips on the CPU/GPU side has thermal pads due to the silver metal piece connected to the heatsink copper pipe but wouldn't the other 6 VRAM chips need cooling as well?

Thanks!

 

corrected my above post to remove the "not"

to be clear: direct touch - paste / gap - pads

A and C are chokes, B are mosfets. mosfets and chokes together form the VRMs for CPU and GPU respectively. especially the mosfets absolutely NEED to be cooled properly with good thermal pads, otherwise ull get throttling or even shutdown.

your idea for the long thermal pad covering all three chokes is a good one, if the heatpipes only cover one of them. its not ideal but better than not having the other chokes connected at all.

the PCH is pretty low wattage and has a very high thermal throttling point (around 115-125C) thats why lots of notebooks dont even have any heatsink or thermal pads on it. so a thermal pad connecting it to the heatsink should be more than sufficient

as for the vram chips, youre totally right: ideally, you would have a copper backplate with thermal pads to give the vram more surface area to dissipte their heat. although vram is pretty low wattage, so at stock clocks i wouldnt expect troubles. ull notice it only when trying to overclock the vram....

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Thanks jaybee83 for clarifying things. It seems like there are way more chokes that don't have further heat transfer and just bare like the following:
Left side of the ram has 1 choke, 1 choke on the lower left of V1, 1 choke on the right hand side of A & B, 2 more on the other side of the motherboard but I guess if it worked without problems using the stock configuration, it will probably work fine anyways.

I was only wondering about the PCH because it seems like the motherboards sold on ebay does not have the heatsink or thermal pad, maybe it's to make it easier for photos but always better to be prepared in case I needed a thermal pad. Just thought 0.5mm would be too thick for thermal grease since it would seem like with a gap that big, the air would dry out the thermal paste so probably will just use a thermal pad.

As for the vram, the machine doesn't support overclocking so I'm stuck with stock speeds.

 

Chokes dont tend to fail as a passive part.

 

indeed, mosfets are the more critical components to take care of in terms of cooling but cant hurt to cover both.

 

It still depends on if there is a heat plate or heat pipe or something metal that is on the other side or not since if there isn't, then even if you cover it, the heat doesn't really transfer anywhere else.

 

naturally didnt mean it as in just cover it up with a blanket