User upgrade of thermal paste

I am looking to put IV diamond compound on my GPU and CPU since spending the money for the company to do it is a waste.

I know the process of removing the old paste using some alcohol and drying it before applying the IC diamond paste. My question is what amount of paste is needed for the CPU and GPU. Everytime I've done this in the past it came in a pre measured amount and only had one CPU to do (intel i3 2100 htpc CPUs).

Thanks

 

Dont use IC diamond on laptops. It scratches up the GPU die and the heatsink.

 

IMO just pay the reseller to do it. Not worth the trouble.

 

dont use ICD on laptops??? not worth the "trouble" of reapplying thermal paste urself??? did i miss something here?

ok, first of all, ICD has proven to be one of the best TIMs available when it comes to lowering the temps of ur components. ive been using it myself for quite a while now and havent had any problems regarding any "scratches". as for the amount to apply on CPU/GPU, a dot the size of a corn of rice right smack in the middle of the chip should do the trick. since some of today´s CPUs and GPUs have an elongated chip design, three dots or a thin line in the center of the chips is actually recommended. let the pressure of the heatsink do the rest of the work in evenly distributing the TIM over the chip´s surface.

as for the "trouble" of self-application....seriously? it takes a few minutes at best and is definitely worth the "trouble", considering how much of a premium resellers demand for this kinda non-work besides, whatcha gonna do when upgrading/cleaning ur components? send ur laptop to the reseller every time u want a repaste?

just my 2 cents on this topic

cheers

 

I used ICD7 on my G73JW's GTX460M and i7-940XM, later found that there's a mark that cannot be cleaned on both dies. Is that normal?

 

havent heard of that one before. exactly how did u apply the TIM? u positive that those marks didnt come from ur heatsinks or improper handling or something?

 

I was doing pea size, and the amount of the ICD7 after spread was covering just a bit more than the die, the attempt before the mark occurs was a good paste. After cleaning with industrial alcohol I always make sure it's completely dried off. I have re-pasted about 3 times. The marks came after the 2nd paste.

Also on the thread here DH48 mentioned all the GPU he has used IC7 on have died in the end.

Edit: I just remembered that the room temperature was kinda cold when I did the 2nd repaste, could that be the cause? But I do place the ICD7 in a cup of hot water for 10min before every repaste.

 

A few more people talking about the problem with ICD7 here:
IC Diamond warning

 

That's frightening. Is it best to avoid it altogether, then?

 

Humm since I'm not overclocking yet and haven't had any issues with temps yet so I think I'll hold off on the paste until this warning is settled.

 

Agree with everything here. Like the 'line' method myself. I feel good thermal paste shouldn't be an option, so if you buy a PWNPCs laptop it's not an option, it's just going to be there! For minimal cost, time and effort it makes your laptop run a lot cooler, therefore quieter. Win - Win!

 

Nope. Just don't rub it around and there will be no problem. Diamond powder is hard and will scratch almost everything. That doesn't mean there's a problem, the scratches are small and will not make any difference. The rest is hysterics...

Now we could discuss something that are more efficient at heat transfer and _should_ be avoided by users: Soldering with silicon wetting alloys. Can cause your CPU die to split into two parts. ;-)

 

Thanks! +rep.

 

First, definitely worth replacing the paste.

Second, the risks of IC Diamond aren't worth it when there are several other pastes that are not abrasive and easily work just as well. The purpose of your paste is to fill micro gaps created between the heatsink and the chip...scratching the heat spreader on your chip only creates more micro gaps. Even if you are very careful they will still happen.

Again, given the number of other options that work just as well, IC diamond is not worth it in my opinion.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

 

I'm using Artic Cooling MX-4 and the temp that I'm getting from it is a little bit lower than when I applied IC diamond on the GPUs with the same method. There are a lot of options when it comes to TIM but you have to make sure that you apply it correctly though.

 

As far as the scratches? Recently I killed a brand new GTX680 using ICD24. It seriously destroyed the unprotected chip. It is even possible to remove the heatspreader markings on intel desktop cpus which will void their warranties. I recommend this brand of paste to as few applications as possible and once you get scratches I would suggest stopping.

I will switch to shin-etsu simply because it is far more safe.

 

i dunno guys, this whole thing sounds really weird to me, tbh.... been using ICD on my GPU for one and a half years now and i dont recall ever having seen any scratches on the die. same goes for the CPU, altho im actually using OCZ Freeze there more frequently cuz the application is easier with pretty much the same temp results. to me, this sounds more like either applying too much pressure with the heatsink or just improper repasting altogether.

cheers

 

That is a surprise. I'm an Arctic Silver guy myself, but when researching TIM about 18 months ago (deciding what to do the my x7200 purchase), I came across a ton of posts (including those here on NBR) showing pictures of the scratches. I would have thought you came across those too at some point.

 

GELID Solutions GC-Extreme Thermal Compound, good easy to apply.

 

I don't know. The way I look at it, Mythlogic uses it on all their laptops and it's only thermal paste Xotic offers as an upgrade. These companies turn out a lot of products using this paste and they're the ones that have to deal with the fallout if there's damage caused by it. They have a lot of smart people working there, so if they trust it then I'm not too worried.

 

Careful, he is talking about a nickel plated heatsink, usually aluminum based...not a IC Diamond issue, that is a chemical reaction issue.

As for laptops and reliability, take it from other NBR users that have been accepting the IC Reliability survey since 2009 and the Cool Innovations guys post the honest feedback http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...c-diamond-24-giveaway-reliability-survey.html

 

Ok so does anyone have a video or picture guide to applying paste? I'm still not decided on using IC or not yet, but my m670x has been running hot playing skyrim maxed out settings and looking to solve the issue with just a quick paste.

 

not much to it really. its recommended to heat up the paste before application,for example by holding the tube into a glass of hot water for a couple minutes. apply either pea size dots or a thin line onto the die and wait for like 20 min before reassembling the heatsink in order for solvents to evaporate. let the pressure of the heatsink take care of evenly distributing the paste. temps will improve after a while, specified burnin time for ICD is smth like 20-100 hrs if i remember correctly?
aside from that id clean out ur heatsinks and fans thoroughly to remove any dust clogs,since those are the main culprit when dealing with overheating issues.

make sure any remaining old paste is completely removed from the chip before applying the new one! isopropanol is recommended but not obligatory when cleaning the die.

cheers

Sent from my GT-I9001 using Tapatalk 2

 

Use AS5. Problem Solved.

 

aside from heating the paste the application method still holds true, no matter what kinda paste u use mate also, the best TIM aside from ICD that ive tried so far was OCZ Freeze

 

I have the AS Ceramique here at the house that I'll be applying. I know back in the day you were supposed to put a dot then spread it to get it nice and even w/ something like a credit card. Should I still go w/ that method or just put the dot or a line across the die and let the heatsink smash it down.

 

There're a few hard overclockers over AW forums who uses prolimatech pk-1 thermal paste. They recommend it over IC Diamond cause it won't leave dents or scrathes on the surface but has thermal conductivity: 10.2 W/m -C!!!

I could give it a shot, but got a few more shin etsu tubes left)

 

+1. You get a large tube of it and it also seems to be giving me the lowest temps and smallest temp variations between cores (with some i get 10c+ difference between core A and core B).

 

A decent article of how to apply thermal paste can be found here: Maximum PC | How-To: Properly Apply Thermal Paste and Install a CPU

I don't believe heating the thermal paste before applying it is necessary nor have I ever heard of doing that before.

 

It is if you want to spread thick paste like IC7 using a card , you don't literally heat it, just put the tube in warm /hot water for a while and take it out to apply

 

yup exactly. most other TIMs dont require that but ICD just happens to be VERY viscious, thus its recommended but not really obligatory to heat up the paste before application (tbh, i myself have never done that, been fine with just applying it as is )