__________IC Diamond 7... Anyone used it yet?__________

[drakore]

Should i buy a big diamond and put it in between my heatsink and cpu... maybe attach it with a little solder?

BonzaiDuck, i can't believe you play blackjack. That game is evil.. Even if you can count 8 decks... winning is extremely hard unless you find high bet differential tables. Phhhh just learn how to play limit poker and play that... it is much more profitable

 

[overbyte]

Another test review AMDZONE here, 5C better

 

[ruiner5000]

5F better actually. Typo. Anyway, we also used it on some dead 3 red lighted Xbox 360s at Tek Republik. It seemed to work well with those. We have not have them come back in dead again. Certainly the fact that it reaches top cooling performance quickly helps in the 360 versus the Artic Silver 5 we have been using.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: DrMrLordX
Might be interestingto compare some of your own home-brew stuff to the IC Diamond 7 paste, no?

btw, nobody is disputing the logic of Anandtech's decision to use standard bulk silver compound for most of the HSFs in their review (on a few they used the TIM included with the heatsink, such as the CNPS-9700 which comes with STG-1). All I was saying is that Anandtech will probably never do a review of thermal pastes alone, such as IC Diamond 7 vs Shin-Etsu X23 vs Coollaboratries Liquid Pro vs AS Ceramique, which would be interesting to say the least.

Obviously a TIM review would need to be separate from their HSF reviews. On their HSF reviews, they should just keep using their current TIM policy which seems to be fine with me.

Exactly!! Anand`s will probably never for several reasons....
it`s time consuming for starters...
TIM`s are like PSU`s everybody has there favorites.
There is no sense arguing or discussing differences that fall within 2c of all the modern non genaric TIM`s!! - espcially when not all computers are the same..
Plus you look at the TIM`s that get shipped with heatsinks and other products I dare say there is not a slouch in the bunch...
It just is not good buisness to have ship a heatsink to a customer and have crappy thermal compound shipped with the heatsink.....
lastly AS products just are not the best anymore....they are some of the best...there are alot of good thermal compounds on the market nowadays!!

In fact you almost have to actively look for crappy Thermal compound..

 

[AAjax]

Originally posted by: Blain
How much kick-back is there on TIM products?

Nothing compared to those friggin De Beers vegemite cartel bastages. They cornered the market through their shill company Kraft foods on all the Vegemite mines.
Wars, strife, genocide and dry toast are left in their wake.......

 

[overbyte]

one more review seems to mirror AMDZONE

 

[BonzaiDuck]

JediYoda wrote:
TIM`s are like PSU`s everybody has there favorites.
There is no sense arguing or discussing differences that fall within 2c of all the modern non genaric TIM`s!! - espcially when not all computers are the same..
Plus you look at the TIM`s that get shipped with heatsinks and other products I dare say there is not a slouch in the bunch...

__________________________________________

We differ on this matter. I've now tested the IC Diamond on my graphics card -- BFG 8800 GTS with ThermalRight HR-03-Plus cooler.

Yes. About 5F degrees or just under 3C improvement. If anyone read my earlier posts about my $100 diamond-powder experiments, you'll understand when I say that the IC Diamond performs on par with my loading of JetArt CK4800 with as much diamond powder as I could possibly add without making the mix totally unspreadable. And second, you will understand when I say that IC Diamond is a b**** to spread, but you can get a thin layer of the stuff on the processor cap and heatsink base, and the excess will ooze slightly from the seam -- (indicating that the stuff conforms and fills air-pockets under pressure.)

The significance of the improvement shows not just from the "maximum" load temperature value, but from the average ORTHOS load values sampled over an hour (somewhat lower than the maximum), the percentage of the two maximum temperature intervals as a fraction of total observations (something noticeably less), and lower idle temperature distributions.

But suppose a 3-degree-C improvement is "too small to discuss." Is it consistent? yes it is. And if it is consistent, and if it doesn't degrade (as AS5 does somewhat over time), then it is a pretty large grain of rice that can be added to other cooling improvements (such as ducting) that may at least double the 3C gain.

I said to AigoMorla earlier -- maybe last month -- that I would be satisfied with my air-cooling approach if I could get ORTHOS-load temperatures to fall below 40C with a room-ambient of 70F. I'm "almost there!" I think my last one-hour sample of load values at 70F showed a maximum around 42C and an average of 41C.

My E6600 -- for those readings -- was overclocked to 3.35 Ghz with a set-voltage of 1.4625V and an idle monitored reading of between 1.42 and 1.44V.

If the improvement is consistent, then it consistently adds to other improvements.

Someone made a remark that the stuff seemed "cheap" at less than $5 per tube.

Not so, now that I've tried it. One tube is good for one 8800 GPU cap and one CPU. You will use about 60% of the tube for the VGA card, and 40% for the CPU cap. Under this regime, you will have no paste left in the tube; and the layer of diamond paste will be thin and optimal.

For an SLI system -- water-cooled or air-cooled -- you should buy two tubes of IC Diamond.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Originally posted by: overbyte
DrMrLordX - I am confused link clearly has 2C difference

1C is your own test data?

No. All I did was look at the load temperatures, which are of the greatest interest to me. Delta T becomes less interesting for me if only because X23 managed a better temp at idle.

Also, I have to agree with BonzaiDuck that IC Diamond 7 is worth the money if, at $5.99 per tube, it can drop temps by 3C versus the next best thing (X23 or what have you). At that price, why not? $6 for the best TIM on the market? Sign me up.

Once I get the time, I'll probably pick up a tube myself and see what it does for me versus the X23 I'm using now.

 

[gobucks]

I can't completely quantify my results, because when I applied the IC diamond, since i moved some fans around in order to get better airflow, but between the thermal paste and rearranging the fans I got a drop in load temps of over 10C. Before, I was getting load temps of just over 60C @ 3.2GHz, 1.425Vcore using AS5 and a scythe infinity HS. Afterwards, I got 59C @ 3.4GHz, 1.525V, which seems to be a pretty good increase in OCing potential for $5! I'm sure the fan moving probably accounted for at least half the temp drop, but nonetheless I am fairly impressed with this stuff, and I highly recommend it.

The only thing that sucks is that shipping costs almost as much as the compound itself! If you think you might need any additional fans, brackets, adapters, etc. it is a good idea to get them at the same time to save on shipping. (side note - is it just me or does $5 seem a bit high to ship a 1.5g syringe? it seems like they could just drop it in a standard envelope and put a stamp on it rather than putting it in a full USPS box).

Oh yeah, one other thing - the texture of it is kinda weird - it has the same consistency of AS5, but its grainy because of all the tiny diamonds in it. Because of the graininess, it was really hard to get an even layer using a razor blade (which is my preferred method of doing it). I eventually got it to work, but I had to make the layer slightly thicker than usual.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Hmm, interesting results. Does the manufacturer have recommendations on application methods?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Barring my anonymity under the "duck-ster" handle, I guarantee you'll get a drop in temperatures with either IC Diamond or a mix of JetArt CK4800 beefed up with micronized diamond powder.

How much depends on the thermal power your processor is putting off. At a respectable 39% overclock on my E6600, my TR Ultra-120-Extreme matched the Anandtech review results around 75F ambient at 47C peak Orthos load -- using an Arctic Silver 5 paste. But I got an additional 2C drop with the equivalent of IC Diamond, and again with IC Diamond. That's pretty close to the review results of 5F degrees improvement, but the processor's thermal power will determine how significant that improvement is.

Per rearranging fans -- I decided to flip my Ultra-120-Extreme around 90-degrees to accommodate a fan on the HR-03-Plus VGA cooler (fins between VGA and CPU cooler). It degrades the effectiveness of the Ultra 120 Extreme to have the narrow end pointing toward the exhaust fan. I'm going to fix that today, though.