Another Thermal Paste Contender

[Quiksilver]

This time from Prolimatech

 

[God Mode]

Anand and everyones mom should rebrand some thermal paste too. Sheesh talk about oversaturated market.

 

[Sheninat0r]

From what I've seen, there's really only a few options that everyone likes to talk about - AS5, MX-2, OCZ Freeze, IC Diamond, and maybe Ceramique. Everything else (NT-H1, Shin-Etsu, blah blah) just seems to be there to confuse people and breed irrational fanboyism (I've seen people defending Shin-Etsu TIM like it was a god. Seriously).

 

[Zepper]

Shin Etsu is good stuff, if you're willing to put up with its generally difficult installation. I'm still using the tube of Ceramique I bought way back when...
But I finally cracked the new tube of MX-2 I bought a while back to replace the TIM on this Dell I'm working on now - man was the thing dirty inside - had to almost completely disassemble it to get the crud out. A real computer would have been a lot easier to work on...

.bh.

 

[Modelworks]

I'll stick with my $1.99 radio shack brand

 

[Sheninat0r]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
I'll stick with my $1.99 radio shack brand

I hope that works out well for you; as for me, I think I'll stick with my $5.99 MX-2. It gives me some peace of mind to know I'm not using mint-free toothpaste as TIM

On a side note, four posts in a row of Tux!

 

[Rubycon]

If this is the same stuff they ship with the Megahalems it is good. Easy to apply as TX-2 and cooler results right off the bat. IC7 is still giving best results but unless you apply it perfectly it will be worse and trust me it's a real PIA to get just right.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Sheninat0r

Originally posted by: Modelworks
I'll stick with my $1.99 radio shack brand

I hope that works out well for you; as for me, I think I'll stick with my $5.99 MX-2. It gives me some peace of mind to know I'm not using mint-free toothpaste as TIM

On a side note, four posts in a row of Tux!

Toothpaste and the stuff RS sells have nothing in common other than being white.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Originally posted by: Rubycon
If this is the same stuff they ship with the Megahalems it is good. Easy to apply as TX-2 and cooler results right off the bat. IC7 is still giving best results but unless you apply it perfectly it will be worse and trust me it's a real PIA to get just right.

Granted what you say -- pretty much.

Looking at the spec-components of the Prolimatech offering, it seems like the usual: Aluminum (or oxides thereof); Zinc Oxide; oil, etc.

In culinary art, the Swiss-chef-turned-psycho-pharmacologist once told me "simple is best," and he'd probably heard of the KISS principle.

I made my choices solely on the basis of thermal-resistance/thermal-conductivity specs for various elements/substances. Diamond is way up there -- head and tails above Silver. Some Asian-American PhD had also done some promising experiments with different incarnations of Carbon (Diamond is still just Carbon), but it required enormously high pressures to improve (reduce) thermal-resistance.

Another diamond entry -- precursor to Innovative Cooling's -- was Jetart CK4800. But it only had a 10% loading of nano-diamond, and showed results that were dead-even with AS5.

IC Diamond is expensive relative to the others: for the same price, you get fewer applications. You can add some slight excess on the processor-cap and heatsink-base, and the surplus will just ooze out harmlessly to form a bead around the seam of the IHS and heatsink-base.

And it is a "b****" to spread, although not so terribly if you use a rectangular razor-blade as putty-knife. It's important to get the stuff to adhere to the surfaces, though. You can pull holes in the layer as you attempt to spread it.

Personally, the trouble in applying it seems well-worth the few-degrees-C reduction in load temperatures for ~100+W of thermal power. Others may disagree. It's non-conductive, non-capacitative, and dries to a rubbery-consistency. It's even "re-usable," if you care to apply a tiny bit of oil-based silly-cone TIM to make it workable a second time, but I don't think "re-use-ability" is worth the time and trouble.

 

[Gillbot]

I still use Ceramique.

 

[RallyMaster]

Originally posted by: Gillbot
I still use Ceramique.

Yep, $3.99 Ceramique wins.