Best Thermal paste compound?? Silver5 ??

[Mfusick]

What is a good thermal compound?

 

[Ken g6]

[post=34297433]Here[/post] is a recent test. Although [thread=154226]I hear[/thread] ICD gets better if you can put more pressure on it.

Edit: Note: ICD tends to scrach surfaces. Liquid Ultra is also nearly impossible to get off surfaces, and is conductive so you can't let any leak on to circuits.

 

[tweakboy]

Arctic Silver 6

gl

 

[hokies83]

Liquid Ultra the the best

Followed by IDC and afew others with near same results.

Only Draw back is "sometimes liquid ultra can be hard to remove"

But liquid pro / Liquid Ultra are the only things i use on my own stuff.

On other people stuff i use mx-4 etc.

 

[Stoneburner]

[post=34297433]Here[/post]

Edit: Note: ICD tends to scrach surfaces.

Wish I had known this earlier

 

[crazymonkeyzero]

ICD is hit or miss imo. Hard to apply, and won't give good temps unless you do it exactly right.

Prolimatech PK1 is the best overall imo interms of performance and ease of use. AC MX4 is also a good runner up. I don't see why ppl still rave about AS5. It was great like 6 years ago, but today, there are much better stuff out there.

 

[Fallengod]

MX-4 is free after rebate right now....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835186038

Doesnt get much cheaper than free.


In terms of best. Ive used all kinds of different stuff over the years. I still have plenty of AS5 and Shin-Etsu left and that will probably last me through my lifetime. Also have a bunch of other goop like from cooler master etc. Some people are really anal and OCD about cooling their cpu's, but remember, you only need to cool a cpu so its within spec, not so its the coolest you can achieve heh. My AS5 is still win for now. Shin-Etsu is damn good too.

ICD is hit or miss imo. Hard to apply, and won't give good temps unless you do it exactly right.

Prolimatech PK1 is the best overall imo interms of performance and ease of use. AC MX4 is also a good runner up. I don't see why ppl still rave about AS5. It was great like 6 years ago, but today, there are much better stuff out there.

Because its good. Remember, the newer cpu technology evolves, the less power consumption and heat produced too. This leads to less importance on absolute best pastes out there. I could give two shits personally. AS5 is good. Who cares if its old, it still works good. I use it on my i5-2500k. I have no problem going to something else if I ever run out. My AS5 and Shin-etsu will last me for a long time though.

Also your logic is somewhat flawed. Yes, there are better pastes out there, but look at the benchmark linked to, the other better pastes are still only few degrees Celsius better than AS5 which has been around forever lol. A few degrees better is not impressive.....

 

[crazymonkeyzero]

Also your logic is somewhat flawed. Yes, there are better pastes out there, but look at the benchmark linked to, the other better pastes are still only few degrees Celsius better than AS5 which has been around forever lol. A few degrees better is not impressive.....

Why would you pay the same/more for AS5 for less performance?~How is this logical in itself?

Doesn't matter how many degrees C the performance difference is, the fact is, if there is better stuff available at the same or lower price, why would I buy something that performs worse.

Most people would agree one ought to pay the least, to get the most.

All these pastes beat AS5 for a fraction of the cost. May not beat it by much, but that's beside the point.

AS5: $10 for 3.5g $2.85/g
MX2: $8 for 4g $2.00/g
PK1: $10 for 5g $2.00/g
NT-H1 10$

42% more cost/g for AC5 makes no sense on a purely logical perspective, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

 

[Fallengod]

Why would you pay the same/more for AS5 for less performance?~How is this logical in itself?

Doesn't matter how many degrees C the performance difference is, the fact is, if there is better stuff available at the same or lower price, why would I buy something that performs worse.

Most people would agree one ought to pay the least, to get the most.

All these pastes beat AS5 for a fraction of the cost. May not beat it by much, but that's beside the point.

AS5: $10 for 3.5g $2.85/g
MX2: $8 for 4g $2.00/g
PK1: $10 for 5g $2.00/g
NT-H1 10$

42% more cost/g for AC5 makes no sense on a purely logical perspective, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

Well, theres two things here.

First, I already own AS5 so my point was, theres no need to buy other compounds when I have plenty of fairly high end compounds already. I was speaking for my particular needs.

Second. Well, youre right. Obviously if you are in need of new compound and dont have any, theres no point in spending money for older stuff. With that said, a few degrees difference also doesnt really matter. It may make you feel better about your purchase, but the reality of it is, either paste will keep the cpu well within spec.

I say, buy whatever you can find cheapest. The MX-4 is free after rebate so....that trumps anything else in my book.


PS: Also your price comparison from one single site that sells AS5 at $10 is unfair as well. I never paid $10 for my tube of AS5 however many years ago I purchased it.... I think I paid $3 or $4 for it if I remember correctly. Who the hell knows though, I bet its been 8 years lol.

 

[tw33k]

The title of the thread is "Best thermal compund" and the answer is Coollaboratory Liquid Pro/Ultra by a long way. Nothing comes close.

Here are the results of using it on my AMD 8150 @ 4.5GHz 1.35v with a Phanteks cooler:

Delta temp of just 9.8c. This rivals some water cooled systems

 

[Lepton87]

I used Noctua NT-H1 but every 6 months or so temperature stared to get out of control. Right now I bought IC diamond because I heard it shouldn't be prone to loosing cooling performance after some time. So the temperature just after the application isn't everything. I always got very high temps for my combination of CPU and heatsink, maybe my IHS is concave or the solder isn't optimal, hard to say, but right now I'm at 77C at 4.4GHz 1.3V after 12h of testing. Ambient was 28C. From what I remember freshly applied nactua provided similar temps. Probably scratching is the worst part of IC. I also made a very stupid mistake and oriented my heatsink horizontally instead of vertically. Now I either change the direction of fans in the case or reapply the cooler again. I'm also thinking about changing the cooler to NH-D14 but if the CPU is the culprit it won't help much with the temps. It's also very expensive for a CPU cooler.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

ICD is hit or miss imo. Hard to apply, and won't give good temps unless you do it exactly right.

Prolimatech PK1 is the best overall imo interms of performance and ease of use. AC MX4 is also a good runner up. I don't see why ppl still rave about AS5. It was great like 6 years ago, but today, there are much better stuff out there.

I've seen ICD perform better than AS5 in my experience. MX3 is good too. These have surpassed AS5, and if you can get either for similar prices, why not? All of this is small money anyway right?

 

[Z15CAM]

In my opinion Artic Silver 5 is still one of the best Thermal Compounds available. The only thing to consider is that it is Electrical Conductive; whereas, Tuniq TX-2 may be slightly better and is Non-Conductive.

I've been using Artic Silver 5 for years and the one thing that I'm impresses me is: Once applied - It lasts forever.

 

[Lepton87]

Did anyone test what happens when you mix different TIMs? I had an idea of using IC Dimond on the sides of the IHS and NT-H1 in the center. IC should prevent pomp-out effect of NT-H1. IDC could you test such a crazy idea? If you tested toothpaste, then where's the harm... If initial temps were good I could test it long term.

 

[Leyawiin]

What is a good thermal compound?

Any name brand applied correctly is "good".

 

[Idontcare]

The title of the thread is "Best thermal compund" and the answer is Coollaboratory Liquid Pro/Ultra by a long way. Nothing comes close.

Here are the results of using it on my AMD 8150 @ 4.5GHz 1.35v with a Phanteks cooler:

Delta temp of just 9.8c. This rivals some water cooled systems

The Coollaboratory products are top of the line, no question, but they are not "the best". The best is Indigo Xtreme. (skinnee labs review)

It basically is a low-temp reflowable solder. I've used it and can attest to its veracity.

I've seen ICD perform better than AS5 in my experience. MX3 is good too. These have surpassed AS5, and if you can get either for similar prices, why not? All of this is small money anyway right?

Truly is small money, but also small gains. The difference between AS5 and Indigo Xtreme (which pretty much spans the entire range, all other TIM's will fall in there somewhere) is maybe all of 5-7°C which isn't going to make or break a given OC excepting for a very small handful of barely stable OC's that are on the edge of thermal throttling anyways.

In my opinion Artic Silver 5 is still one of the best Thermal Compounds available. The only thing to consider is that it is Electrical Conductive; whereas, Tuniq TX-2 may be slightly better and is Non-Conductive.

I've been using Artic Silver 5 for years and the one thing that I'm impresses me is: Once applied - It lasts forever.

Artic Silver 5 is NOT electrically conductive. I blame artic sliver for this persistent false perception though, total product naming fail on their part.

On the other hand, Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra being gallium-based IS electrically conductive. But Coollaboratory is smart and you won't find the word "metal" or "gallium" in their product names

 

[tweakboy]

Liquid Ultra the the best

Followed by IDC and afew others with near same results.

Only Draw back is "sometimes liquid ultra can be hard to remove"

But liquid pro / Liquid Ultra are the only things i use on my own stuff.

On other people stuff i use mx-4 etc.

Hokie wow nice rig man. Nice OC. Can I ask what voltage you used for 5.1Ghz ..... you have one of the fastest machines here.... nice!!!

 

[Idontcare]

Hokie wow nice rig man. Nice OC. Can I ask what voltage you used for 5.1Ghz ..... you have one of the fastest machines here.... nice!!!

You are getting OT, tweakster, I recommend you make a new thread to discuss Hokie's rig (j/k )

 

[sequoia464]

http://www.svc.com/am3-x1.htmlhas

Anyone used Indigo Extreme on an AMD processor?

The reason I ask is that I was aboout to get some, but there are possible temperature related issues. Appearently FX processors recommended operating temps might not be high enough for the Indigo Extreme to flow properly.

Link above is where I first saw this, a search will bring up more info.

 

[Idontcare]

http://www.svc.com/am3-x1.htmlhas

Anyone used Indigo Extreme on an AMD processor?

The reason I ask is that I was aboout to get some, but there are possible temperature related issues. Appearently FX processors recommended operating temps might not be high enough for the Indigo Extreme to flow properly.

Link above is where I first saw this, a search will bring up more info.

TJmax on an AMD processor may be low enough as to prevent the Indigo Xtreme (IX) from getting hot enough to reflow.

When I used it with my 2600k the temperature went to 98C (TJmax) and even then it took nearly 20 minutes at 98°C before the IX finally melted and reflowed.

The first place to start in this investigation is with an email inquiry to Enerdyne Solutions (the maker of IX) and ask them what the minimum reflow temperature is for IX.

That said, according to their website it is compatible with AMD processors, reflows at 70°C:

Q: What is a PCMA?
A: A PCMA, or Phase Change Metal Alloy, typically melts at temperatures between 60-100°C and is designed to melt and solidify multiple times, depending upon the temperature of the electronic component it is interfaced to. Indigo Xtreme™'s proprietary PCMA is an Indium-based alloy which reflows at ~70°C.

If it does reflow at 70C as advertised, I have to imagine it will take an hour or more to fully reflow considering how long it took to reflow at 98C.

 

[sequoia464]

I just noticed my link doesn't go to the product page for some reason, just the sellers main site. The product page for the AMD Indigo Extreme contains a cautionary statement from Enerdyne. I'll look into it some more and post a direct link if I can find it.

This is the text, possibly old news though...


AMD Phenom & Athlon II/AM2/AM3 Sockets Only
*Please note AMD FX Processors and Indigo Xtreme AMD AM3-X1 re-flow issue
We have been notified by Enerdyne Solution regarding possible incompatibilities of Indigo Xtreme AM3-X1 Indigo Xtreme - AMD AM3/FM1 with AMD FX series processors:

AMD’s specification of 61°C-70°C is for maximum allowed case temperature (a thermocouple measurement taken on top of the CPU lid); however, one will be measuring CPU core/junction temperature with a utility such as SpeedFan, etc. As there is significant thermal resistance between the CPU lid and core/junction (due to TIM1, etc), the core temperature will be much higher than the case temperature. Therefore, it is possible to reach the recommended ~80-85°C average core temperature, while not exceeding the AMD max case temp of 61-70°C. However, unlike all other AMD CPUs, customers may have discovered that the on-chip thermal monitor of the FX Bulldozer is especially sensitive to the temperature ramp rate; we will definitely investigate this further and follow-up. In the mean time we are declaring Indigo Xtreme AMD AM3-X1 -AMD AM3/FM1 as possibly incompatible with AMD FX Bulldozer series processors until we can confirm/disaffirm this. We apologize for any inconvenience.

I'll send an inquiry to Enerdyne also, Thanks.


Edit; Just found this, it appears that as of Dec.5 a newer compound is available for FX chips ..http://www.chiploco.com/amd-fx-compatible-ek-indigo-extreme-tim-is-now-available-19806/

 

[tw33k]

I tried Indigo Extreme on my old 1090T and it wouldn't re-flow. Haven't tried it personally on my Intel chip but I've never seen anyone get a delta temp of under 10c with it

 

[mikk]

Here is another user test: http://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/f136/11-waermeleitpasten-im-vergleich-831414.html

 

[Ferzerp]

If it does reflow at 70C as advertised, I have to imagine it will take an hour or more to fully reflow considering how long it took to reflow at 98C.

*gasp* I found an IDC mistake!

Your Tcase was probably pretty close to 70C while your Tjunction was 98C

(I'm just waiting for you to correct me, I'm sure somehow I'm wrong)

I still have an IX application that I need to eventually use. I took my first one off because of the NT-H1 pumping issue under my IHS.

 

[Idontcare]

*gasp* I found an IDC mistake!

Your Tcase was probably pretty close to 70C while your Tjunction was 98C

(I'm just waiting for you to correct me, I'm sure somehow I'm wrong)

I still have an IX application that I need to eventually use. I took my first one off because of the NT-H1 pumping issue under my IHS.

Touché!

You are absolutely correct. The IX experiences Tcase, not TJunction.

And Tcase < Tjunction.

So definitely my IX didn't experience 98C. But I can tell you what it must have been around, approximately, because I was very curious just how hot my NH-D14 would actually get in the reflow portion of the IX application.

So I bought one of those IR guns, the red dot you see in the background on the surface of the NH-D14 is from a laser pointer built into the IR gun.

Now this image is not of the peak temperatures, and you can tell it was captured during one of my down-times because I'm not wearing gloves

But what I did observe with the IR gun during the IX reflow was that the fins on the NH-D14 were nearly 82°C, and the base of the NH-D14 that sits right on the IHS (so basically Tcase) was close to 85°C. It was dang hot, I remember I touched it just briefly, and afterwards I concluded that was a boneheaded thing to do

Now my curiosity is piqued, I'm gonna have to try my last IX swatch on the FX8350 just to see if I can get it warm enough to reflow. You guys are making it sound like it isn't likely to happen, curious minds want to know!