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New Thernal Paste Or CPU Cooler ?

R

Revolution

Senior member
HI,
Guys need ur suggestion.
Recently I changed my motherboard and CPU getting hotter.
Current Temp C2D is 50C(without load) & 75C(with 90% load and fan become very noisy)
Should I buy a Artic Silver 5 3.5gm Tube @Rs.600/- and use with Intel Stalk Cooler ?
Or should I buy CM Hyper 212 Evo @Rs.2200/ and use the CM TIM comes with the cooler ?
Spending too much money on an old CPU is not a good idea ?

I never OC my CPU in life cos I afraid to harm CPU or shorten the life. 🙁
If I want to OC my CPU a little to 2.6GHz(no change of voltage) and without tweaking RAM or GPU will it shorten the life of CPU ?
BTW,is Gigabyte Easy Tune 6 good application for OC CPU ?

My System:
Intel C2D E4500 @2.2GHz
Gigabyte G41M Combo Series 4
Transcend 2GB DDR2 800MHz RAM
AMD HD5670 512MB DDR5
Corsair VX450W

Thanks!
 
Personally I would just get a tube of Prolimatech PK-1 and use the stock cooler because you don't overclock and PK-1 is very effective.

Arctic Silver 5 ("AS5") is outdated technology and capacitive which is dangerous. People still recommending AS5 have not kept up with new technology. Try Prolimatech PK-1 or Gelid GC Extreme as they are the top 2 performing thermal pastes according to real-life studies: http://skinneelabs.com/2011-thermal-paste-review-comparison/

If you want to shave off that extra degree or two, you can try for liquid metal but that's extremely expensive per application whereas you can get several grams of GC-Exteme or PK-1 for ~$10 that would last you many applications.

If you are in the USA and want to spend even less money, then MWave often has sales of MX-2 thermal paste at ~$1 per gram, sometimes with free shipping. MX-2 isn't quite as good as PK-1/GC-Extreme but it's still better than AS5.

The Intel stock cooler is ok if you never overclock so I don't know why you would want to waste money on a CM Hyper 212 Evo. Just clean your stock cooler once in a while (blow off the dust).

The paste that comes with the 212 Evo is okay but not that great... it's not even as good as AS5 if I am not mistaken. But since the 212 Evo is so efficient, it doesn't matter... you could use chocolate as thermal paste for the 212 Evo and it would still cool better than the stock cooler. But, once again, it is more cost-effective to get a tube of PK-1 and save the remainder for future applications, rather than buying a 212 Evo for more money when you don't need that kind of cooling power, since you do not overclock.
 
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Only Artic Silver 5 3.5gb available.
Or should I try Noctua NT-H1 or Cm Thermal Fusion 400 ?
Or even cheap Cooler Master Vortex 211P Cooler available @Rs.900/- and comes a little tube of CM Thermal Paste too ?
 
Noctua NT-H1 is almost as good as PK-1: http://skinneelabs.com/icp-nth1-oczfreeze/4/

According to that link you gave, the NT-H1 is 500 Rs. for ~15 applications, vs 600 Rs. for the AS5 at 15-25 applications. So the AS5 is not much cheaper and maybe even more expensive if it's closer to the 15 applications than 25. Plus AS5 is still electrically conductive which is dangerous if you accidentally get any on your motherboard. And AS5 is definitely not as good quality paste as the Noctua NT-H1.

It's not necessary to buy a CPU cooler for something you won't even oc. Stock is fine. Just clean the stock cooler and wipe off the old thermal paste with Isopropyl Alcohol and let it dry for several minutes (or use a hair dryer to speed up the drying process), then use a rice-grain-sized portion of Noctua NT-H1 on the center of the heatspreader, and re-apply the stock cooler. You will be fine.
 
Try to clean your cpu surface with filter paper and 99% rubbing alcohol to remove traces of old thermal compound which has caked, before applying new stuff. Personally I like Arctic Cooling MX4. It's among the best, if not the best.
 
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make sure to clean the CPU and heatsink! If temps got high because all you did was change the mobo, then you must've reused the stock thermal paste.
 
Remove stock cooler
clean cpu and cooler mating surfaces with alcohol
apply fresh thermal paste
call it a day.
 
If your case can fit it, I don't see why you shouldn't just get a new cooler. On a CPU that old, I imagine then stock cooler's getting a bit long in the tooth. A hyper 212 would constitute a dramatic improvement over an aging Intel cooler. Is the old hyper 212 (cheaper, non-evo) available in your country?
 
Buying a new cooler for an ancient CPU on a dead socket makes no sense. Even if the cooler came with more modern brackets, why waste money like that. Save it for an actual CPU upgrade. You can get free stock coolers with a lot of boxed CPU sales and it will do a hell of a lot more than sticking a new cooler on an ancient GPU.

The reason why thermal paste is a better buy for non-overclockers using old CPUs, imho, is that it's cheaper than a cooler and you can get a few grams for a few bucks worth or equivalent, so it's a good long-term investment that you can take with you to new PC builds.
 
70% is cheaper and more easily available than 91%. 70% IPA is the same stuff, just with more wait time for evaporation. Use a hairdryer if you can't wait.
 
blastingcap said:
70% is cheaper and more easily available than 91%. 70% IPA is the same stuff, just with more wait time for evaporation. Use a hairdryer if you can't wait.
Click to expand...
It's cheaper because it has a higher water content.
You can also use acetone (without additives).
 
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Revolution 11 said:
I doubt Arctic Silver 5 is as bad as you are saying it is. This review did a in-depth review of many TIMs and AS5 performed quite well. The conclusion is that application method is much more important than the TIM picked.


http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=150&Itemid=62
Click to expand...

If you are talking to me, AS5 isn't that bad but it isn't that good for the price. It is also electrically capacitive, making it unnecessarily dangerous. Furthermore it takes forever to "cure."

If you want to go cheap get MX-2 when on sale for $1 or less per gram w/ free shipping at mwave. It will give you better performance than the AS5 without the drawbacks of AS5.

If you want high performance go liquid metal (if you can stomach the price and drawbacks) or else PK-1, Gelic GC Extreme, and a few others like the Noctua NT-H1, etc. They have worse price/perf than MX-2, but since thermal paste is pretty cheap to begin with, many people are okay with paying twice the price to gain ~2 degrees C in cooling over MX-2.

Scroll down near the bottom of this: http://skinneelabs.com/arctic-silver-ceramique-review/4/

I don't trust benchmarkreviews as they have opaque methodology... nothing about contact pressure or repeatability or anything. Heck I post a lot of other reviews showing the MX-2 beating AS5, such as: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/geek_tested_17_thermal_pastes_face?page=0,1
 
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AS5 isn't conductive, it's SLIGHTLY capacitive, big difference. As mentioned, there are better compounds out there now. MX4 is my current favorite, but NT-H1 isn't bad either (although doesn't perform as well). THAT said, TIM is 90% application and 10% substance.

OP, I think a Hyper 212 would be the best solution by and far. As I said, TIM makes little difference as long as you use the right amount and get adequate coverage with no air bubbles. The Hyper 212 is a great (and cheap!) little cooler that will work wonders compared to the stock Intel cooler, go for it! :thumbsup:
 
blastingcap said:
70% is cheaper and more easily available than 91%. 70% IPA is the same stuff, just with more wait time for evaporation. Use a hairdryer if you can't wait.
Click to expand...


a bottle of 91% is around 91 cents. god forbid you spend a few more pennies on this 😵😵😵
 
billyb0b said:
a bottle of 91% is around 91 cents. god forbid you spend a few more pennies on this 😵😵😵
Click to expand...

God forbid you actually read my post where I talked about both cost and availability. Most drugstores and grocery stores have 70%; it's very easily available. Not all hardware stores have higher concentrations. Perhaps you should read posts in their entirety before responding. And God forbid that you get some cheap and available 70% and blow dry whatever you are cleaning for several seconds. 😵 😵 😵 91% is not magically better than 70%, get over it and just get whatever is available.

Edit: Apparently CVS and other full-line drugstores do have 91% IPA, my bad. I was thinking of grocery drugstores.
 
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Every drug store and many grocery stores I've been in stock 91% isopropyl.
If someone has any electrical issues with AS5 they aren't applying it correctly.
If they aren't applying such a simple thing correctly, they shouldn't be working inside their case at all.
 
Recently when I needed IPA in a hurry, I went to Safeway and Ace Hardware and neither had 91%. I could have kept looking, but I wasn't going to waste more time and gasoline driving around for 91% when 70% is good enough. I said screw it, give me the 70% and I'll just blow dry it.

As for the "you aren't doing it right" stuff, yes that's true you wouldn't be doing it right but it doesn't address the problem: AS5 is priced higher than better-performing pastes that do NOT have that drawback (good for beginners or sloppy appliers of paste), and that do NOT have long cure times. While I have never dripped paste onto the mobo or anything, and maybe you haven't either, I'm willing to bet that others have done so at some point. It's just one extra hassle that other pastes do NOT have.

Nothing you say in AS5's defense will change the fact that it is outdated. It's still good paste, just not the best bang for the buck, nor the best performing, and it comes with drawbacks that many others pastes do not have (cure time and capacitance).

FWIW, I have no hate towards Arctic and have routinely recommended their fans and Arctic MX-2 and MX-4. I just don't understand those of you who worship AS5 as if it's the best paste or something when it is so clearly not.
 
I have AS5 in my house right now, so I'm not going to waste time and gasoline driving around for something that's marginally better and costs less.
 
Blain said:
I have AS5 in my house right now, so I'm not going to waste time and gasoline driving around for something that's marginally better and costs less.
Click to expand...

Then you presumably understand why I gave up driving around for IPA 91% and settled for IPA 70%. I needed IPA and I needed it that day.. wasn't going to waste hours and gasoline chasing a product that wasn't much better so long as you have a hair dryer.

If I had some AS5 left over I'd keep using it because it's still good paste even by today's standards. But if I ran out I'd probably go for MX-2 which is marginally better and dirt cheap when on sale at mwave w/ free shipping, or if I felt like splurging I'd get Gelid GC Extreme or Prolimatech PK-1. Possibly others depending on price.
 
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