Thermal Compound Help Requested (Stock Scythe vs CM vs AS5)

Fallengod

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Jul 2, 2001
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Maybe someone can help me here. It is not a big deal but being lazy I would rather not have to benchmark the 3 different thermal pastes I have on hand. I have AS5 which I have had for years still. On top of that I recently purchased a Scythe Mugen 5 and that comes with stock paste and I also still have the stock Cooler Master tube that came with my Hyper 212+ cooler.

Between these 3 pastes which one would you use? I do not care that much but rather than testing and benchmarking all 3 I figured I could ask here first.

Thanks.
 

UsandThem

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May 4, 2000
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They all (thermal pastes) perform roughly the same:

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thermal-paste-comparison,5108.html

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Fallengod

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Jul 2, 2001
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They all (thermal pastes) perform roughly the same:

Yeah. I tend to take some of those so called "benchmarks" with a grain of salt. I see lots of variations around in peoples reviews. Some show differences, some do not. Thanks though. Lets see if anyone else has any opinion here.
 

UsandThem

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May 4, 2000
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Yeah. I tend to take some of those so called "benchmarks" with a grain of salt. I see lots of variations around in peoples reviews. Some show differences, some do not. Thanks though. Lets see if anyone else has any opinion here.

No problem. You either believe them or not, I figured I'd link the article for you.

All the "top shelf" or premium pastes are so close to each other anymore, very few places bother to review them anymore. Anyways, good luck!
 

Fallengod

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Jul 2, 2001
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No problem. You either believe them or not, I figured I'd link the article for you.

All the "top shelf" or premium pastes are so close to each other anymore, very few places bother to review them anymore. Anyways, good luck!

Yeah that kind of makes sense. I wasnt saying you were wrong. I am talking about in terms of longevity, ease of application etc as well, not just performance. I was just reading some site yesterday that was saying AS5 needs to be reapplied after a certain period of time, which in my mind sounds insane. Who is going to pull off a cooler and reapply compound after so many years. Who does that? Not me. Usually by the time that would happen, its on to a new build.

I am just looking for like, an opinion on which to use out of the 3 I listed. You only have those 3 and you have to pick one. Heh. I am going to install my scythe mugen 5 tonight so... Scythe paste, CM paste or AS5, you have to pick one. :)
 

UsandThem

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May 4, 2000
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Yeah that kind of makes sense. I wasnt saying you were wrong. I am talking about in terms of longevity, ease of application etc as well, not just performance. I was just reading some site yesterday that was saying AS5 needs to be reapplied after a certain period of time, which in my mind sounds insane. Who is going to pull off a cooler and reapply compound after so many years. Who does that? Not me. Usually by the time that would happen, its on to a new build.

From what I have seen, the premium pastes would be fine for at least 5 years. If I kept a CPU that long and had no plans to upgrade, I'd probably reapply paste around the 5 year mark just for peace of mind.

Even the stock Intel paste on the bottom of their heatsink held up just fine in my son's PC for 5+ years. His temps were the same from the beginning until I replaced his PC. When I removed the heatsink, the paste still looked good and had a good consistency to it.

Now if someone is pushing their CPU to the limit with heavy overclocks and trying for benchmark records and such, I could see replacing it after several years just to be safe, but even then I bet it holds up pretty well for long periods.
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
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AS5 however it has the longest cure time.
Can take up to several hours with load to fully cure.

But out of the 3 listed, i would probably rank it the highest after cure.

The other two are most likely generic goop you get in bulk.

My favorite tho is definitely PK-3 as it has the most consistent mounts.
Meaning you wont see your cores jumping all over the place every time you apply it.

I will not use ICDiamond, because its very abrasive.
Meaning once u apply it, it will micro scratch up your heatsink and leave a blemish.
Very difficult to get off, unless you relap it.
Although it will not hurt performance, nor will you notice it bceause its underside, i still however do not think the extra .3-.4 performance is worth my OCD kicking me in the rear going LAP LAP LAP LAP.
 

Fallengod

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Jul 2, 2001
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Thanks for input. I installed my Scythe Mugen 5 last night and went with the AS5. I wanted to get through the tube of it anyways since I have had it for forever.

I figured they made little difference anyways, I was just trying to make a decision to try something different or not.

On a side note, at full load (prime95 small ffts) my Scythe Mugen is at 66C and basically dead silent versus my CM Hyper 212 plus which was 73-75C and insanely loud and annoying. So yay for silence.
 

UsandThem

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The Hyper 212 is a good budget cooler, but like you found out, there are much better performing units out there. The fan they ship with those is one of the things that hold that cooler back a bit. I've seen several users over the years replace the fan with one from a company like Noctua.

The AS5 cures pretty quickly with normal PC use, so it will reach its peak effectiveness within a few days, so your temps should improve another 1-2 degrees Celsius.

Since I generally use Noctua coolers, I just use their included NT-H1 paste, which I really like.
 

Fallengod

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Jul 2, 2001
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The Hyper 212 is a good budget cooler, but like you found out, there are much better performing units out there. The fan they ship with those is one of the things that hold that cooler back a bit. I've seen several users over the years replace the fan with one from a company like Noctua.

The AS5 cures pretty quickly with normal PC use, so it will reach its peak effectiveness within a few days, so your temps should improve another 1-2 degrees Celsius.

Since I generally use Noctua coolers, I just use their included NT-H1 paste, which I really like.


I was reading about that paste. I was going to purchase some but realized that might be pointless given how much other types of pastes I have atm. I just found I even had some Shin-Etsu unused from a while back too. I almost used that last night but I remembered the AS5 was easier to deal with. I did see that the NT-H1 seems to be maybe the best bang 4 buck paste out there.

I was at one point considering changing the Hyper 212 fan out for something quality like a Noctua or similar, but decided to just buy a new cooler instead for various reasons.
 

aigomorla

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Last edited:

mindless1

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Aug 11, 2001
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The only significant difference is the cheap silicone oil based pastes can separate and dry out over several years, or even less time when used on high thermal density bare cores (no heat spreader on top between core and heatsink).

Will a premium paste shave a couple degrees off? Sometimes, if applied correctly, but if you're within 2 degrees of overheating then something else is wrong.
 

Ranulf

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Jul 18, 2001
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What was the stock paste on the Scythe? Pre-applied on heatsink or just some white paste in a tube? These days since I have several noctua hsf I usually use nt-h1. That or arctic mx-4. I have some kyronaut and prolimatech pk3 on the shelf I need to try.
 

Fallengod

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Jul 2, 2001
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What was the stock paste on the Scythe? Pre-applied on heatsink or just some white paste in a tube? These days since I have several noctua hsf I usually use nt-h1. That or arctic mx-4. I have some kyronaut and prolimatech pk3 on the shelf I need to try.

It was some small little tube that came with the Mugen 5. Not pre-applied.