Aftermarket Thermal Paste required?
- Thread starter swchoi89
- Start date
Oh... sorry for the dumb question but.... is Arctic Silver > CM paste? Or does CM even manufacture their own thermal paste?
So do you highly recommend that I get this paste?
cracker2
Member
Cm does I believe.Arctic silver is a different brand.Here is the top thermal greases from what I read.
Phobya hegrease(8.5 w/mk)
http://www.techgeekshop.com/product/?id=1029939
Arctic Silver 5(8.7 w/mk)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007
Theses other 2 are thermal pads:
Fujipoly Ultra Extreme System Builder(17.0 w/mk)
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/17499/thr-181/Fujipoly_Ultra_Extreme_System_Builder_Thermal_Pad_-_60_x_50_x_05_-_Thermal_Conductivity_170_WmK.html?id=SG9YLpPC
#2 Indigo xtreme(20.0 w/mk)
http://indigo-xtreme.com/
Aftermarket Thermal Paste or pad required?No not really.But if you want to keep the temps down as much as possible,yes.
Phobya hegrease(8.5 w/mk)
http://www.techgeekshop.com/product/?id=1029939
Arctic Silver 5(8.7 w/mk)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007
Theses other 2 are thermal pads:
Fujipoly Ultra Extreme System Builder(17.0 w/mk)
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/17499/thr-181/Fujipoly_Ultra_Extreme_System_Builder_Thermal_Pad_-_60_x_50_x_05_-_Thermal_Conductivity_170_WmK.html?id=SG9YLpPC
#2 Indigo xtreme(20.0 w/mk)
http://indigo-xtreme.com/
Aftermarket Thermal Paste or pad required?No not really.But if you want to keep the temps down as much as possible,yes.
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I've not had the time to find 99% isopropyl alcohol, so I'm using the cooler master stuff and have several tubes of AS 5 laying around the shop.
With push/pull aftermarket fans, never hit over 60C under load @ stock clocks.
Heard IC Diamond is good as well. Perhaps I'll compare the three this winter when I have more time off work.
With push/pull aftermarket fans, never hit over 60C under load @ stock clocks.
Heard IC Diamond is good as well. Perhaps I'll compare the three this winter when I have more time off work.
You don't need 99% for isopropyl alochol to clean it off. I've used 70% with no problems, just takes a little more scrubbing with the coffee filter.
Yes the Arctic Silver 5 (and most other name brand thermal pastes) will be better than the Cooler Master stuff. The Cooler Master stuff works just fine but if you're really picky about your temps and want them as low as possible, a tube of Arctic Silver 5 is a good idea.
Yes the Arctic Silver 5 (and most other name brand thermal pastes) will be better than the Cooler Master stuff. The Cooler Master stuff works just fine but if you're really picky about your temps and want them as low as possible, a tube of Arctic Silver 5 is a good idea.
bomberboysk
Active Member
W/mk is not a very useful measurement in regards to thermal interface materials,as many other factors come into play. Arctic silver themselves actually has a whitepaper in regards to that themselves (not sure if it's publicly available). Before discontinuation, Arctic Silver Matrix was actually a superior compound to 5 (which is a compound that is fairly dated, to be honest), as it was a rebranded version of TIM Consultants TC Grease 0098.
Thermal pads are used where larger gaps must be filled. Thermal Paste is used because of the real world, under ideal circumstances (two perfectly flat surfaces) it wouldn't be required. Thinner applications are better, as compared to the aluminum/copper of a heatsink/cpu, it's a terrible thermal conductor.
ICD isn't that great of a thermal paste when it comes down to it. It only has an advantage on very poorly machined heatsinks, due to the high thermal conductivity of diamonds. The problem with diamonds however is how large the mesh size is compared to a micronized silver or aluminum compound, which doesn't allow it to fill gaps nearly as effectively as compounds not based on diamond.
Any of the newer high end compounds will perform very similarly, and you'll generally see a difference of a few degrees at most with proper application. I tend to use Shin Etsu's X23-7783D myself as I still have quite a good amount of it left in reserve from when I was testing thermal interface materials on a synthetic test bed. Most of the time it comes down to personal preference, or what's available for a good price at the time.
Yep, 70% will take more work, but you'll be fine with it. The particles left behind are generally micronized silver/aluminum and not solvent anyhow, which works to fill in the small gaps on the surface of the heatsink. Years back heatsink manufacturers would apply AS5 and other thermal interface compounds to their heatsink bases and then buff the base before sending them out for review because they would perform better. Other things that also work well are grain alcohol (eg. Everclear, Gemclear, etc.), methanol (fuel line antifreeze - read all applicable warnings on the bottle), or acetone.
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He was talking about the concentrations in rubbing alcohol for the purposes of removing thermal paste from the processor and heatsink. Basically 70 percent works fine, it just requires more scrubbing than 90 percent.