Reusable TIM?

pendragon1 said:
that's the cool fresh air not he pad. you'd need to retest with paste to see the real difference.
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Right, my point was that the pad is cooling my cpu just as effectively as most pastes would with basically zero chance at messing up an installation.The pad is keeping my cpu just a few degrees above ambient. That is right up there with high end pastes given the same cooling situation.
 
I bought the bigger size PAD and it is slightly bigger than a Ryzen heat spreader. Since no chance of it hitting anything electrical, I just used it as is. When I removed the 1700x with EK water block with the clips under the screws that hold down the block -> it acted like a jack and ripped the 1700x out of the socket, luckily it was a straight up action and no pins appear to be bent or missing. What a mess too, I obviously put too much Tim on as well. The pad seems to be working well, hard to compare results to paste but looks to be similar, took out the 1700x and put in a 2700.

Next time I remove the water block I don't have to worry about ripping the cpu out with it.
 
noko said:
I bought the bigger size PAD and it is slightly bigger than a Ryzen heat spreader. Since no chance of it hitting anything electrical, I just used it as is. When I removed the 1700x with EK water block with the clips under the screws that hold down the block -> it acted like a jack and ripped the 1700x out of the socket, luckily it was a straight up action and no pins appear to be bent or missing. What a mess too, I obviously put too much Tim on as well. The pad seems to be working well, hard to compare results to paste but looks to be similar, took out the 1700x and put in a 2700.

Next time I remove the water block I don't have to worry about ripping the cpu out with it.
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if you do ever have to deal with another pinned chip, warm it up first to help the tim loosen and release easier.
 
pendragon1 said:
if you do ever have to deal with another pinned chip, warm it up first to help the tim loosen and release easier.
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Yes indeed! Still the design of the EK hold down mechanism screws that does not allow sufficient clearance for the clips when loosening boggles my mind. Now this is an optional way of holding the AM4 compatible block down over the CPU using the original or stock backplate, since EK rubber pad was slightly conductive and would prevent the CrossHair 6 from booting. I didn't want to mess with that and called up EK and got the screws that would work with the stock backplate. In other words I never expected unscrewing the damn block will jack/rip out the CPU with it :mad:.

Image below is the larger 40mm x 40mm thermal pad over the Ryzen 2700 and socket, it is bigger but not that much bigger. With the 2700 and CPU mining (as well as GPUs) for over 24 hours, CPU at 67% usage, mining CryptoNightV7, a very heavy Cache algorithm, temperature was 47c which is reasonable. Have not test it with Prime95 yet. Really nice not having to worry about proper spread, air bubbles, curing time and future cleanup. All wins and so far doing a good job.

IC_ThermalPad.png​
 
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Using Prim95, Ryzen 2700 at 4.1ghz, 100% CPU usage for the most part for 30min gave CPU temperature of about 68C with thermal pad. EKWB 360 kit with supremacy block. I had to reduce memory speed from 3200mhz to 2933mhz for stability - will adjust that back up to 3200 once I get that stable. First I need to really test the CPU out and go from there.

Prime95results.png
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Just ordered some so I'll try to do an actual comparison with my 1600 before I swap it out with my 2700x.

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welp 70 hour work weeks screwing over my chance to actually try this stuff out.. hopefully i can test it monday or tuesday.
 
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I installed the graphite thermal pad however for a new CPU/mobo install with Cooler Master 240L RGB. I didn't compare it to any thermal grease but it seems to be doing it job. It's Summer and humid here with thermostat at 75F so my CPU hovers around 40 to 50 Celsius for light PC work/surfing, hit at about 72C during a CPU-Z benchmark.

I got it so I wouldn't have to deal with thermal grease ever drying out as my CPU upgrades are rare, every four years or longer, and I rarely have the time for PC maintenance outside dusting it out.
 
TangledThornz said:
I installed the graphite thermal pad however for a new CPU/mobo install with Cooler Master 240L RGB. I didn't compare it to any thermal grease but it seems to be doing it job. It's Summer and humid here with thermostat at 75F so my CPU hovers around 40 to 50 Celsius for light PC work/surfing, hit at about 72C during a CPU-Z benchmark.

I got it so I wouldn't have to deal with thermal grease ever drying out as my CPU upgrades are rare, every four years or longer, and I rarely have the time for PC maintenance outside dusting it out.
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i went 8 years without replacing the thermal paste on my phenom II 940, still hadn't dried even after all that time.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
i went 8 years without replacing the thermal paste on my phenom II 940, still hadn't dried even after all that time.
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My artic silver dried out on my Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 when I was upgrading it last decade. Can't remember how long it was between applications though. But it was dried and cracked looking.

Anyways, one big downside with the thermal pad is how light it is. It seems lighter than paper and its not sticky or tacky so it'll float across your CPU and onto your mobo if you're not careful and got me freaking as its highly conductive.

YMMV but my advice with this pad is that its worth it if you upgrade, swap or test CPUs often. Also worth it if you ever worry about your thermal paste drying out too as the pad doesn't. If you want max performance then go with the high end thermal paste of your choice.

Last, [H] team should review it too :)
 
Glad to see everyone else getting good results out of this too. I'm never going back to paste. Where's that guy who said it was only good for grandma's computer? He's welcome to continue using obsolete paste while everyone else is upgrading their CPUs more often, with less mess and same performance. It definitely sealed the deal for me with my 1700 / 1800X / 2700X CPUs that I've had.. I'm going to continue upgrading since this will make it a lot less annoying. AMD with AM4 should be promoting this product or slap a square in with their CPUs. I'd rather have this included than a Wraith cooler.
 
Update. I'm back to paste. I was getting higher temps than I liked with my 2600X using a Cooler Master 240L RGB AIO, about 84C with fans going full blast when running Handbrake with the graphite pad. So I decided to try Arctic MX-4 paste, just applied it and now getting peaks of 70C or less with AIO fans set at 40%. Huge difference.100% fans brings it down to 60C.

I'm disappointed that I paid almost $20 for the graphite pad instead of just $6 for the paste.
 
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