What are folks using for thermal paste these days?

Coollaboratory liquid ultra for me...
- It's actually very easy to paint on
- Seems to mate well on both surfaces
- Performance so far is amazing
*I don't buy all that stuff about it dripping everywhere or pumping out.... I'd say that should be taken with a grain of salt.

I also tried EK Indigo XS but I don't think I'd use it again
- Installation made me poop my pants with fear
- Installation is not straight forward due to the wedge shape of the ETI material
- Performance was actually pretty amazing though...

I also tried Gelix Extreme which was quite good, and Prolimatech Pk-3 which was marginally warmer.

I have a tube of Arctic Silver 5 that is somewhere north of 10 years old. A Scythe Ninja 4 is on its way to my place right now (should arrive Friday) and I was wondering if I should use the paste that comes with that (likely Thermal Elixer 2 but it isn't expressly stated as such) or should I use my old AS5? I am not looking to buy anything else, just picking between those 2. Anyone have experience using very old Arctic Silver 5?

The NT-H1 has problems with pump out so heavy overclockers will have problems with it. if I were to get a tube now, I'd look look at the Gelid extreme, PK-3 or CM Mastergel nano. There are better pastes but they will scratch cpu heatspreader enough to remove markings (IC diamond) or stain/corrode incompatible surfaces (liquid metal pastes).

Gelid GC Extreme on CPU lid, Coollaboratory Liquid Pro on CPU die and GPU.

My folks are using arctic MX 4 and sometimes arrctic silver 5. Both are low cost and easy to apply. No problems faced till now.
You can also use this silicone paste.

I recently had a good experience with the Thermaltake TG-7 I had to pick up at Best Buy for $8. Spreads well and is producing great temps.

heelix said:

Just finished off my last tube of Artic Silver, after having ordered several big tubes a few years back. What is the current 'goto' thermal paste for builders these days? (Took me way too many years to burn through what I had).

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ARCTIC MX-4. Non-conductive is the way to go especially if you're putting a water-block on your GPU. Don't have to worry about putting too much and you can probably be more liberal in application with the CPU too.

zamardii12 said:

ARCTIC MX-4. Non-conductive is the way to go especially if you're putting a water-block on your GPU. Don't have to worry about putting too much and you can probably be more liberal in application with the CPU too.

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It's not just conductivity, it's also capacitance. You want to avoid pastes like AS5 if you're going to have spillover because even though it's not conductive, it's still capacitive due to the silver in the formula. MX-4 is both non-conductive and non-capacitive.

I still use Diamond 7 thermal paste. Great performance and longevity, just be sure to warm it up a bit before applying.