the local computer store sells little packets of them for 2 bucks. I bought a pack and used it for my cheap pc and had no problems. Id like to buy this stuff and apply it to my good pc, so besides temps, would there be any other issues? always see people here recommending good thermal paste, so i hope taking a short cut wont affect me. I wouldnt mind if the difference in temps was like 5 degrees.
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how important is good thermal paste?
- Thread starter etegv
- Start date
decent paste is always important especially while overclocking as u wanna have optimal heat transfer otherwise things tend to degrade faster...i'm lazy so i buy the one that looks like a bottle of white out @ frys...i've heard good things about mx-2 and mx-4
i'm still using my arctic silver 5 from time to time lol
i'm still using my arctic silver 5 from time to time lol
All other things being equal, the vast majority of thermal pastes score within a 5 degree range, and the few that are comparatively really bad (yeah, Rosewill, I'm talking about you) only go 5 degrees higher than that range:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Thermal-Compound-Roundup-February-2012/1490/5
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Thermal-Compound-Roundup-February-2012/1490/5
The silicone based stuff will start to seperate after a while and can cause hot spots on the die.
The stuff that the OEMs use (Dell) had a very bad problem with this during the P4 days.
I probably fixed upwards of 100 machines that the only real problem was that the thermal paste had started seperating and caused the computer to crash because of hot spots on the processor where the silicone basically puddled to and was thus providing almost no heat transfer whatsoever.
Some of the junky white stuff that is not silicone based will dry up after a while which will also greatly hinder cooling performance. Might as well use peanut butter if you are going to use that junk.
AS-5 and IC Diamond are my choice, with the Arctic ceramique also being a good one. Arctic alumina is also a decent one.
My current choice is IC Diamond though. It has better thermal conductivity than pretty much anything easily available right now.
The stuff that the OEMs use (Dell) had a very bad problem with this during the P4 days.
I probably fixed upwards of 100 machines that the only real problem was that the thermal paste had started seperating and caused the computer to crash because of hot spots on the processor where the silicone basically puddled to and was thus providing almost no heat transfer whatsoever.
Some of the junky white stuff that is not silicone based will dry up after a while which will also greatly hinder cooling performance. Might as well use peanut butter if you are going to use that junk.
AS-5 and IC Diamond are my choice, with the Arctic ceramique also being a good one. Arctic alumina is also a decent one.
My current choice is IC Diamond though. It has better thermal conductivity than pretty much anything easily available right now.
Do not sweat it out over thermal paste. I was using the stuff that came with my Hyper 1212 EVO before going over to my H110. Temps were never in danger of being too high under any situation. I was even running more voltage at the time. Thermal paste is like a lot of things, marketing. You do not need the absolute best to have a PC run for a long time and be perfectly fine.
I switched from IC Diamond to Phobya HeGrease, temp diff for me was 1-2c, not exactly a huge jump, but it was more noticeable under load
harlock0083
n00b
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- Apr 3, 2013
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Only problem I had with IC Diamond is that its was super hard to spread out easily. In hindsight I should have just squeezed a pea sized amount and let the pressure from the hs mounts spread it.
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2009
- Messages
- 8,423
Like everybody has said, it won't matter that much. However if you're going for max overclocks, 4 or 5 degrees can be huge and could mean a couple extra MHz. Nothing that should keep you up at night but it is worth it to try to get the best stuff you can if you're overclocking.