ic diamond thermal paste..

[ghost6303]

You're not going to improve temps 10 degrees just by using IC Diamond instead of Arctic Silver or any other thermal grease. You probably had mounting issues.

quoted for truth. there is not a single thermal compound out there that is 10 degrees better then any other. all benchmarks or tests run on TIMs end in a victory being declared based on a 1 or 2 degree difference, which is well within a standard deviation.

its great that you lowered your temps, but do not declare this to be a super magical fantastic thermal compound because of anecdotal evidence that can easily be explained by other factors.

 

[theseeker]

I agree with the above but Shin-Etsu is better than IC.

 

[stevexyz]

the reviews from individual users indeed show amazing results. after all, you get what you paid for

 

[DeadSkull]

Speaking of 10C drops...I just dropped 8C by applying the same TIM (Prolimatech Pk-1) differently.
Instead of thin line down the middle I did a rice grain in the middle, then two smaller dots toward the lower part of cpu. My reasoning is since NH-D14 is such a massive heatsink and with three fans the combined weight is going to apply more pressure onto the lower part of the chip when the case is upright.

Voila...temps dropped from 82-83C to 74-75C when priming small fft at 4.41GHz.

 

[VenomousDesigns]

I was looking into this IC Diamond stuff until I read the reports about it taking off the CPU Details/Polishing effect.

Now looking into Shin-Etsu but its BLOODY rare. Currently using the stock Noctua TIM and worried about my 32-24 idle temps on my STOCK 2600k - it is bloody hot here in Australia though..

 

[MrSneis]

I recently learned that my local frys has shin etsu, it's damn expensive, something like $8 for a few grams tube. I've used it maybe twice and have probably 1 application left ><

If I were you I would just use whatever is available locally, it's really not going to be worth it to import something so expensive!

 

[theseeker]

I recently learned that my local frys has shin etsu, it's damn expensive, something like $8 for a few grams tube. I've used it maybe twice and have probably 1 application left ><

If I were you I would just use whatever is available locally, it's really not going to be worth it to import something so expensive!

Shin-Etsu is outstanding! In this case, you get what you pay for.

 

[XacTactX]

Your previous TIM application must have been horrid. Difference in between AS5 and something like IC Diamond 7 should be 1-2C at best, depending on flatness of cpu ihs and heatsink base.



Well actually...AS5 is one of the best if applied properly. Google Benchmark Reviews 80 TIM test.

Both of these. There are no reviews in existence confirming the mass jubilation on this thread. ICD is not going to give you a 10 C drop compared to the other mainstay TIM such as AS5 and MX-2. More like 1-2 C.

There is a problem with Benchmark Reviews' comparison. They do not let the other thermal pastes cure as long as they let AS5 cure. AS5 gets 200 hours, the other ones get at most 48 hours or 90% of them are tested immediately. If you read HardOCP's thermal paste shootout you will see that all the paste reviewed drop temperatures the longer they are allowed to cure, even NT-H1. So AS5 receives a positive bias compared to the other ones. It's still good, but if you are buying new TIM, AS Matrix or ICD or MX-3 would do you better. This whole thing is moot though, because any of the thermal pastes in question will not perform so much worse than another that it would prohibit you from reaching a certain overclock. And if you're that serious about temperatures, you could lap the heatsink for the same cost in sandpaper.

 

[DualOwn]

it runs cooler now because you cleaned all the dust that was on there.

 

[Mr Mean]

I'm not a fan of the IC Diamond, it's very abrasive (erased the printing on an AMD 620) and it's a pia to remove. I've tried IC Diamond and I get just as good (if not better) results with Arctic Silver or OCZ Freeze.

This is what I have been reading about IC Diamond. That's basically the only reason why I am not touching it. MX3 is been working great for me.

 

[Warrior]

Okay, so I bit on buying the stuff this week, and JUST got done putting it through its paces on my 5850. (sorry, wrong thread?) And I have some screen shots of it before an after.

My Original paste was OCZ Ultra 5+ with a paper thin layer on the core. Say whatever you want about this compound, its cheap and normally good stuff... hehe, but this IC Diamond compound really shined, I have to say!

Please note: I use the Stock cooler that came with the 5850. And, just so you know, in the screen shots, MSI Afterburner shows both of my cards and GPU2 is a 9600GTO for Physx/Folding, just ignore it...

So here is my normal idle with OCZ U5+. Not too bad really....

And, this is my load temperature. Kind of High with these OCs, because of the stock cooler... But, very stable. I also show the temp of the core before and after the OCs.

So, I have been gaming on this TIM spread for a little over a month, so its well set.

Soo, I yanked the card out of my computer, and used both Arctic Clean 1 and 2 on the core, and applied just a small bit of IC Diamond directly in the middle the core. Tightened it all up and put it to the test!

Now here is the results AFTER applying IC Diamond. The IDLE temps arn't really improved, because I have great airflow in my case. So that's almost to be expected... But, it is 2 degrees better.

But the LOAD temps are drastic! NOTE: Normally, I have the fan set to auto and with the previous TIM, it got a high of 40%. But, with this IC Diamond, the temps never got high enough for the fan to kick up to 40% (!!). SO, I felt, for a good comparison to lock the fan at 40%. And, well look at the difference!

Conclusion: All in all, I think the 10 bucks I paid for the IC Diamond was a little on the extreme side for a 5 degree difference. But, Ultimately I am impressed!

Now, this isn't a 10 degree difference like some have claimed, but that wasn't a guarantee. What was guaranteed was results, and I feel I got them. You can knock the compound I was using before, because It might not be popular, but its probably the same as AS5... So, ultimately you're still supporting the fact that this IC Diamond is extremely better stuff. And, I would agree.