ic diamond thermal paste..

G

groebuck

2[H]4U
Joined
Mar 9, 2000
Messages
2,636
I thought it was just hype but i used it on my overclocked sandy bridge and it lowered my temps 10c - no lie. Running intel burn in on high - i went from 79c @ 5th run to 69c...
 
Yeah, it works good but it sucks to deal with because it's so thick and hard to spread. The advised application method isn't the greatest.
 
advised application method works great. No need to spread it.. do what it says, and it's all good.
 
stockwiz said:
advised application method works great. No need to spread it.. do what it says, and it's all good.
Click to expand...

Yep. Simple. Open package, read back of package, follow direction.

I did it my way at first and it sucked. I followed the directions and I dropped 10 degrees using the same freaking paste the second time,.
 
Not sure what you used before this "magical" stuff, but I bet you can get some basic paste from Radio Shack, apply it correctly and get within 1 or 2 degrees of the same temps
 
seanmcd said:
Not sure what you used before this "magical" stuff, but I bet you can get some basic paste from Radio Shack, apply it correctly and get within 1 or 2 degrees of the same temps
Click to expand...

Absolute rubbish. You could read some of the benchmarks or try some of it yourself.

IC diamond 24 gives me 5-6 degrees improvement over arctic ceramique on i7 930 @ 4Ghz. I had to use it to keep my temperatures stable because I liked the look of my Tuniq Tower over the (better performing) Mega Shadow.

Diamond is one of the best thermal conductors, much better than silver, and it's no surprise that it's very good as a thermal interface.
 
joxang said:
Absolute rubbish. You could read some of the benchmarks or try some of it yourself.

IC diamond 24 gives me 5-6 degrees improvement over arctic ceramique on i7 930 @ 4Ghz. I had to use it to keep my temperatures stable because I liked the look of my Tuniq Tower over the (better performing) Mega Shadow.

Diamond is one of the best thermal conductors, much better than silver, and it's no surprise that it's very good as a thermal interface.
Click to expand...

this. The only thermal paste better is gallium based but that has it's own set of annoyances. In my opinion, IC diamond is the best overall of any thermal compound. Some people just say stuff and they have no idea what they are talking about.
 
seanmcd said:
Not sure what you used before this "magical" stuff, but I bet you can get some basic paste from Radio Shack, apply it correctly and get within 1 or 2 degrees of the same temps
Click to expand...

I have radioshack basic paste and guess what.... waste of money compared to IC diamond.
 
interesting. anyway picked some up at xoxide, microcenter and some others were sold out.
 
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. 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.
 
Last edited:
I've never used IC diamond, but MX2 and OCZ freeze works fine for me. I've had too many people tell me how great it is then I look at reviews of it and it isn't that much cooler than other compounds that usually cost less.
 
I got a free tube of it from someone on another forum so I could review it. I had been using Shin-Etsu compound up till now, with pretty good results. There were no contact issues with my Shin-Etsu, as I had seated and re-seated multiple times, and was sure of perfect contact.

With the IC Diamond I'm seeing temperature about 5-7*C less than with the Shin-Etsu. Also on my GTX 480 load temps decreased by around 4-5*C. Not to bad for just a TIM replacement. Also I don't think its that bad to clean up, I just let an alcohol pad sit on top of it while I do other things, by the time I'm ready it just wipes off.
 
I got myself a free sample of it but have not tested it yet. The whole evga forum swears by it. For my CPU I am currently on Indigo Xtreme which is a stunning compound but very sensitive to pressure. Basically once you screw in you heatsink, you better never move it again and it better not wiggle. I had mine not completely screwed in when I started an unintentional reflow (booted in to windows with the cores at 100C) Then screwed in the heatsink while it was still reflowing and bam! I get 10C less than with the best Shin Etsu paste I used. I am getting 22C-24C idle across 6 cores temp with 21C ambient with a coolit vantage I will test the ICD on a graphic card and see how it compares.
 
Rafale said:
I got myself a free sample of it but have not tested it yet. The whole evga forum swears by it. For my CPU I am currently on Indigo Xtreme which is a stunning compound but very sensitive to pressure. Basically once you screw in you heatsink, you better never move it again and it better not wiggle. I had mine not completely screwed in when I started an unintentional reflow (booted in to windows with the cores at 100C) Then screwed in the heatsink while it was still reflowing and bam! I get 10C less than with the best Shin Etsu paste I used. I am getting 22C-24C idle across 6 cores temp with 21C ambient with a coolit vantage I will test the ICD on a graphic card and see how it compares.
Click to expand...

Just a heads up, when I applied it to the GTX480 it took about 3 tries to get a good result. I think its just the way the heatsink is held down. IC lists a certain force your looking for, and Im pretty sure the retention screws on the 480 dont quite get it there. I applied the ball of diamond, and put the heatsink on and applied a bit of even force and wiggled just slightly, and that was the time that got me the solid drop in temps.
 
wow. quite a # of posts after mine, Yes it did lower the temps 10 C. It was not to hard to apply other than the fact you use a pea sized blob and have to warm it (the tube) in warm water first. other than that it was simple. I am going to apply it to my 930 next using corsair h50.
 
groebuck said:
wow. quite a # of posts after mine, Yes it did lower the temps 10 C. It was not to hard to apply other than the fact you use a pea sized blob and have to warm it (the tube) in warm water first. other than that it was simple. I am going to apply it to my 930 next using corsair h50.
Click to expand...

What paste did you use before?
That stuff shouldn't lower temps by 10C compared to CF3/MX3/MX4/TX4, etc. A few, yes, but not 10C ...but with Ceramique, sure....the C/W transfer of ceramique is bad by today's standards...it's fine for very uneven surfaces (and very safe) but just bad for current Quads, hexes and video cards (going from Ceramique to MX3 (CF3 lowered my 6970 temps by over 10 C).

And if an original TT120 is being used, then I'm not surprised. The original TT120 was designed for dual cores, and can be very bad for overclocked quads. Basically, the heatpipes can't remove the heat fast enough once the watts go way up, and the heatpipes basically liquify and don't recondense, so you wind up getting something like the temps bottoming out at a certain point (lets say 70C), then they suddenly start rising and don't stop until the system crashes. Not because the fins can't dissipate the heat, but because the pipes can't conduct the heat away from the base...

There were posts over on XS showing this.

I still have my TT120. It was better than the ORIGINAL Ultra 120 on a Dual core, but couldn't handle the QX9650 overclocked at all with volts up. When I switched from that to a TRUE Black, the temps went down by 10C (and that's referring to the point where the TT120 reached the point where the temps bottomed out then started rising up to TJmax slowly...

BTW if you're referring to the TT120 respin that was designed for quads a few years later, then that was a pretty decent cooler...
 
Doubl3KiLL said:
I got a free tube of it from someone on another forum so I could review it. I had been using Shin-Etsu compound up till now, with pretty good results. There were no contact issues with my Shin-Etsu, as I had seated and re-seated multiple times, and was sure of perfect contact.

With the IC Diamond I'm seeing temperature about 5-7*C less than with the Shin-Etsu. Also on my GTX 480 load temps decreased by around 4-5*C. Not to bad for just a TIM replacement. Also I don't think its that bad to clean up, I just let an alcohol pad sit on top of it while I do other things, by the time I'm ready it just wipes off.
Click to expand...

Damn, I just built using Shin Etsu. I get about 25C at 4.4 GHz on my 2600k at idle.
 
matrix563 said:
i still use as5 but this diamond stuff interests me
Click to expand...

AS5 has been owned by the new stuff out, like the diamond or shin etsu. AS5 is outdated, but still performs ok. For any new build that you're planning to OC I wouldn't go AS5 anymore.
 
IC Diamond FTW.

It really shows its power over 60-70C where AS5 and other lesser pastes give up and allow rapid increases in temperature. The performance IC Diamond delivers in the high end makes it the only suitable choice for GPU's imho.
 
Just bought some of this after reading countless great user opinions, will use it when the new P8P67 board replaces this 'defective' one. Currently using AS5 (idle 28*C, load 65*C), so will be interested to see the difference in temps.
 
R-Type said:
IC Diamond FTW.

It really shows its power over 60-70C where AS5 and other lesser pastes give up and allow rapid increases in temperature. The performance IC Diamond delivers in the high end makes it the only suitable choice for GPU's imho.
Click to expand...


LOL I don't doubt you but were you paid to say that on a commercial? ;):D
 
ShuttleLuv said:
LOL I don't doubt you but were you paid to say that on a commercial? ;):D
Click to expand...

Lol, that does read a bit like a tagline doesn't it? Sorry about that.

Definitely not sponsored, about a year and a half ago I tried 6 different pastes trying to get my GTX 280 under control. IC Diamond was over 10C cooler and on my cpu's it typically dropped the folding load by at least 5C.
 
groebuck said:
I thought it was just hype but i used it on my overclocked sandy bridge and it lowered my temps 10c - no lie. Running intel burn in on high - i went from 79c @ 5th run to 69c...
Click to expand...

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.

polive said:
AS5 has been owned by the new stuff out, like the diamond or shin etsu. AS5 is outdated, but still performs ok. For any new build that you're planning to OC I wouldn't go AS5 anymore.
Click to expand...

Well actually...AS5 is one of the best if applied properly. Google Benchmark Reviews 80 TIM test.
 
um going by google for computer hardware advice is like going by Richard Simmons on how to properly please a woman.
 
ShuttleLuv said:
um going by google for computer hardware advice is like going by Richard Simmons on how to properly please a woman.
Click to expand...

Dude, you have to Google it because Kyle decided he hates Benchmark Reviews, so we can't give you direct links because the forum software filters them. Just Google the phrase as-typed in his post, and it's the first result.

But I'll give you the important bits because you're obviously too lazy.

Core 2 Quad 2.66 OCed to 3.2.
Official installation/curing instructions were followed for all pastes that include them.

Results: top 40 TIMs all within 1 C of each other.
top 20 TIMs all within .7 C of each other.

Now, it's true that a Core 2 Quad at 3.2 does not represent a bleeding-edge overclocked load, but it is a good example of a moderate overclock (what the vast majority of people would attempt), so it is relevant. I certainly believe that a more heavily-overclocked system could spread things out a bit (perhaps as much as 3-5C), but I seriously doubt these magical 10C claims.
 
defaultluser said:
Dude, you have to Google it because Kyle decided he hates Benchmark Reviews, so we can't give you direct links because the forum software filters them. Just Google the phrase as-typed in his post, and it's the first result.

But I'll give you the important bits because you're obviously too lazy.

Core 2 Quad 2.66 OCed to 3.2.
Official installation/curing instructions were followed for all pastes that include them.

Results: top 40 TIMs all within 1 C of each other.
top 20 TIMs all within .7 C of each other.

Now, it's true that a Core 2 Quad at 3.2 does not represent a bleeding-edge overclocked load, but it is a good example of a moderate overclock (what the vast majority of people would attempt), so it is relevant. I certainly believe that a more heavily-overclocked system could spread things out a bit (perhaps as much as 3-5C), but I seriously doubt these magical 10C claims.
Click to expand...
Try it on a GPU, its no bullshit.
 
Harry1969 said:
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. 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.
Click to expand...

A pain lol.... a paper towel and some Electronics Cleaner from the store and it comes off in one swipe... okay maybe a second swipe to clean the residue from the fist swipe.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top