Shin Etsu...

[wol-va-rine]

not just for cpus, I took apart and cleaned out my 4870 but my temps were still in the 50s idle and the MEMIO was 70s, ouch, so I took it apart again and stripped off the old thermal compound and applied some of the Shin Etsu that I bought here a while back, temps are now in the 40s and MEMIO is in the 50s...fuck yeah...

 

[Mr Mean]

I reapplied MX-3 on my 5970. It went down by three to four degrees in furmark

 

[OldMX]

I applied Shin-Etsu to my HD4870 and my wife's HD4850, everything went flawless, dropped a couple of degrees

 

[compudocs]

I think the thermal paste had little to do with the temp drop so much as finally getting the right positioning of the heatsink.

 

[LAiN_OfTheWired]

Then you'd be wrong compudocs. Once the warranty is up on my videocards, they get completely dismantled and have Arctic Silver 5 applied. Temperature definitely goes down compared to the card even when its brand new. They use really crappy base-level stuff in manufacturing that gets fried in no time at all. AS5 dropped my 3870x2's temps be nearly 8c under load when I had that monster. This BFG GTX 275 I have is registered so I have the lifetime warranty, thus no compound replacement. Idle temps have moved up nearly 4c since I bought the card a year ago, and load temps have gone up almost 7c when F@H (I set the fan manually to 100% when folding, btw).

Need to get my hands on some shin etsu when I grab that 5850 vapor-x...

 

[compudocs]

Then you'd be wrong compudocs. Once the warranty is up on my videocards, they get completely dismantled and have Arctic Silver 5 applied. Temperature definitely goes down compared to the card even when its brand new. They use really crappy base-level stuff in manufacturing that gets fried in no time at all. AS5 dropped my 3870x2's temps be nearly 8c under load when I had that monster. This BFG GTX 275 I have is registered so I have the lifetime warranty, thus no compound replacement. Idle temps have moved up nearly 4c since I bought the card a year ago, and load temps have gone up almost 7c when F@H (I set the fan manually to 100% when folding, btw).

Need to get my hands on some shin etsu when I grab that 5850 vapor-x...

Well, I have to disagree. You are replacing stock TIM that is overly applied with properl portions of properly applied tim.

This TIM issue has been addressed all over the web and every time it's proven that all TIM's are usually within 1 - 3* C of eachother and large drops are always due to too much having have been used before, improper application of improper seating of the HSF.

If you experience a 5*C + drop in temps it had nothing to do with the TIM you used and everything to do with properly applying the new TIM and properly seating the HSF. To call me wrong is to call every expert that has beaten this dead horse to death a liar as well.

I have a preference to AC Ceramique, not because of cooling capability but because of non conductivity, ease of removal when warm and ease of cleanup. I've used AS5, MX2, NT-H1 and AC Ceramique and all perform very closely with the big differences being in ease of aplication, cleanup and heatsink removal and the overall winner for me is the ceramique.

If you properly apply that cheap white crap you'll notice your temps will be about the same as they are with the pricey stuff

On a 1 to 3 year basis all thermal pastes will perform identically but after that the cheap stuff will lose thermal conductivity to some small extent whereas much of the higher end stuff will last you 5+ yrs.

 

[LAiN_OfTheWired]

On a 1 to 3 year basis all thermal pastes will perform identically but after that the cheap stuff will lose thermal conductivity to some small extent whereas much of the higher end stuff will last you 5+ yrs.

I take it those 'experts' aren't very [H]ard then. http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/04/07/thermal_paste_shootout_q209

If a GPU was a radically different type of hardware in comparison to a CPU, I might be inclined to agree with you, however several people's personal experience, including my own, and Kyle's awesome testing are all disagreeing with you.

 

[justbsn2]

I always remove the thermal pad and re-apply my own TIM once i know the hardware is not DOA and good to go.

 

[compudocs]

I take it those 'experts' aren't very [H]ard then. http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/04/07/thermal_paste_shootout_q209

If a GPU was a radically different type of hardware in comparison to a CPU, I might be inclined to agree with you, however several people's personal experience, including my own, and Kyle's awesome testing are all disagreeing with you.

Thanks for providing that chart that agreed with what I said about all tims being within 1 - 3* of eachother thus enforcing my point that a 5*C + decrease in temps has nothing to do with the TIM and everything to do with improper TIM application or HSF installation

Hoenstly, if you want to call someone wrong then you have to make sure they are. Of course I don't know if you noticed the un-edited ( check the time stamp ) part where I said that all TIM's perform within 1 - 3* C of eachother and thats before I know about the nice review done here.

And the part about TIM's becoming less conductive thermally over time can also be proven consistently.

I understand you guys want to be right about this TIM thing but the facts state otherwise and these aren't my facts here so I'm not even the one thats right but these are the facts by various people like the reviewers here on [H]F that say there is no huge difference between any TIM on the market so wanting to believe that your 10* C drop in temps had anything to do with the TIM you used doesn't make it true.

Consider this an intevention more than anything before the TIM thing gets carried away because repeatable results state and have stated over and over for years say that the only difference between a $.50 tube of generic TIM and a $20 tube of premium stuff is how gullible you are for thinking you'll get $19.50 worth of extra performance because you won't.

IF you pick a TIM also keep in mind that even though they will degrade over years there aren't a lot of people that own a machine for that long but if you plan to build a PC for a parent who will have it for 5+ yrs then by all means, use the better stuff for that reason alone or if you like a TIM that cleans up easy and allows for easier HSF removal then buy one for that like I do but I don't buy TIM based on saving an extra 1 - 3*C over generic stuff and I'd stay with stock TIM if it was properly applied and not applied using 2 - 5x more than is needed which actually increases temps due to increqased spacing between the CPU/GPU and HSF.