• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Thermal paste questions

M

mrkma

Weaksauce
Joined
May 28, 2014
Messages
75
I need a thermal paste to use on my intel 4690 cpu. It has been awhile since I used a thermal paste so I am sure any technique I had is long gone. I am looking for a good thermal paste, hopefully easy to find (microcenter is a plus) and easy to apply. Consider this a suggest a thermal paste to a beginner type thread.
Arctic Silver is one that is very common and easy to come by, but in general just want something that is easy to apply and gives good results (not overclocking so every degree doesn't matter). Any suggestions?
 
Arctic Cooling MX-4 is my preferred paste, and it's available at my local MC.

Non-capacitive, non-conductive, carbon based paste. No cure or set time. No evaporation, so there's no need to reapply every year or so, and the tube doesn't go 'stale'. Installation is the good 'ol pea or center blob method. All of the top pastes are within a degree or two of each other, and the installation is FAR more important than the brand of paste being used, but this is the one that I pick.
 
MX-4 is very good.
Without overclock MX-2 would also be fine.
Gelid Extreme is perhaps better, if microcenter has it, and you want a paste that did very well in comparison testing.
Second, application is as important as paste.
What heatsink are you using?
 
2 of the best TIM in the market.. Shin Etsu G751 and Noctua NT-H1.. both extremely easy to spread.. no cure time, no conductive..
 
The heatsink will be the stock intel cooler for now(not very exciting, I know). I am building the pc this week. the processor will be a i5 4760 or 4790.
I hate looking at heatsinks because there are just so many to choose from. figured I would just use the stock intel heatsink and decide if the performance is good or bad enough that I need to get an aftermarket cooler.
 
If you're not overclocking (and you won't be using the stock cooler) just use what's already on there. Worry about a special paste if you replace the stock cooler.
 
Very true. I would assume the paste with the stock heatsink is enough to get the job done. As long as they didn't go super cheap on it
 
mrkma said:
Very true. I would assume the paste with the stock heatsink is enough to get the job done. As long as they didn't go super cheap on it
Click to expand...

They probably did, but it doesn't matter, even the highend vs the OEM used stuff, is only going to be a degree or two, with only the more exotic metal based TIMs beating that out, proper application with good coverage without over use and not inducing air bubbles are far bigger factors over the paste itself, I have a box of probably 20 different TIMs I have used, all were within the range of error for me, which is 1-2C, only liquid pro beat that, by pulling a solid 8C ahead, but only on a lapped IHS and HS, without them being lapped, it was maybe 2-3C over the best normal TIM.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top