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Thermal Paste?

It's when the paste reaches its maximum efficiency after being heated and cooled several times. Some pastes need longer. As the paste is heated, it spreads a bit (aided by heatsink weight) and settles into the scores of microscopic gaps.
 
how long does it usually take ? do you need to cure it as soon as you use it or can you just use the computer normal and let time take care of it ?
 
to process as by drying or aging.
Click to expand...

In this context unless you apply the paste and never use the computer, its gonna "cure". So forget about it.

There is no "better" or not. As above you are going to use the computer so the question is moot.

What people are talking about is how some, not all, thermal pastes can slightly, very slightly, improve in performance after some "break in period" also known as "curing" . Some other pastes show no change in performance over time. It is likely the only concern anyone would have over pastes that "cure" vs pastes that do not "cure" is how often you anticipate taking the heatsink off. If this is something you do very often which requires a new application of grease, you probably do not want a paste that improves over time ( cures) as you will never give it the time to do that. If you seldom mess with your CPU/heatsink mounting a paste that cures may give better results over a long period but that is arguable just as the actual performance of any two pastes can lead to huge poo flinging arguments of epic size as to which one is "better".

And of course the opposite is true that some cheap pastes over a period of use, "cure" into a hard lump of worthless crap that actually is worse than no thermal paste at all.

Buy a good quality paste, use it per the manuf instructions and forget about it.

You might read the sticky on thermal paste review at the top of the forum for more information. Other than the Peanut Butter anything decent applied properly will do the job just fine for 99% of people. Apply the paste and just use the machine as normal, it will all work out.
 
Ok thansk alot for the reply, I'll check out the sticky.. one final question, can I get some paste, throw it on and OC the CPU . right out of the box and let it cure that way ?
 
"curing" is a natural process for heatsink paste. It happens over the course of a few days via thermal cycling. Just turn the computer off when you're done using it every day and it will happen, improvements are usually only 1-3 C at best so go ahead and try the OC if you want. I suggest giving the machine a few days at stock speeds and heavy usage/stability testing to ring out any bugs before bothing with OC.
 
ImAgainstIt said:
Ok thansk alot for the reply, I'll check out the sticky.. one final question, can I get some paste, throw it on and OC the CPU . right out of the box and let it cure that way ?
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As opposed to what? Frying it in a skillet first? :p

It'll cure regardless of overclocking. It might make it cure a little faster, depending on how substantial the overclock is. The better the paste you use, generally the more stable your overclock will be (which sometimes means the more you can push the chip).
 
ImAgainstIt said:
Ok thansk alot for the reply, I'll check out the sticky.. one final question, can I get some paste, throw it on and OC the CPU . right out of the box and let it cure that way ?
Click to expand...

Why not get one of the best thermal compounds available which also has no curing time? Best of both worlds. It's called Arctic Cooling MX-2.
 
Being lazy but out of MX-2, AS5 and OCZ Freeze, which is the best? It is going on a i7 920 and a Noctua U12, both unlapped.
 
They're all within a degree or two of each other. I like the non-metal pastes like MX-2 and ceramique since they electrically inert. You don't need to worry about accidentally getting a bit where it shouldn't be. I picked MX-2 myself, though for the price Ceramique is hard to beat(7 bucks for a giant 22g syringe), especially if you plan on using lots of compound on other PC's/components.

Edit: Here's a link to HardOCP's paste shootout, including MX-2 and AS-5. Note that with the exception of cheese and the top end shin-etsu compound they're all within a degree, so close that the graph needed to be expanded like that just to show differences. Proper application and heatsink/cpu flatness are far more critical.

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTYyNyw0LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
 
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I've used AS5 for ever. I like it.
It apparently does "cure" or become the best it can be at about 100 hours of use.

I just bought my first tube of Noctura HT, bought it to try, because it apparently doesn't need "curing".

I see no difference in temps between AS5 and the Noctura.
 
ImAgainstIt said:
Being lazy but out of MX-2, AS5 and OCZ Freeze, which is the best? It is going on a i7 920 and a Noctua U12, both unlapped.
Click to expand...

MX-2. Non-capacitive and no curing time. Read the reviews and you'll see what temps you can expect.
 
If you want the best of the best, then I suggest looking into IC7 Diamond (Extremely hard to apply, but top of the line, I hear), Shin Etsu (As shown in the [H]ard comparison), and TIM Consultants 0098. I personally use the last one as it was developed by an engineer that left Shin Etsu and made an improved version of their goo, and is only slightly worse than the difficult to apply IC7 Diamond. None of these have any curing time, beyond a few hours, as compared to something like Arctic Silver 5, which may take up to 200 for peak efficiency.
 
From what I hear about those last 3, you're actually supposed to warm up the tube in a glass of hot water so it softens up .. then it's easier to apply.
 
How hard is the Diamond to apply ? and out of TIM C 0098 and IC Diamond 7 Carat, which is the best?
 
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