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Thread: Thermal compound

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    Pork & Beans Powerup Phage's Avatar
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    Thermal compound

    With an eye on BF4 coming up, what's the latest on TIM ?
    I've still half a tube of MX-5, that's a few years old. Do i need to buy fresh ?
    If so, what's the latest and greatest ?
    Society's to blame,
    Or possibly Atari.

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    RIP Peterb ik9000's Avatar
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    re: Thermal compound

    I'd still go Arctic Silver 5.

    I'm told thermal paste shuold be kept in a fridge, vertically with lid down, and even then is not great after a few years. I don't know if that's true. Interested to hear the thoughts of others.

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    HEXUS.social member Agent's Avatar
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    re: Thermal compound

    The lifetime on thermal paste is long. It breaks down after going through hot / cold cycles (it's job) after a number of years mostly. If it's sitting there doing nowt in a sealed container, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

    Besides, it's very easy to tell: squirt some out. If it's separated, you'll get clear(ish) liquid with the other parts being almost solid (they've dried out due to the separation). If not, use it.
    Don't worry if you get a small amount come out like that at the start though, that's quite normal and will be due to a non-perfect seal allowing a bit of air in.

    As for which is best - the difference between the branded stuff I've found to be unmeasurable in the real world. Certainly nothing that's let me overclock more.

    I have a friend who refuses to buy 'thermal paste' and just uses copper grease. To be fair, our setups are very similar and so are the temps (I have AS on mine). The theory behind thermal paste is very simple - you just want to fill the micro-gaps with something that will transfer the heat better than air. It's not some complicated science like people often think

    edit - from Artic silver:

    Like any mix of particles that are many times heavier than the suspension fluid, there will be some separation in the compound over time when stored in the original syringe. (All thermal compounds eventually experience some separation in storage.) This does not affect the performance of the unseparated or remixed compound.
    So even if separated, just mix it back up a bit. Job done
    Last edited by Agent; 12-09-2013 at 02:34 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by Saracen View Post
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    re: Thermal compound

    Cheers all. I'll get to squeezing !
    Society's to blame,
    Or possibly Atari.

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    re: Thermal compound

    MX-2 has served me well, and a fairly recently got a new, larger syringe of it. As Agent said the difference isn't huge in the real world; even the extensive tests I've seen carried out are still working down in the noise, a few C between them.

    Personally I stay away pastes like AS5 though as they tend to be more expensive, are harder to remove completely from surfaces, and are capacitive, so can ruin chips if you get any on the leads/pads.

    In terms of longevity, I've actually seen some thermal compound on a P4 system go really bad. AFAIK it was the stock stuff on the Intel cooler, but it looked like it had swelled into some dry mess somehow, causing the fan to constantly spin at max speed, trying to compensate for the lack of thermal transfer. A quick clean + replacement with a bit of MX2 fixed it.

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    re: Thermal compound

    Remember the old AMD stock paste, literally being stuck to the chip

    As said above it doesn't matter; although I do avoid any paste that is considered conductive or capacitive, although the risk is very small, I avoid just for safety sake. I think AS5 is slightly capacitive, correct me if I am wrong.

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    re: Thermal compound


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    re: Thermal compound

    Quote Originally Posted by Bonebreaker777 View Post
    you have to wonder why....

    And it's not surprising that a vinegar based substance corrodes the metallic contact surfaces.

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    re: Thermal compound

    Toothpaste is good!

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    re: Thermal compound

    If you want big tubes on the cheap try shiny hardware they also do acetone and isopropyl

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    re: Thermal compound

    Quote Originally Posted by ik9000 View Post
    I'd still go Arctic Silver 5.

    I'm told thermal paste shuold be kept in a fridge, vertically with lid down, and even then is not great after a few years. I don't know if that's true. Interested to hear the thoughts of others.
    I agree I have always gone with the silver 5, great for keeping the temps down
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    re: Thermal compound

    Even old stuff will still be good, every test I've ever seen depends on how well the heatsink has been applied much more than the quality of the TIM. But for the Price of AS5/MX2/Toothpaste/mayonnaise you may as well get the one you think will work the best....the placebo effect will keep you happier even if your CPU is no cooler

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    re: Thermal compound

    Quote Originally Posted by ik9000 View Post
    I'd still go Arctic Silver 5.

    I'm told thermal paste shuold be kept in a fridge, vertically with lid down, and even then is not great after a few years. I don't know if that's true. Interested to hear the thoughts of others.
    It doesn't exactly cost a lot to buy a new one anyway.
    I also have to say Arctic Silver 5, best out there.

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    re: Thermal compound

    I'd say Arctic Silver 5 also. The life is long. It should still be good.

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    re: Thermal compound

    I still have a small tube of MX-4. Hasn't let me down yet.

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    Re: Thermal compound

    Another shout for Arctic Silver here but I've used both and always been happy

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