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As a continuation of the non-story of my no-POSTing motherboard, now I've managed to run out of all my good pastes - the bundled paste with the new cooler, and my old NT-H1 (apparently dried out or used up). At the moment, I'm now winging it with a very cheap, white CM MasterGel (not Pro, not Maker) that I bought as a stop-gap solution. Being dirt cheap and not needing shipping does have its advantages, after all...

Judging from the reviews of its closest relative, CM IC Value V1, this paste appears to perform near the bottom-levels, though, probably befitting its abysmal thermal conductivity of 1.85W/mK. I'm still managing to cut down temps from my previous H60 setup by around 8-10 degrees Celsius, but now I'm left wondering if there's even more headroom - considering the temperature delta of 2.74 (delta between copper plates) and 3.5 (Tcase delta on actual processor), I'm suspecting I'm being limited by the paste.

Since now I'm basically starting from nothing anyway, what's the current best "normal" TIM? I've heard very good things about Thermal Grizzly and their Kryonaut.

I still have a gargantuan tube of Arctic Cooling MX-2. It's simple, cheap, lasts forever, and works well enough I don't care. The last few degrees aren't worth the extra IMO.

Waco wrote:

I still have a gargantuan tube of Arctic Cooling MX-2. It's simple, cheap, lasts forever, and works well enough I don't care. The last few degrees aren't worth the extra IMO.

Aye. I've also been recommended the MX-2 and MX-4 from quite a few other friendly hardware Discord chats as a possible "good enough" alternative. I'm assuming it's still noticeably better than the cheap white stuff I'm using right now?

Two loop cleans ago I also ran out of TIM towards the end and ended up using no-name eBay white grease I bought in bulk (30g) under the CPU block. Used it for about nine months.

Last re-do I swapped in Gelid Xtreme grease ($$) - for all of 2C.

This time I used my usual ShinEtsu X23 ($), for the same results - there's a tangible difference in stated thermal conductivity, so I'm assuming there's a marketing factor on the Gelid stuff.

Granted I had all these pastes and a few more 'in-betweeners' laying around so I didn't spend much this time in particular - but the take away message is that Waco is correct. I'll stick with low-tier grease in future. It's fine, and the Degree or two you gain really aren't worth the money. I bought a whole stack of the eBay stuff to see how it goes, and I've settled on HY710 because it works and it spreads nicely.

Go to eBay mate, grab 30g of HY710 for seven bucks (!) - grab HY610 if you wanna be gold and fancy. It's perfectly serviceable and will last you a lifetime.

Noinoi wrote:

Waco wrote:

I still have a gargantuan tube of Arctic Cooling MX-2. It's simple, cheap, lasts forever, and works well enough I don't care. The last few degrees aren't worth the extra IMO.

Aye. I've also been recommended the MX-2 and MX-4 from quite a few other friendly hardware Discord chats as a possible "good enough" alternative. I'm assuming it's still noticeably better than the cheap white stuff I'm using right now?

I'm using MX-4 on a delidded 8700K with a H100i and getting 56C in Prime95 12xsmallFFTs at 4.6 GHz (no AVX offset), so it's definitely "good enough".

Back in the day I used Arctic Silver. Lately I've just been using the stuff that came with the last few Cooler Master HSFs I bought; each tube is enough for several applications so I haven't needed to buy thermal compound in several years.

I suppose if I was still OCing I'd pay more attention to getting a top-rated thermal compound; but since I generally run everything at stock and use aftermarket HSFs with larger fans (to cut down on the noise), the thermal compound is non-critical.

https://www.amazon.com/Thermal-Grizzly- ... B011F7W3LU - I won't use anything else until someone gives me a really good reason to. I don't really care to use the liquid metal stuff. I don't REALLY need it, or the hassle.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/th ... 108-8.html - check the other pages for other coolers/mounting pressures.

I like that the better pastes seem to be including a spreading tool now. Probably costs them all of 10 cents, and -- assuming I ever run out of the little leftover tubes of paste I've been using and order more -- will save me hunting for a suitable spreading implement (or relying on the "just put a small blob on, squish it down, and cross your fingers" approach).

Is Arctic Silver no longer the thermal paste king? I still have a tube of it from years ago and use it when I do a build.

The Swamp wrote:

Is Arctic Silver no longer the thermal paste king? I still have a tube of it from years ago and use it when I do a build.

Once you get past the generic stuff the differences are generally pretty small unless you get into exotics like liquid metal. Nothin' wrong with AS unless you're trying to set OC records.

The Swamp wrote:

Is Arctic Silver no longer the thermal paste king? I still have a tube of it from years ago and use it when I do a build.

It hasn't been the "king" for years, but that doesn't mean it's not sufficient for the vast, vast majority of builders.

https://img.purch.com/image004-png/o/aH ... A0LnBuZw==

The differences once you get past the basic white grease are pretty minimal until you get into exotics like JBI said. I have some liquid metal around for delids, but I stick to regular pastes for waterblocks/heatsinks. You only need to kill one board with AS5 (or similar conductive pastes) to really appreciate nonconductive pastes that work 95% as well.

Waco wrote:

The differences once you get past the basic white grease are pretty minimal until you get into exotics like JBI said. I have some liquid metal around for delids, but I stick to regular pastes for waterblocks/heatsinks. You only need to kill one board with AS5 (or similar conductive pastes) to really appreciate nonconductive pastes that work 95% as well.

This is all definitely true, I just figure "why not get something near the tip top if I'm going to buy something anyway?" generally. A tube of Kyronaut is only ~10 bucks, and it lasts me multiple CPUs. I don't change the paste a lot, or delid, or change CPUs that often so it lasts me literally years. It's just nice to know I've got more or less the best goop on there I can have without going through the hassle of LM.

DancinJack wrote:

This is all definitely true, I just figure "why not get something near the tip top if I'm going to buy something anyway?" generally. A tube of Kyronaut is only ~10 bucks, and it lasts me multiple CPUs. I don't change the paste a lot, or delid, or change CPUs that often so it lasts me literally years. It's just nice to know I've got more or less the best goop on there I can have without going through the hassle of LM.

Yeah, there's something to be said for that approach. It's a small enough piece of the overall cost of a system that there's a pretty good argument for spending a few bucks more and getting the "good stuff". Or you can just be lazy and use what you've got knocking around in your parts collection like The Swamp and I have apparently both been doing...

haha for sure, i've done it before. Once I built a whole new system though, and used an AIO which didn't come with goop, I bought the good stuff and it just grew from there. I THIIIIIIIIIINK i'm still on my first tube.

When I was going through all my old stuff, I found several old tubes. Looks like I have actic silver 2 and 3, some arctic alumina, along with some arctic silver and alumina epoxy. I'm sure most of the tubes are dried out by now, edging close to 25 years old on some of them.