Best thermal interface material?

[goodpsusearch]

I've been using Arctic Silver 5 for more than a decade and I've been satisfied with its thermal conductivity and also its long term endurance.

Nearly everyone in this forum has experienced the situation of CPU heatsink removal leading to CPU removal, because the cheap TIM had gone completely dry. After separating them carefully with a screwdriver, the cleaning of CPU / cooler would be difficult too.

This has never happened to me with Arctic Silver 5.

Now I feel it's time for a change. AS5 is quite old and many products with better results are available. I am running out of AS5 anytime soon.

What is the best thermal interface material out there?

Thermal conductivity is not the most important factor though, because it is pointless to gain 2 to 3°C at first, if the TIM is gradually deteriorating from thermal cycles, high temps and stress and after a couple of years becomes dried up and sticky leading to laptop / desktop overheating.

So, I am interested in your long term experience with different pastes. There are products with excellent thermal conductivity that had proven to be corrosive to copper or making scratches to CPU surface. I can't risk using anything like that.

[goontron]

Re: Best thermal interface material?

Im staying with AS5 personally...

[Topcat]

Re: Best thermal interface material?

AS5 gets my vote as well. Been using it for years without any complaints.

[ratdude747]

Re: Best thermal interface material?

AS5 here too. If there is something better, it's news to me.

[stj]

Re: Best thermal interface material?

i was using as5, but for cost reasons, i just got some MX4.
it's supposed to be pretty similar, but it's based on carbon rather than silver.

because when your doing ps3's you use a hell of a lot of paste!
so a 20g pack sure beats a 2.5g or whatever one!

[Compgeke]

Re: Best thermal interface material?

I've been using Ceramique 2. A fair bit cheaper than AS5 and unless you're doing some odd insane overclocking you won't notice a difference in temps.

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Best thermal interface material?

As 5 here too !

[Per Hansson]

Re: Best thermal interface material?

Been using AS5 since forever but since my tube dried out (it's a big tube that is several years old)
I've now bought something called Gelid GC-Extreme
It's cheaper and according to reviews performs a bit better.
Of course no idea about if the long term stability is as good as AS5.
Already managed to misplaced my first tube too so ordered a new one that arrived today.
Fantastic eh?

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: Best thermal interface material?

i would recommend arctic mx-4 and gelid gc-extreme too. u can also try shin etsu x23-7783d if u can ever find it but no promises on its long term reliability! all three perform equal to or even better than as5 if u apply them right.

the gelid paste comes with a spatula for helping u to apply the paste so no excuses for poor thermal paste application skillz!

[Dan81]

Re: Best thermal interface material?

I know that it's not that common but I'd recommend Spire SP-456/1G.

It does wonders for me,regardless of the platform.

Even for 3GHz Prescott HT Pentium 4 systems.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Best thermal interface material?

I used AS5 on a skylake i7-6700K (naitive 4ghz clock) just monday

idle was about 39c, prime 95 burn maxed about 86c before the fan dropped it out average about 82c

[rievax_60]

Re: Best thermal interface material?

I use Arctic Cooling MX2. I notice that the original substance used in almost all laptops exactly resembles hardened MX2 or similar.

[xelectech]

Re: Best thermal interface material?

Being perpetually short on funds, I've been using Radio Shack's silicone based heat sink compound for years now, seems to be sufficiently effective for everything I've used it on so far (PC's, amplifiers, PSU's); even used it to replace thermal glues and tapes,
ymmv

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Best thermal interface material?

prime 95 burn maxed about 86c before the fan dropped it out average about 82c

Looks like the heatsink may not be seated properly.

[goodpsusearch]

Re: Best thermal interface material?

Being perpetually short on funds, I've been using Radio Shack's silicone based heat sink compound for years now, seems to be sufficiently effective for everything I've used it on so far (PC's, amplifiers, PSU's); even used it to replace thermal glues and tapes,
ymmv

From my experience this no name stuff is of low quality that hardens and dries up as it deteriorates gradually making PC overheating.

If you are on a budget, there are some value for money thermal pastes available:

Arctic MX-4 20g
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Arctic-MX-4-...gAAOSwymxVNAts
I found it locally for 15€.

I also found Arctic MX-2 30g for 19€.

Another decent and cheap paste: Arctic Ceramique 2 25G:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/GI2703-Arcti...oAAOSwu4BVnUAR
Available in Greece for just 7 €!

I would never risk using an unknown paste. Durability is critical.

[stj]

Re: Best thermal interface material?

look at the sellers postage details - very strange!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/361421463688
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181909219317

[xelectech]

Re: Best thermal interface material?

>From my experience this no name stuff is of low quality that hardens and dries up as it >deteriorates gradually making PC overheating.

Haven't experienced that yet with the RS stuff, which, price-wise compares to the
AS Ceramique 2, approximately (the RS stuff comes in 6.5 gram tubes). I wonder if the actual ingredients are all that different between the two, I tried to take a pic but the
printing is too small, so thought I'd list 'em in case it's of interest:
polydimethylsiloxane, zinc oxide, polytetrafluoroethylene, fumed silica.

Now I'm wondering what all was in that zinc-oxide heatsink compound that was used back in the 70's.

>If you are on a budget, there are some value for money thermal pastes available:

Arctic MX-4 20g
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Arctic-MX-4-...gAAOSwymxVNAts
I found it locally for 15€.

>I also found Arctic MX-2 30g for 19€.

>Another decent and cheap paste: Arctic Ceramique 2 25G:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/GI2703-Arcti...oAAOSwu4BVnUAR
>Available in Greece for just 7 €!

Thanks for listing some possibilities.

>I would never risk using an unknown paste. Durability is critical.

I guess the only way to see how good it is is to use it till it fails 8-).

[stj]

Re: Best thermal interface material?

zinc oxide is something you need to keep off your skin and out of your lungs.

[trebo]

Re: Best thermal interface material?

look at the sellers postage details - very strange!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/361421463688
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181909219317

That sure don't make any sense

[LDSisHere]

Re: Best thermal interface material?

I've been using Ceramique 2. A fair bit cheaper than AS5 and unless you're doing some odd insane overclocking you won't notice a difference in temps.

I use the same as you get lots more bang for your buck and there is no real difference in performance.