Best thermal paste

[Feronix]

Heya guys!

I'm building a new rig soon, with a 4770k on G1 sniper m5 on a ~4GHz overclock. Will be using an H100i to cool and keep it quiet.

Only thing I'm stuck on is thermal paste. A few months ago the guys here recommended me MX-4 but lately I've seen everyone favour the NT-H1. There's probably an awful lot of difference?

Remember guys, I'm not asking 'What are you personally using?' I'm asking which one would be best. Rather not go with IC Diamond as I've heard it can leave scratches?

Thanks in advance

[Master&Puppet]

It's not going to make a lot of difference to be honest as long as you use a decent TIM. The heat exchange between the cores and IHS will be a limiting factor before that. Personally I use CoolLabs liquid Ultra. GC-Extreme is another great one but I also use MX-4 and NT-H1 is good too.

[jamesriley94]

Originally Posted by Feronix

Heya guys!

I'm building a new rig soon, with a 4770k on G1 sniper m5 on a ~4GHz overclock. Will be using an H100i to cool and keep it quiet.

Only thing I'm stuck on is thermal paste. A few months ago the guys here recommended me MX-4 but lately I've seen everyone favour the NT-H1. There's probably an awful lot of difference?

Remember guys, I'm not asking 'What are you personally using?' I'm asking which one would be best. Rather not go with IC Diamond as I've heard it can leave scratches?

Thanks in advance

I'm guessing you've been reading some of my posts if you're thinking IC Diamond will leave scratches
For normal use it's absolutely fine, as you're putting it between two relatively hard metal surfaces (heatsink and IHS). I'd only be cautious about putting it on the naked die after delidding as you're then crushing diamond particles between the hard base of the heatsink/IHS, and the mush softer plastic (or whatever that material is) die itself.

NT-H1 is still my choice however. You won't get anything better performing without going for Coolaboratory Liquid Pro/Ultra.

[Devo234]

well ive always used arctic silver 5 which is good. but i thought ide try mx-4 and my idle temps dropped about 5 degrees and load temps on occt dropped about 8.
i cant comment on nt-h1 as ive never used it

[Goldskis45]

I used Indigo Xtreme on the last build I did; it is insane.
The only downside is your motherboard must sit level, you can't put it in an upright case. It is a little bit of a process to get reflow right but it is 100% worth it.

[Dicehunter]

IC-Diamond 24 Carat is the bomb, It's made from pixie dust and unicorn sweat.

[JonnySuper]

Originally Posted by Dicehunter

IC-Diamond 24 Carat is the bomb, It's made from pixie dust and unicorn sweat.

I really like MX-4. It's nice and thick and has always done the job nicely for me. I don't know if it can compete with pixie dust and unicorn sweat though

[Feronix]

I see that as soon as you move into the higher end pastes (where manufacturers did their research instead of throwing mustard and toothpaste together in a tube) it won't matter much.

Guess I'll be taking the the MX-4 then, it's only €4,- here where NT-H1 costs €10,-
Must admit that €6,- won't break the bank, but for the 2 degrees difference I don't think that's worth it.

Thanks guys

[vorticalbox]

Originally Posted by Feronix

I see that as soon as you move into the higher end pastes (where manufacturers did their research instead of throwing mustard and toothpaste together in a tube) it won't matter much.

Guess I'll be taking the the MX-4 then, it's only €4,- here where NT-H1 costs €10,-
Must admit that €6,- won't break the bank, but for the 2 degrees difference I don't think that's worth it.

Thanks guys

have a look at this, http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/artic...er-2011/1396/5

mayonnaise did shockingly well as a thermal paste lol

[d3rrial]

Originally Posted by vorticalbox

[...]

That is hilarious. Chocolate is worse than no thermal paste, well that says something...

I've up until recently used arctic MX-2 exclusively, its pretty good, but I'll also go with arctic MX-4 in my next build. just sayin'