What Thermal Compound do you use?
- Thread starter Firat
- Start date
SuB
The Webmaster
If you're incapable of putting a thick, gloopy paste onto a cpu/gfx cap and not splat it on something it shouldn't be on by mistake.. Surely you shouldn't be doing it in the first place?
When you decap a cpu/gfx chip these days, is the top of the Die actually affected by having a conductive item on it? it's surely not just open is it? I don't remember ever having this kind of problem with the old AMD Athlon chips which had no spreaders on top? I've AS5'd plenty of the older graphics cards which had no die caps as well with no ill effect what-so-ever ?
If you're worried about it being conductive, surely slapping something made of pure copper on top of it isn't exactly what you would consider to be a smart choise? I'm confused as to why the paste being conductive is such an issue?
(Disclaimer: I'll freely admit I haven't read every page of this thread, so forgive my ignorance, I thought it was just a 'who uses what' thread so I chimed in)
When you decap a cpu/gfx chip these days, is the top of the Die actually affected by having a conductive item on it? it's surely not just open is it? I don't remember ever having this kind of problem with the old AMD Athlon chips which had no spreaders on top? I've AS5'd plenty of the older graphics cards which had no die caps as well with no ill effect what-so-ever ?
If you're worried about it being conductive, surely slapping something made of pure copper on top of it isn't exactly what you would consider to be a smart choise? I'm confused as to why the paste being conductive is such an issue?
(Disclaimer: I'll freely admit I haven't read every page of this thread, so forgive my ignorance, I thought it was just a 'who uses what' thread so I chimed in)
jamesriley94
New member
It's more of the fact if you do accidentally get some on the motherboard, it can short out the processor and the board and destroy it. Agreed, it's a bit of a nooby thing to do, but everyone makes mistakes, and I'm sure when some people are taking the syringe of it away they've had occasions where bits have fallen out the end and gone onto the board.
If applied correctly, it isn't a problem at all - but I'd still rather not put it to chance and I'd just use something else instead that's equally good in performance but isn't going to short out any products if an accident occurs.
Plus - I've heard of many cases of people returning motherboards to retailers complaining of a fault, to be given the reply: 'You've got thermal compound in the CPU socket and so it's your fault...'
Even though that's just a lie from the greedy retailer *cough*Scan*cough* if you're using non-conductive TIM you may have some ground to stand on...
http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=45187&page=2
SuB
The Webmaster
Wow really?! I'd be taking legal action if anyone tried to pull that shit on me... I've never had any issues with scan before? They recently replaced a monitor with some pretty horrendous backlight bleed.. (although i did mention that i had photos beforehand if that would make much difference)
Duly noted on that though I'll remember to keep that in mind if my motherboard happens to shit the bed! :s
Is AS5 really that conductive? I know it's capacitive but... it all seems just too... i dunno far fetched?
I guess it's just experience I've been Tim'ing CPU's and GPU blocks for so long it's not even really an afterthought now.
I remember Removing the cooler on a GTX280 once to find the IHS Stuck to the bottom of it and a completely bare 280 core chip sat in front of me, that was one of those 'oh shit' moments... And I used AS5 on either side of the plate, never had a problem with that lol...
Also I don't do the 'pea in the middle' method.. I've never done that, purely because i can't see how you can get an even level of compound, no matter how hard you squeeze it will always be thicker in the middle if you blob it up like that.
I always (until the coollab stuff) blobbed a decent size amount nera an edgeand use something like a credit card to spread a super thin and even surface on the paste. And i've always gone with 'less is more' as it's only supposed to fill the microscopic gaps between the top of one piece of metal and the bottom of the heatsink, not be used like a glue kinda thing ?
Now, with the coollab stuff I admit the 'spread this very awkward liquid with a brush' approach didn't leave me with a smooth looking finish at all, but i'm pretty confident it did the trick just fine, the fact it EATS aluminium was worrying, but it's just a case of taking your time isn't it?
Duly noted on that though I'll remember to keep that in mind if my motherboard happens to shit the bed! :s
Is AS5 really that conductive? I know it's capacitive but... it all seems just too... i dunno far fetched?
I guess it's just experience I've been Tim'ing CPU's and GPU blocks for so long it's not even really an afterthought now.
I remember Removing the cooler on a GTX280 once to find the IHS Stuck to the bottom of it and a completely bare 280 core chip sat in front of me, that was one of those 'oh shit' moments... And I used AS5 on either side of the plate, never had a problem with that lol...
Also I don't do the 'pea in the middle' method.. I've never done that, purely because i can't see how you can get an even level of compound, no matter how hard you squeeze it will always be thicker in the middle if you blob it up like that.
I always (until the coollab stuff) blobbed a decent size amount nera an edgeand use something like a credit card to spread a super thin and even surface on the paste. And i've always gone with 'less is more' as it's only supposed to fill the microscopic gaps between the top of one piece of metal and the bottom of the heatsink, not be used like a glue kinda thing ?
Now, with the coollab stuff I admit the 'spread this very awkward liquid with a brush' approach didn't leave me with a smooth looking finish at all, but i'm pretty confident it did the trick just fine, the fact it EATS aluminium was worrying, but it's just a case of taking your time isn't it?
I'm sorry I ment to say capactive in my post, if you look carefully I lead up to it and then forget to put in the word, hah.
To me, the capactive quality of AS5 may not damage every circuit as a short from a conductor would, I would bet only certain circuits would be effected.
I was going to use noctua nh-d1 on this build, but I plum ran out. So I had to use AS5, woe is me!
Lately I've used Arctic Silver 5. Still have a little left in the big tube of Arctic Silver 1 I got about 10 years ago. I've used it this year, still works OK. Not much left in the tube though 
I have some Swiftech TIM mate, some Thermaltake and some labeled Arctic Cooling that I think is very old but can't remember. All seems to work quite well. I seems to me it matter much more how careful you are with the cleaning, application and seating of the heatsink than what kind of paste you use. I've read several reviews, and it is true that some stuff is sub par (worse than mayo
) most though is close enough that it doesn't matter much.
When I run out I'll probably get something cheap that reviewers say is decent. MX4 looks alright for the price.
I have some Swiftech TIM mate, some Thermaltake and some labeled Arctic Cooling that I think is very old but can't remember. All seems to work quite well. I seems to me it matter much more how careful you are with the cleaning, application and seating of the heatsink than what kind of paste you use. I've read several reviews, and it is true that some stuff is sub par (worse than mayo
) most though is close enough that it doesn't matter much. When I run out I'll probably get something cheap that reviewers say is decent. MX4 looks alright for the price.
wotevajjjj
New member
IC Diamond 24 here, as said, you can't get it off, but why would you wnt that anyway...
