In the process of (finally) upgrading my case from my aging ThermalTake Armour and i'm moving onto a Silverstone Raven RV02-E. But i thought i would go the whole hog and get a new CPU fan and more ram and some new HDD's at the same time. But i figure i will need some good TIM for the new CPU fan. Going to buy the Dark Rock Pro and wanna make full use of it. So what TIM is best? Thanks guys!
The easiest TIM I've worked with is Arctic Silver 5. Having said that I recently used OCZ Freeze for my i5 2500K and a Dark Rock Advanced cooler with excellent results. Also Shin-Etsu MicroSi on a D630 laptop, although that was horrible to work with as it's difficult to spread evenly so I resorted to a drop on the CPU and let the heatsink spread the paste! Most impressed with OCZ Freeze thus far, electrically non-conductive and does the job!
You're welcome! Ages ago, when I was buying my first LGA1366 rig, I also tried looking into diamond based pastes. I could only find one company that sold it, but they were still setting up at the time and never got back to me. There also was some chap who made his own and the temperature drop was quite sizeable - it beat everything else by quite a margin. Yup, the results confirm it.
I went and looked for the earlier diamond stuff I was talking about: Innovation Cooling DIY diamond TIM
For those who want the best thermal compound. IC Diamond 24Carat is Here for £11.99 EDIT added new link.
I didn't find IC7 any better than MX-2 but that might be because I found it harder to apply. It does do a good job of removing CPU markings though as it's very abrasive. The best I've used so far is Cool Lab Liquid Pro very closely followed by Prolimatech PK-1, so closely in fact that I just use that now.
that thermalright chill factor is pretty good stuff.. I was actually shocked at how good it was using it on my cpu my second favorite is mx-4.. basically because it supposed to have a 8 year life span between changes.. mx-3 and mx-2 will fail over time along with chill factor (think they said yearly on the earlier versions) as5 is old school.. outdated really by chill factor and others
My recommendations is the Artic cooling MX-4 and the Noctua NH1 (that is what I have now0. Note, that also price is considered in my recommendation.
Your link doesn't work (at least not for me anyway) Is that the one that you apply solid, then turn your system on and off a few times to melt it into place? That stuff is supposed to be good as well. No sschool like the old skool! I used to use that, but recently I've been getting lazy and just using whatever the manufacturer's stuck on there. Fortunately, good coolers tend to come with good paste, though maybe a bit too generous.
It's the Indigo Extreme that requires you to melt it into place. I'm not brave enough to try that even though it tests out as the best. Cool Lab Liquid pro is probably very close to Indigo Extreme but it has a few downsides including almost lapping a block/CPU to remove it completely and sometimes 'soldering' the heatsink onto the chip. After saying that I've always had good consistent results. The latest Ultra version is supposed to be easily removed with Isopropyl Alcohol. EDIT: Forgot to add the CLLP is also electrically conductive so needs to be used with care.
yeah I've seen mx-2 and mx-3 after a couple of years.. it turns into a dry gray flake.. they still work but not nearly as good as when they were applied I used to use as5 back in the day too and it lasts.. just the cure time and it's being beat by all other types of tims today the diamond is really interesting- just haven't used it.. what's the longevity like? I took my heatsink off after about a year with the chill factor.. and the tim was still like new- so maybe the stuff does last.. remember the first batch of chill factor was rated for a year.. if you change hardware a lot though- doesn't really matter guess
I've always found this strange tbh given how much we are willing to spend on a system. And yet people get all tight arse over buying decent TIM ??? And I have the diamond paste tbh its almost on par with the shin-Etsu but it needs warming up before using because its so thick