Should I buy thermal Paste or thermal Pads?

[GlazeDonuts]

I have to use it on my GPU mainly, as my CPU is not showing temps above 45C.
I dont seem to find the thermal pads in the shapes and sizes that i need them to be, and here in India they seem to be very expensive too.
Are thermal pads better than thermal paste?
If i should buy a paste then,
I am getting NH-T1 for like 9$ and cooler master pro too,
Arctic Silver 5 for around 11$.
Which one should i buy?
Also, if i have to buy thermal pads, where can i buy them from? Will i have to apply paste with pads? Which ones should i buy?
Please help and thanks for reading

 

[arif1752002m4a1]

Hae. Coolermaster thermal paste is available at 450 rupess on MDcomputers.com
Go with paste. Pads are think know.
So paste is good

 

[GlazeDonuts]

Hae. Coolermaster thermal paste is available at 450 rupess on MDcomputers.com
Go with paste. Pads are think know.
So paste is good

I am getting NH-T1 for 499. Should i get that?
And mdcomputers.com does not seem to be selling anything. Please attach a proper link.
Thanks

 

[shmoochie]

Get the noctua or the AS5. Thermal pads are worse than thermal paste, but they serve a specific purpose. Most of the time they are used to bridge a gap between two surfaces that would be too wide for thermal paste. They are essentially just thermal shims.

 

[Karadjgne]

If you are redoing the heatsink, you might need both pads and paste. The gpu itself will need the paste, but if the heatsink is full coverage, you'll need the pads for the VRM's and VRAM etc as those are not pastable but still require thermal connectivity to the heatsink. If the heatsink is just partial and only covers the gpu, adding small heatsinks to the VRAM and VRM's will help with keeping them cooler, and usually come with tape or pads.

 

[GlazeDonuts]

If you are redoing the heatsink, you might need both pads and paste. The gpu itself will need the paste, but if the heatsink is full coverage, you'll need the pads for the VRM's and VRAM etc as those are not pastable but still require thermal connectivity to the heatsink. If the heatsink is just partial and only covers the gpu, adding small heatsinks to the VRAM and VRM's will help with keeping them cooler, and usually come with tape or pads.

I could not find pads so I applied paste in a comparatively thicker layer on the VRAM and VRMs
That should be fine right?

 

[shmoochie]

If you are redoing the heatsink, you might need both pads and paste. The gpu itself will need the paste, but if the heatsink is full coverage, you'll need the pads for the VRM's and VRAM etc as those are not pastable but still require thermal connectivity to the heatsink. If the heatsink is just partial and only covers the gpu, adding small heatsinks to the VRAM and VRM's will help with keeping them cooler, and usually come with tape or pads.

I could not find pads so I applied paste in a comparatively thicker layer on the VRAM and VRMs
That should be fine right?

Probably not unless it is a thick paste that is made for bridging wider gaps. You can insulate them by doing that.

 

[GlazeDonuts]

If you are redoing the heatsink, you might need both pads and paste. The gpu itself will need the paste, but if the heatsink is full coverage, you'll need the pads for the VRM's and VRAM etc as those are not pastable but still require thermal connectivity to the heatsink. If the heatsink is just partial and only covers the gpu, adding small heatsinks to the VRAM and VRM's will help with keeping them cooler, and usually come with tape or pads.

I could not find pads so I applied paste in a comparatively thicker layer on the VRAM and VRMs
That should be fine right?

Probably not unless it is a thick paste that is made for bridging wider gaps. You can insulate them by doing that.

I applied Arctic Silver 5

 

[Karadjgne]

And just insulated the VRM's. Paste is made to be micro thin, as in 0.25mm at most. All paste is is a medium, it contains silicates and other materials like diamond dust, that actually are the components that transfer the heat. Even if the paste dries out (which AS5 will do around 200 heat cycles) it's still good as long as it's not disturbed in any way (even a decent knock or vibration can break the seal). The reason padding is used is because it doesn't insulate, even at thicker application, doesn't dry out and has no seal to break, which is important as the VRM's oscillate, it's where you develop coil whine. So you need a thermal conductor that has rubber/elastic properties to handle the oscillations. Only thing paste will do is heat up and run down the sides of the VRM's, coating everything like sap.

 

[shmoochie]

Yeah, you need to buy thermal pads. You do not need to apply thermal paste on the pads. Just stick them onto the heatsink where it sits above the VRMs. I know you said that they were not the right size or shape, but don't worry about that because they can be cut down to the right size.