The real cost of thermal compound

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The real cost of thermal compound

Hi, i am hoping for some honest straight shooting answers on the thoughts i have about Thermal compound’s and whether the cost and hype about difference's are generated deliberately by the company's greed that produce & sell them for more than the product's worth.

I started with the need to replace a noisy fan on my T43 laptop ,i removed old fan and heatsink i cleaned off cpu thermal compound which looked like a black liquid compared to the Titan nano grease paste i was replacing it with. After laptop was put back together and booted up all seemed to be working fine for 2min untill fan kicked in; quieter but this time it stayed on continually compared to before when the fan was cutting out & in when needed.

I realised that the compound i cleaned off was better than the 3g paste i bought for 4-5£ aprox.
When looking in to buying the right kind of thermal compound it amazed me to see the amount of various paste's and liquid's out there, some exceeding the total cost of fan and heatsink together. I work on a budget like many others out there and to pay extortionate amount for a minute drop that acts as a decent thermal contact is beyond me. In general why is it when you try to prevent working item's from being thrown away in ever growing landfill sites issue's ;some companies seem to do the opposite and discourage you to repair and maintain your items by parts being to high cost and forcing your decision to buy new hardware,or can't get exact replacement or have to buy bulk ..etc.

Sorry for drifting at the end there but i'm guessing the company's of these thermal products are just acting on greed in the same way by(no insults intended to gamers out there) targeting massive customer base in the obsessive interests of diehard gamers and overclocker's ..etc. Surely some thermal compound producer out there can make a profit not a killing!! and end up with a good return and customer base for a thermal product that is top notch then eventually forcing these over charging companies revise there prices to stay in the competition.

So my question is this-
Is it justified paying the cost of thermal compound?

Thank's for any constructive answers out there.
 
Solution
USAFRet
Right. But is 10 quid for a particularly good thermal paste 'making a killing'? Unknown, unless you investigate their corporate policies and prices.

Is Ferrari 'making a killing' selling a car for $150,000 vs a Ford Focus for $15,000?

A LOT of things are hype. A lot of things aren't. With my example of the HDMI cable, there is tested, verified evidence of no performance difference. That is 'making a killing' for the $50 cable guy. So you don't buy that, and tell the dude in the store trying to sell it to you to go pound sand.

With the Arctic Silver paste, there is a tested, verified performance increase over lesser quality paste.
Is that difference worth it to you? Only you know for sure.

With my current main build, I used the...
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You need some thermal paste. The performance difference between whatever you buy will be minimal. If you choose to not buy the expensive one, I doubt you'd see a real impact on your PC.

Much like a $5 HDMI cable vs a $50 HDMI cable. Marketing.
 
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For a one-time use? Probably not, which is why I usually direct people towards Arctic Silver Ceramique 2. A tiny little tube for around 3-4 bucks.

If you plan on doing a lot of experimenting, or builds, and you can get the full-cost of the full tube, then it's worth it.
 
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in over a decade of buying pc components ( and thermal compound ) i firmly beleive you pay the price you get quality thermal compound ... buy a £2 tube of compound and you may aswell be using toothpaste ( which has been used before buy some guys )
lets not forget what thermal compound does ... it fills the microscopic gaps between the cpu and heatsink and as we all know air isnt a good heat conductor .... and thats why too much compound can actually result in higher temps ....
i buy thermal compound in 12g tubes and these last well over 2 years ... this is better than buying multiple 4g tubes or packets of compound and is much better for the enviroment .... and the brand ive used in the last 5 years is "arctic silver "( http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/cooling/thermalandcompounds/as5premium12g.html ) at £17 this is more expensive than others but it produces better results and requires a pea size amount ( which is all thats needed anyway )
so yes it is worth paying the extra for thermal compound .. it may not be the sexiest of pc components but as i mentioned earlier if you buy a better thermal compound this will keep your cpu temps lower and in reality this will extend the lifespan of your cpu .. so everyones a winner
also ive used the same "arctic silver" compound on my HD6790,s gpu .. this reduced the gpu temp by around 3c ... and i even lent it to my neighbour when he was fixing his xbox 360 ( you need to reseat 2 x heatsinks during the fix ) ....
good question and hope this helps !
 
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Thanks the for answers so far.. the name Arctic Silver seems to be popular so i'll give that a shot, but i do think that paying for a small amount of thermal compound is a way to higher price for what it is, even if it does have an important part to play?
 
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Which is more expensive?
A tube of paste for £5-£10, or a PC that doesn't work right because it overheats?
 
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I agree 1£ or 1$ is too low.. like i said "can make a profit not a killing!!" its about being realistic and not about greed.
 
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To determine if they " make a profit not a killing", you have to investigate their overall profit margin on that product.
Does it cost them 5p to make, and they sell it for 10 quid? OK, thats a killing
Do they make it for 8.50 quid and sell it for 9.75? Not a 'killing'.

Just because it seems 'expensive' to you does not automatically mean they are making a killing.

Now...after you spend the time to investigate their manufacturing costs, margins, corporate earnings...you've spent many, many hours on a £10 item that you might purchase twice a decade.
 
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To determine if they " make a profit not a killing", you have to investigate their overall profit margin on that product.
Does it cost them 5p to make, and they sell it for 10 quid? OK, thats a killing
Do they make it for 8.50 quid and sell it for 9.75? Not a 'killing'.

Just because it seems 'expensive' to you does not automatically mean they are making a killing.

Now...after you spend the time to investigate their manufacturing costs, margins, corporate earnings...you've spent many, many hours on a £10 item that you might purchase twice a decade.
 
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I see some of your point USAFRet, but it's unlikely that i’m going to fly over there bust through the company’s door and start going through there accounts as a some kind of auditor from hell :) as you know. The way i’ll have to look at this veiw is like a pair of trainers.. yes trainers, go along with this for a second. Manufacturing materials between one trainer and another are not that different, a bit like you stated - “Much like a $5 HDMI cable vs a $50 HDMI cable”
There will be some difference between the two but to pay over 10x for that difference whatever your buying, is like i said it’s going on the obsessive interests of diehard gamers or diehard runner’s , the trainer might have better durable rubber or has someone famous wearing it. But is the price justified?.

Its just the Hype that pushes the price up from realistic to grossly over, Do you see some truth in what i mean. Thanks
 
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Right. But is 10 quid for a particularly good thermal paste 'making a killing'? Unknown, unless you investigate their corporate policies and prices.

Is Ferrari 'making a killing' selling a car for $150,000 vs a Ford Focus for $15,000?

A LOT of things are hype. A lot of things aren't. With my example of the HDMI cable, there is tested, verified evidence of no performance difference. That is 'making a killing' for the $50 cable guy. So you don't buy that, and tell the dude in the store trying to sell it to you to go pound sand.

With the Arctic Silver paste, there is a tested, verified performance increase over lesser quality paste.
Is that difference worth it to you? Only you know for sure.

With my current main build, I used the included Cooler Master paste. I think I have about one more application left in it. When empty, I might buy some Arctic Silver, or use whatever is included with another cooler.
 
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Solution
The only 2 pastes I have used is Cooler Master and Artic Silver. All I can say is put the stuff on with the right method and amount. O and the Artic Silver has a cool label and name haha

5 is conductive so it can be bad if it gets on your motherboard. I think maybe it is MX (correct me if im wrong) is a little less likely to cause damage if it gets on anything.
 
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Ok i'll leave it at that then, just thought it might be interesting to see the different views on what some consider a thermal contact to be worth.. so untill the next time m8. Thanks
 
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