What high-end thermal paste is the best for laptops?

[johnsonkm917]

I'm planning on doing a thermal repaste of my gaming laptop, and I'm wondering if anyone can give me some advice on what thermal paste to pick. I know that products such as Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, Pk-3, and Gelid GC Extreme have some of the best results in terms of overall temperature reduction, but what's less clear is which of these high end pastes is going to last the longest before it needs to be reapplied.

Because my laptop is a Dell 7577, it's extremely difficult and time consuming to open up the laptop to access the heat pipes, so I want to avoid opening this up for as long as possible. On top of that, it's a laptop, and one that I will be bringing with me on the go fairly often, so I am a little concerned about using a paste that could potentially spill over with frequent movement. On top of that, I know some thermal pastes are more difficult to remove than others, or worse likely to damage the heat sinks, so I'd rather avoid that as well.

With these concerns in mind, what high quality thermal paste would you recommend for laptops?

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

I've always used Arctic MX-4 myself.


In all likelihood, anything in the MX-4 ballpark will have almost identical results. It's only when you step-up to something highly specialised like Coollaboratory Liquid Pro that you'll see noticeable gains.

 

[Traditore]

Gone are the days of Arctic in high end. "Thermal grizzly" is the new king.

The Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut is the best non-capacitive thermal grease out there. It’s also one of the most expensive pastes. Priced twice as much as the Noctua NT-H1 yet it contains only 1G of paste, the Thermal Grizzly is aimed only at hardcore PC builders.

Although pricey, the paste delivers what it promises. With 12.5W/mk it’s the most thermally conductive ceramic paste and it doesn’t conduct electricity at all. It requires no settling time, it’s easy to apply, and provides you with up to 3-4° lower temperature than competitors.

 

[spellweavergeneziso]

I use Thermal grizzly hydronaut - used on both ntb and PC and it is very good.

 

[madmatt30]

Mastergel maker for me personally,thicker than most pastes (does need to be manually spread), non conductive , second only to grizzly (then only by the tiniest of margins) & cheaper.

Ideal for laptops & gpu's imo.

 

[ameyer75]

Depends on how much of an enthusiast you are. If you're not trying to get "top notch" results, go for any of those stated above. If you're feeling frisky, you could try liquid metal. BE WARNED: using liquid metal can do damage to your computer, so use at your own risk!!

I just wanted to make that an option for you

 

[johnsonkm917]

Thanks for the reply everyone. Out of curiosity, do any of you know what the durability of these pastes are? I know that Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut consistently outperforms pretty much all non-metallic pastes, but it's been pretty hard to find much information on low long it may reasonably take before the paste needs to be replaced. On top of that, I don't know which ones are prone to hardening, easier to remove, etc.

So, if anyone could kindly tell me their experiences with any of these high end pastes, and which ones seem more durable and non-curing, that would be wonderful.

 

[ameyer75]

Honestly, I've never seen longevity numbers on thermal compound of any kind. You'll have to just keep an eye on it. I've seen factory paste last as long as 10 years.... As long as you're not removing the cooler from the CPU, you *shouldn't* need to replace it for several years, even if your card runs hot.

 

[muellerjimmy44]

Use grizzly kryonaught it will last longer then u will use that laptop that I promise u. I use it on all my cpus an they run really cool that's what I recommend and stand behind it 100%

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

Because my laptop is a Dell 7577, it's extremely difficult and time consuming to open up the laptop to access the heat pipes, so I want to avoid opening this up for as long as possible.

With that in mind, have you considered whether or not reapplying thermal paste is worthwhile?

 

[johnsonkm917]

Because my laptop is a Dell 7577, it's extremely difficult and time consuming to open up the laptop to access the heat pipes, so I want to avoid opening this up for as long as possible.

With that in mind, have you considered whether or not reapplying thermal paste is worthwhile?

Yeah, my i7-7700HQ does sometimes spike up to 90 degrees Celsius once in a while in some games, and even though the average temps are still in the mid 80s, it's still too high for my taste. On top of that, those temperatures are already a consequence of my CPU being undervolted, so yeah, there is a good argument in favor of repasting.

Right now, I'm leaning towards wither Gelid GC Extreme or Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut. I'll probably pick the latter since it tends to have the best results out of all non-conductive thermal pastes. That being said, I wouldn't mind picking Gelid instead if it's been observed to last longer. After all, the last thing I want is to completely disassemble the laptop more than once.

 

[madmatt30]

^ no it doesn't , it's consistently beaten by the mastergel nano.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.eteknix.com/cooler-master-mastergel-maker-nano-review/amp/

& every review shows the same result.

Cleaned out my lenovo tinypc the other day (nuc that's bolted to the back of my lounge tv & uses as a media centre/tv recorder so runs 15-16 hours per day)

Paste was applied approx 2 years ago , removing the heatsink showed the paste as soft & pliable as it was when first applied,I could have saved myself a job.
& that unit is akin to old laptop hardware , the flimsiest 10mm high Ali heatink (no copper in sight) & a 30mm avc ducted fan is the only cooling in that box.

 

[johnsonkm917]

^ no it doesn't , it's consistently beaten by the mastergel nano.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.eteknix.com/cooler-master-mastergel-maker-nano-review/amp/

& every review shows the same result.

Cleaned out my lenovo tinypc the other day (nuc that's bolted to the back of my lounge tv & uses as a media centre/tv recorder so runs 15-16 hours per day)

Paste was applied approx 2 years ago , removing the heatsink showed the paste as soft & pliable as it was when first applied,I could have saved myself a job.
& that unit is akin to old laptop hardware , the flimsiest 10mm high Ali heatink (no copper in sight) & a 30mm avc ducted fan is the only cooling in that box.

Admittedly, I haven't considered Mastergel Maker Nano for a couple reasons. One, there aren't nearly as many reviews for the Mastergel Maker Nano as there are for Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut and Gelid GC Extreme; and two, I am generally quite leery of any thermal compound that uses diamond particles if only because I am terrified of the thought of abrasive damage.