Question What is the best thermal paste to buy or how do I tell myself?

[haemophile]

Just wondering because when I googled it there were multiple brands available and I am not really in the know about this item as bought barebones before so it was already applied by novatech. Using it on a 14700k with arctic freezer III so two questions, the one in title and how much do I need to apply?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Lutfij]

1| Noctua and Thermal Grizzly are two very well known brands that make have high quality thermal pastes.

2| Pea sized amount in the middle of your CPU's IHS, then let the cooler's plate spread it out when mounting the cooler. That's what I do but there are many ways you can do so using YouTube as your source.

 

[Lafong]

Just wondering because when I googled it there were multiple brands available and I am not really in the know about this item as bought barebones before so it was already applied by novatech. Using it on a 14700k with arctic freezer III so two questions, the one in title and how much do I need to apply?

Thanks in advance.

There's not a big difference among them. A few degrees. If your margin of error is less than a few degrees, changing pastes probably isn't the best way to solve that issue.

But they differ in texture and tackiness and how easy they are to apply or clean.

Some are like mayonnaise. Or peanut butter. Or mustard. Or Elmer's glue. Or tar. Etc.

 

[geofelt]

AF III comes with mx-6 paste.
Most any name brand will give identical results.
I also use the small drop in the center. The paste will spread out under heat and pressure without leaving air bubbles.

FWIW, I am not in favor of AIO coolers when a food air cooler will do the job.
And... As a reminder, update your motherboard bios to currency to avoid 14th gen issues with your 14700K

 

[BFG-9000]

There's always a relatively recent comparison test of thermal pastes here on Tom's and the latest one has tested Burger King Ranch sauce. You may prefer other such tests as they may show things like separate results from high vs low mounting pressure which may be relevant for your cooler.

Mayonnaise is a relatively high-performance improvised thermal compound for temporary use as it works better than many commercial options:

The egg seems to do a good job keeping the vegetable oil from pumping out for at least a couple days

 

[ilukey77]

Mx-4 was supposed to be the best Arctic produced

but ive used noctua , thermal grizzly and now just use the mx-6 its all pretty much of a muchness temps are within a degree or 2 ..

unless you start using liquid metal which needs to be applied with great care !

It not life or death of your CPU between decent thermal paste !!

 

[Flayed]

It feels like I have wasted my money on Noctua NT-H2 when I already had some mayo in the fridge!

 

[haemophile]

AF III comes with mx-6 paste.
Most any name brand will give identical results.
I also use the small drop in the center. The paste will spread out under heat and pressure without leaving air bubbles.

FWIW, I am not in favor of AIO coolers when a food air cooler will do the job.
And... As a reminder, update your motherboard bios to currency to avoid 14th gen issues with your 14700K

Thanks for the advice on upgrading, still building it and the PSU doesn't arrive until Thursday (last piece) will update bios as soon as I power it up for the first time.

 

[RAIDGoblin]

Just wondering because when I googled it there were multiple brands available and I am not really in the know about this item as bought barebones before so it was already applied by novatech. Using it on a 14700k with arctic freezer III so two questions, the one in title and how much do I need to apply?

Thanks in advance.

I use to worry about this, spending a lot of time and money making sure I got the highest end thermal paste possible (without using liquid metal, the concept of that terrifies me), now I don't worry about it at all, I have just re-pasted with an unbranded free-bee from a computer shop because it's only got to last until Christmas when I get a new cooler, it runs 1 or 2 degrees warmer under testing than it did with noctua compound when I last re-pasted, it makes so little difference

In the past I have used grizzly and Arctic and they all preform similar. For application, when I was learning I used the spread it out method because that way I could be sure I had used enough for an even coating, now I use the pea sized blob method, and again there isn't really a notable performance difference so I'm not sure which is best, but I'm sure there are you-tube video's where people test them

There's always a relatively recent comparison test of thermal pastes here on Tom's and the latest one has tested Burger King Ranch sauce. You may prefer other such tests as they may show things like separate results from high vs low mounting pressure which may be relevant for your cooler.

Mayonnaise is a relatively high-performance improvised thermal compound for temporary use as it works better than many commercial options:

The egg seems to do a good job keeping the vegetable oil from pumping out for at least a couple days

that's a great list, remind me not to use chocolate 😛

 

[BFG-9000]

Oh yes, chocolate is worse than nothing because it immediately burns into a nice insulative carbon layer. I wonder how those high-end Carbonaut carbon thermal pads manage to work. I mean diamond only works great because the carbons are arranged in an ordered crystal lattice.

 

[RAIDGoblin]

Oh yes, chocolate is worse than nothing because it immediately burns into a nice insulative carbon layer. I wonder how those high-end Carbonaut carbon thermal pads manage to work. I mean diamond only works great because the carbons are arranged in an ordered crystal lattice.

I always assumed those are made of graphene, which is a sort of crystal lattice, I just looked it up and it turns out they're a carbon fiber based polymer? weird, I have no idea, but I would have thought from basic chemical knowledge that it'd be quite a good insulator

 

[wyliec2]

Don't overthink this...there are several well known brands at very reasonable cost.

I've primarily used Noctua air coolers along with a couple of AIOs (280mm & 420mm) - the only thermal paste I've ever used is Arctic Silver 5.

I've always gotten good results and never had a situation where any degradation occurred over time (I read where people feel the need to reapply thermal paste and think WTH...).

Just as important, when I disassemble a build after 5+ years, I've never had any issue with a cooler sticking to the CPU. The old paste cleans up easily with normal 99% isopropyl alcohol.

FWIW - I typically run all-core overclocks for video encoding where my machines may run continuously at 100% CPU for multiple weeks...

 

[RAIDGoblin]

I've always gotten good results and never had a situation where any degradation occurred over time (I read where people feel the need to reapply thermal paste and think WTH...).

second this, I said I re-pasted mine but my PC is in a workshop, I have dust problems, re-pasting is not because the paste fails but because I'll take the cooler off to clean it. my brother has tested this, and he recons that you don't get more than 5 degrees performance difference from really really old paste (I mean 7 years +)

"Just as important, when I disassemble a build after 5+ years, I've never had any issue with a cooler sticking to the CPU. The old paste cleans up easily with normal 99% isopropyl alcohol."

I used arctic paste last time and this time my cooler was stuck like glue, I partly lifted the cpu out the socket getting it off. Just curious, is there anything different you do to prevent this? (apologies for the slight de-railing)

 

[geofelt]

second this, I said I re-pasted mine but my PC is in a workshop, I have dust problems, re-pasting is not because the paste fails but because I'll take the cooler off to clean it. my brother has tested this, and he recons that you don't get more than 5 degrees performance difference from really really old paste (I mean 7 years +)

"Just as important, when I disassemble a build after 5+ years, I've never had any issue with a cooler sticking to the CPU. The old paste cleans up easily with normal 99% isopropyl alcohol."

I used arctic paste last time and this time my cooler was stuck like glue, I partly lifted the cpu out the socket getting it off. Just curious, is there anything different you do to prevent this? (apologies for the slight de-railing)

Before you shut down to remove a cooler, run the pc a bit to heat it up.
CPU-Z bench will do it.
That softens the paste and the cooler comes off easily.

 

[BFG-9000]

You can usually get it hot by just unplugging the fan for awhile.

When it's hot, undo the brackets but don't lift up before twisting the heatsink to break the adhesion.

 

[wyliec2]

I used arctic paste last time and this time my cooler was stuck like glue, I partly lifted the cpu out the socket getting it off. Just curious, is there anything different you do to prevent this? (apologies for the slight de-railing)

As others note, it's good practice to run the machine for a few minutes just prior to disassembly. If I think about it, I do this. That said, I haven't had an issue when disassembling cold.

I have only used Arctic Silver 5 (not Arctic MX-4) - I'm not sure which you're referring to.

I can only speak to my experience building a dozen PCs over the past 10 years - the 2 longest running ones were 4 and 5 years old when I disassembled them (always get the itch to upgrade).

The last PC I built was in July - with a 7950X CPU and Arctic Freezer III 420 mm AIO. While preparing to mount the cooler and deciding whether to use the paste shipped with the AF 3 or Arctic Silver 5 - I considered that I'd never had any issue or concern with the AS5...that's what I used.

 

[RAIDGoblin]

Before you shut down to remove a cooler, run the pc a bit to heat it up.
CPU-Z bench will do it.
That softens the paste and the cooler comes off easily.

You can usually get it hot by just unplugging the fan for awhile.

When it's hot, undo the brackets but don't lift up before twisting the heatsink to break the adhesion.

Thank you for the advice 😀 somehow, after many years of computer maintenance, I had missed this piece of information, I will give this a try next time and see if it makes things easier

As others note, it's good practice to run the machine for a few minutes just prior to disassembly. If I think about it, I do this. That said, I haven't had an issue when disassembling cold.

I have only used Arctic Silver 5 (not Arctic MX-4) - I'm not sure which you're referring to.

I can only speak to my experience building a dozen PCs over the past 10 years - the 2 longest running ones were 4 and 5 years old when I disassembled them (always get the itch to upgrade).

The last PC I built was in July - with a 7950X CPU and Arctic Freezer III 420 mm AIO. While preparing to mount the cooler and deciding whether to use the paste shipped with the AF 3 or Arctic Silver 5 - I considered that I'd never had any issue or concern with the AS5...that's what I used.

I think my last paste was Arctic MX-4, maybe I'll try Arctic Silver