What Thermal Paste Would You Recommend for Mounting Heatsinks on Graphics Card?

[jlee14]

Hey Guys,

I'm looking at an aftermarket cooling solution for my GTX 680 (Arctic Accelero TT II) and had some questions regarding the thermal paste. I have read numerous reviews of the product that have stated that the paste that comes with the cooler is not of a good quality and for alot of people has been completely dried out. To avoid frustration I was looking to buy my own paste to use to mount the heatsinks on the gpu and memory chips. My question is what type of paste do you recommend? I know Arctic Silver is a big name but I was wondering if their were different variations of paste say... one for CPU and one type for CPU? I'm pretty sure they make a non conductive kind... Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Justin

 

[avjguy2362]

Have the cooler and did their thermal paste, not fun. I got the Arctic Alumina Epoxy ( strictly for the heat sinks ) and it dries much quicker, minutes instead of five hours! You can use any quality thermal paste for the GPU, I used Zerotherm's paste. Another tip, get one of those glue sticks for crafts in a lipstick type container, it will help with those stupid tiny washers. It is almost impossible to get the backing off and in the end I realized that any temporary soft glue will work, since once it is bolted down the glue doesn't matter. The coolers work great though, so it is worth it in the end!

 

[ur6beersaway]

On this best sellers list, a lot of people (serious) recommend #4 :http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l1/g8/Thermal_Interface.html

 

[jlee14]

Have the cooler and did their thermal paste, not fun. I got the Arctic Alumina Epoxy ( strictly for the heat sinks ) and it dries much quicker, minutes instead of five hours! You can use any quality thermal paste for the GPU, I used Zerotherm's paste. Another tip, get one of those glue sticks for crafts in a lipstick type container, it will help with those stupid tiny washers. It is almost impossible to get the backing off and in the end I realized that any temporary soft glue will work, since once it is bolted down the glue doesn't matter. The coolers work great though, so it is worth it in the end!

Glad to hear it will all be worth it in the end! So just to confirm: Arctic Alumina Epoxy for the heatsinks and Regular Thermal paste for the processor? and thanks for the additional help!

 

[17seconds]

Here's a review testing 80 different thermal pastes:
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=150&Itemid=62