Which thermal paste to buy?

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cooldudesubho

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Feb 24, 2012
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I have a xfx 5850 which is about 1 and half years old.There are lots of dust in the cooler.And i need to clean it.I am wondering which thermal paste should i buy?My friend has intel thermal paste.Can i use that?Or should i buy arctic silver5?Some people say silver is bad for gpu?Is that correct?
 
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nukemaster
For the "Rubbing Alcohol" just go to the drug store and get it. May be under the name "Isopropyl Alcohol" as well. Look for 90+ percent if you can.

It never hurts to try the Intel paste. As one user above said, i have also swapped out video thermal paste for a small 1-2 degree difference. Most video card makers use fairly good stuff.
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Don't be dishonest like this guy here. Just be careful. If it seems stuck, dribbling some 91% isopropyl alcohol (which you'll use to clean the old residue off anyway) where the heat sink meets the chip may loosen it. As the review at http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Thermal-Compound-Roundup-February-2012/1490 shows, many pastes are all within a few degrees of one another. AS5 is a good choice.
 
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I have never heard that the silver paste is harmful. I do not believe it. Use a good paste,,,,yes! Just dont use to much. A little bit in the cebter abd it will evenly apply itself. The trick is knowing just how much to use. too much and u make a big mess. too little and it may not cool as well......i have used a piece of plastic to move the paste evenly along the sufrace, and that works ok. u can remove excess b4 istalling the chip.
 
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I'd beg to differ ..... as we can see here, ya can get a thermal temperature difference from 42.1C to 37.55 .... that's almost 5C .....

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=150&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=12
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=150&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=9

There's also the issue of curing time ..... (underlined portion from AS5 website)

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=138&Itemid=47&limit=1&limitstart=5

After this article was first published, there was an immediate backlash from some of the manufacturers listed in this review. The primary argument was the lack of cure time. Here is the Arctic Silver 5 recommended cure time instruction from the manufacturers web site:

Due to the unique shape and sizes of the particles in Arctic Silver 5's conductive matrix, it will take a up to 200 hours and several thermal cycles to achieve maximum particle to particle thermal conduction and for the heatsink to CPU interface to reach maximum conductivity. (This period will be longer in a system without a fan on the heatsink or with a low speed fan on the heatsink.) On systems measuring actual internal core temperatures via the CPU's internal diode, the measured temperature will often drop 2C to 5C over this "break-in" period. This break-in will occur during the normal use of the computer as long as the computer is turned off from time to time and the interface is allowed to cool to room temperature. Once the break-in is complete, the computer can be left on if desired.

So by my estimation of this statement it would take almost a year of normal use to properly cure the AS5 compound, or almost nine days of continuous power cycles to meet their recommendation.
Click to expand...
 
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If you put on too much of any paste, it can run out around the edges of the heat sink and drip onto the PCB. If it is conductive (many are), it could possibly short something. If you use the right amount (about the size of a grain of long-grain rice), you'll have no problems.
 
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You can normally get most of the dust out with an air duster by pushing from the rear vents and side rear vents towards the fan, then from the fan side back and forth a bit.

As for the paste, AS5 will be fine. I have used it on many cards. I find Arctic Cooling paste to be good as well. The only past I did not like was the cooler master stuff because it seemed very dry and thick, but maybe it was bad(did not use it).
 
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In many attempts, I removed GPU heat sink and it looked like the thermal tape and painted surface would be bad,
Thou in reality after polishing heat sink, and applying good paste idle temp changed by 1c, and full load by 4c total waste of time
CPU resulted in better numbers
 
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Dishonest about what? that I ripped the chip in half? Dude get some therapy or relax.
Also shelling $20 for a thermal paste is ridiculous. 5C difference is very very exceptional.
Whether you use $20 arctic silver or $5 thermal paste the differences are simply insignificant.
I believe it was 2004 when silver was a hit. Got it for $15 and had the same temps. No difference.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Thermal-Compound-Roundup-February-2011/1202/6


 
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Thanks for the help guys.I would like to know what exactly is rubbing alchol?Once which is used by doctors to clean our skin before giving enjection?
Or nail polish remover.

And one more thing my friend told me not waste my money buying thermal paste as he already have original intel thermal paste.The once used by intel in there cpu and heatsink.So should i just use that?Since he told me its much better than default thermal paste used in gpu.I am reaaly not worried about temp.I just need to clean the heatsink since lots of dust have accumulated between the fins of the heatsink.
 
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For the "Rubbing Alcohol" just go to the drug store and get it. May be under the name "Isopropyl Alcohol" as well. Look for 90+ percent if you can.

It never hurts to try the Intel paste. As one user above said, i have also swapped out video thermal paste for a small 1-2 degree difference. Most video card makers use fairly good stuff.
 
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Breaking something and then RMAing as though it were defective is dishonest. It is as simple as that. If you break it, man up and pay for the new one. Now if you are saying they knew exactly what happened and *gave* you another one, then you must have done something incredible in a prior life and have a lot of karma banked up; very cool.
Rubbing alcohol <> isopropyl alcohol; it contains additional ingredients. You want the latter, of the highest concentration you can find (91% afaik). Nail polish remover is acetone, a different substance entirely. I do not know enough about it to know if it is safe to use.
 
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