Which thermal paste?

[Dking25]

Arctic MX-2

Arctic MX-4

Arctic Silver 5

ic diamond 7 or 24

I looked over many forms and still can't find out whats better, i don't care about price. whats the best for a cpu, also for my gpu. Thanks!

 

[JackNaylorPE]

There are three (3) that beat all of those:

Grizzly ... has shown some great results in the few reviews tested .... very new so no handle on longevity and ease oif application as haven't tried yet. Very hard to get a hold of

http://www.performance-pcs.com/thermal-grizzly-hydronaut-hgh-performance-thermal-grease-3ml-22799.html

Shin Etsu - Outside of the above and Liquid Metal TIMs (not recommended unless you have done several dozen installs) from Collaborative Labs, the best overall TIM on the market, readily available and inexpensive. The stuff we buy for our PCs is simply rebranded stuff from Dow Chemical and other major industrial manufacturers who can't be bothered selling little tiny tubes for $6. Shin Etsu is one of those big guys. Doesn't have any of the curing (200 hours) and capacitance (can't get on any contacts) issues of AS5 (see AS5 web site) . Our "go to" choice for CPU applications.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA45H22W1965

Gelid Extreme - This is what you get in the box when you buy a premium water block from EK. very similar thermal properties to Shin Etsu but remains "spreadable" a bit longer .... handy fro spreading over umpteen memory / VRM chips on water cooled SLI builds ... pricey at $13
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835426020

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

 

[synphul]

I would pick whichever is cheapest out of those. JackNaylorPE is right in a sense, but for instance the shin etsu paste - may rank higher but cools a whole .65 of a degree celsius better than mx-2. Mx-4 cools about the same, as-5 meets the same score as the shin etsu. No need to go on a scavenger hunt for thermal paste, the major name brands typically run within 1-3c of one another and there's probably more temp difference in margin of error due to mounting the cooler.

Grizzly hydronaut performs about on par with prolimatech pk2 and pk3 and gelid extreme cools a tiny bit better. There's only 1c difference between grizzly kryonaut (which performs better than hydronaut), and gelid gc extreme, hydronaut, prolimatech pk3, pk2, phobya nano grease extreme, ic diamond 7, noctua's nt-h1, bequiet dc1, prolimatech pk1, xigmatek xi 3hdt, alpenfohn permafrost and a couple more. It's important to consider real world performances and just how much better 'better' actually is.

If you want better performance than that you'd be looking into liquid metal thermal solutions which aren't really advised unless you're an extreme enthusiast and very careful. Not only in how you apply it but knowing what metals you're working with, if dealing with any kind of exposed copper or potentially exposed copper the liquid metal solutions can cause pretty heavy corrosion. They do offer 2c better performance than even the grizzly kryonaut paste.

http://overclocking.guide/thermal-paste-roundup-2015-47-products-tested-with-air-cooling-and-liquid-nitrogen-ln2/6/

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I certainly wouldn't redo an installation to get 1-3C but from the getgo, no sense not taking any advantage you can get....especially when that 1-3C advantage is the cheapest alternative.

 

[synphul]

I don't know how it's the cheapest alternative. By the link you provided, as5 equals grizzly's performance and can't even find a price for grizzly's stuff much less availability (outside of maybe germany or the uk).

Out of all of those the op listed, mx-2, mx-4, as5 or ic diamond 7 they may as well pick the cheapest one. Performing within a degree or less isn't going to matter. Chances are human error in cooler mounting or application of the compound will cause a 3-4c swing so it's well within margin of error. It might matter if using ln2 competitively and even then someone will use a liquid metal option most likely. For a standard gaming pc, even an enthusiast build people tend to pull their hair out over which paste to use. Then someone in the house opens a door and the room temp fluctuates 1-2c and all is lost. That's more or less what I was getting at. Folks get all worked up over 1-2c in thermal paste and all they'd have to do is kick the thermostat down 3c and they're already ahead of the game.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Sorry if i wasn't clear but Shin Etsu is the one that I said I use personally and was the one that topped the charts in the 80-way TIM roundup. Grizzly is a bit too new for me to recommend at this point. Tho it did well, topping the chart (excluding liquid metal options), in the reviews I have seen, I want to see more before making a judgement.

I did note that your reference (overclockinguide.com) stated:

After almost 6 years in lead of the market, GC-Extreme lost the battle against the new Kryonaut from Thermal Grizzly (talking about conventional paste).

Which I think reaffirms that formulations of leading products have have not changed much in 6 years. Gelid, and Shin Etsu are as competitive now as they were six years ago.

Getting back to Shin Etsu ....

It tied AS5 in the thermal test
http://archive.benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=150&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=12

However .... Shin Etsu does not have AS5's curing issues so you don't have to wait 7 weeks (assumed 30 hours per week usage) to dial in your OCs. Shin Etsu builds are ready to OC while they are still on the workbench.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm

Important Reminder:
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.

Shin Etsu also doesn't have AS5s Capacitance issues

Arctic Silver 5 was formulated to conduct heat, not electricity.
(While much safer than electrically conductive silver and copper greases, Arctic Silver 5 should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. While it is not electrically conductive, the compound is very slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical paths.)

Shin Etsu is also the cheapest alternative at $5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA45H22W1965

mx-2, mx-4, as5 or ic diamond 7 they may as well pick the cheapest one

As Shin Etsu is cheaper than and outperforms all of those listed... I agree that the cheapest one is the best option. As to whether something better is worth $1, $2, or even $10....that's a very individual decision.... but that choice need not be made here.

AS5 is 60% more expensive ....MX-2 (+48%), MX-4 (+80%), IC Diamond (+160%) ... in each case you pay more to get less performance.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA45H22W1965

I linked to the wrong Grizzly product, meant to point to the Kryonaut product as you pointed out ... PPCs site is so frustratingly slow, didn't wait for page 2 to load.

As for availability.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/brand--thermal-grizzly/?p=2

Tho currently out of stock, it had been in stock and prices are clearly stated and the seller is in Florida. Also available, or soon to be @ newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1K639W8976

And in North Carolina tho a huge tube
https://www.memoryc.com/pc-components/cooling-products/thermal-grizzly-kryonaut-thermal-grease-paste-11-1-grams.html

 

[synphul]

Oh ok, yea I did misread. Yes, glad it's not just me - ppc's site is miserably slow. Not sure what I was looking at, for some reason I thought the shin etsu was also around $10-12, not $5. I had about 20 thermal paste tabs open and was looking at the newer grizzly stuff and trying to find info out about them. Went to go to their webpage and realized it was in german.

A lot of products from germany (like be quiet) are harder to come by in the u.s. and have great though relatively unheard of brands. Trouble is availability varies.

If someone uses their pc very little and uses as5 it could potentially take longer for it to cure. Usually within a week or so of cycling the pc the paste is pretty well cured. It may have some capacitance issues like you mentioned, though in the quote it does fairly say to keep away from electrical traces, paths and leads which I always assumed applied to all thermal compounds. With so many people using it over the years there has been a lot of success with it and few issues. Occasionally a user will report that they used way too much thermal compound and got it everywhere (including on the cpu pins which still baffles me) so I could see the potential problems with as5 there. To be fair to as5, under normal use it shouldn't be in contact with any of those things.

I definitely agree, thermal pastes haven't improved much. There's only so much they can do with such a thin layer of material between two metal surfaces to exchange heat. Assuming they could reach perfection in thermal transfer, you can't get better than metal to metal so there's a point of diminishing returns and it shows. Many compounds are so close to one another someone may as well pick up whatever is inexpensive, on sale, in stock etc provided it's not some no name never heard of brand that could potentially have shabby performance.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

My one disappointment is it's been a while since I have seen some fun roundups .... the ones like that include, toothpaste, peanut butter and vegemite !