thermal paste Which Thermal Paste to buy and apply (Traditional and Liquid Metal)

[raptorddd]

anyone has used TFX.? does it last long.? i have mx4 and looking for something better. mx4 only last for 1-2 months

when i can see higher temps. upon removal of paste i  can see some part of has dried.

maybe i got a fake mx4. supposely QR code says its geniune.

[Vasudev]

On 6/2/2022 at 10:52 PM, raptorddd said:

anyone has used TFX.? does it last long.? i have mx4 and looking for something better. mx4 only last for 1-2 months

when i can see higher temps. upon removal of paste i  can see some part of has dried.

maybe i got a fake mx4. supposely QR code says its geniune.

Yeah MX4 dry out quickly. TFX does seem to hold its own after many years/months acc. to @Rofa1234@Falkentyne and others.

[Vasudev]

@solidus1983I managed to open up the heatsink and the sheets almost melted to heatsink just like LM. On GPU there was slight shift then again I couldn't existing sheets after I tore up whilst removing through pluckers. I added insulation tape around GPU die and so far it seems to be good.

[KING19]

Update on Honeywell 7950SP

 

Well after a month of using the paste the temps started to spike up to 97C when playing GTA V and when i ran cinebench it went as high as 100C so i decided repaste again, I wish i took pictures of what it looked like but i was in a rush but setting the paste and letting the heatsink to spread the paste kinda fail as there was some bare spots on the cpu die so this time i decided to spread the paste myself but again this paste is pretty thick so even using the spatula was hard to spread so i used my finger to do it with the finger glove that came with the package. It was kinda messy but i managed to spread it to completely cover my CPU and GPU die. I expected bad results but i was wrong i ended up having better temps this time lol.

 

I did back to back runs on cinebench and here the results.

 

I also played cyberpunk 2077 for 15 mins and the temps stayed cool. Mid 70c's on the CPU and upper 60c's on my overclocked 1660ti.

 

Hopefully this time i wont have to do another repaste anytime soon and after being a guinea pig with the paste version i would recommend of getting the pad version instead.

[Papusan]

Alphacool Introduces the Apex Thermal Paste Rated 17 W/mK

By Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 06/14/2022 09:05 AM

 

The new Apex thermal paste is available from Alphacool. With a thermal conductivity of 17 W/mK, it joins the ranks of the market's most powerful thermal pastes Read more

 

@Mr. Fox @Falkentyne @johnksss +++

 

Alphacool Apex: New thermal paste with high 17 W/mK computerbase.com
https://www.computerbase.de/2022-06/alphacool-apex-neue-waermeleitpaste-mit-hohen-17-w-mk/

[electrosoft]

1 hour ago, Papusan said:

Alphacool Introduces the Apex Thermal Paste Rated 17 W/mK

By Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 06/14/2022 09:05 AM

 

The new Apex thermal paste is available from Alphacool. With a thermal conductivity of 17 W/mK, it joins the ranks of the market's most powerful thermal pastes Read more

 

@Mr. Fox @Falkentyne @johnksss +++

 

Alphacool Apex: New thermal paste with high 17 W/mK computerbase.com
https://www.computerbase.de/2022-06/alphacool-apex-neue-waermeleitpaste-mit-hohen-17-w-mk/

 

I'll have to add a tube to my collection for testing when available. Looks promising.

 

 

[jaybee83]

3 hours ago, Papusan said:

Alphacool Introduces the Apex Thermal Paste Rated 17 W/mK

By Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 06/14/2022 09:05 AM

 

The new Apex thermal paste is available from Alphacool. With a thermal conductivity of 17 W/mK, it joins the ranks of the market's most powerful thermal pastes Read more

 

@Mr. Fox @Falkentyne @johnksss +++

 

Alphacool Apex: New thermal paste with high 17 W/mK computerbase.com
https://www.computerbase.de/2022-06/alphacool-apex-neue-waermeleitpaste-mit-hohen-17-w-mk/

so many interesting new pastes to check out! remind me again, why did i go with a humongous 37 gram syringe of Kryonaut? 😄 also still have some leftover stock of ICD and GCE...

[Vasudev]

On 6/14/2022 at 9:22 PM, Papusan said:

Alphacool Introduces the Apex Thermal Paste Rated 17 W/mK

By Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 06/14/2022 09:05 AM

 

The new Apex thermal paste is available from Alphacool. With a thermal conductivity of 17 W/mK, it joins the ranks of the market's most powerful thermal pastes Read more

 

@Mr. Fox @Falkentyne @johnksss +++

 

Alphacool Apex: New thermal paste with high 17 W/mK computerbase.com
https://www.computerbase.de/2022-06/alphacool-apex-neue-waermeleitpaste-mit-hohen-17-w-mk/

Alphacool does say the paste is great for longevity/reliability for high pressure heatsink.

[mido]

I wanna replace my MSI GL65 thermal paste (currently using that EZ knockoff, been working pretty good) because its been like a year.

The problem, is that instead of thermal pads, it came with thermal paste on the vrms,ram,etc . Like this:

 

Does anyone know what thickness should I buy? 1mm?

[jaybee83]

10 minutes ago, mido said:

I wanna replace my MSI GL65 thermal paste (currently using that EZ knockoff, been working pretty good) because its been like a year.

The problem, is that instead of thermal pads, it came with thermal paste on the vrms,ram,etc . Like this:

 

Does anyone know what thickness should I buy? 1mm?

you could stick to the thermal putty like K5 Pro, that way u dont need to check which thickness u need exactly.

[mido]

6 minutes ago, jaybee83 said:

you could stick to the thermal putty like K5 Pro, that way u dont need to check which thickness u need exactly.

Yes,but then I would need to change it everytime I open the laptop to change thermal paste,right?

Also just googled it,and found this:

https://reddit.invak.id/r/DellG5SE/comments/lrjrrw/psa_if_you_are_using_k5_pro_for_a_thermal_pad/

[aldarxt]

3 hours ago, mido said:

Yes,but then I would need to change it everytime I open the laptop to change thermal paste,right?

Also just googled it,and found this:

https://reddit.invak.id/r/DellG5SE/comments/lrjrrw/psa_if_you_are_using_k5_pro_for_a_thermal_pad/

Could that be true??? If that boils I would think it would be grounds for a LAWSUIT!!!

[jaybee83]

6 hours ago, mido said:

Yes,but then I would need to change it everytime I open the laptop to change thermal paste,right?

Also just googled it,and found this:

https://reddit.invak.id/r/DellG5SE/comments/lrjrrw/psa_if_you_are_using_k5_pro_for_a_thermal_pad/

 

3 hours ago, aldarxt said:

Could that be true??? If that boils I would think it would be grounds for a LAWSUIT!!!

 

whoa whoa hold the horses there 😄 as far as i can see, that person's analysis is solely based on the appearance of the putty after taking off the heatsink. K5 Pro is quite viscuous, not as thin and liquid as regular thermal paste. so pulling off the heatsink would likely cause "micro-tears" that would look exactly like this.

also, the other stuff thats being described @not drying out, oily, etc. is exactly what you would want it to do: to NOT dry out, same goes for regular thermal paste 😛 

naturally, using such thermal putty comes with the disadvantage of having to clean it off and that might be a PITA if u take the heatsink off regularly. 

[Vasudev]

On 6/18/2022 at 7:10 PM, mido said:

I wanna replace my MSI GL65 thermal paste (currently using that EZ knockoff, been working pretty good) because its been like a year.

The problem, is that instead of thermal pads, it came with thermal paste on the vrms,ram,etc . Like this:

 

Does anyone know what thickness should I buy? 1mm?

From the picture, the pads on extreme left side vertically you can use soft pads from 0.2mm or 0.5mm from arctic or any chinese knockoffs marketed as GPU pads.As for existing pink pads its hard to say because its sticky and might become brittle as time progresses. I think 1mm and 0.5mm pads should be sufficient for your laptop.

[mido]

On 6/20/2022 at 4:30 PM, Vasudev said:

From the picture, the pads on extreme left side vertically you can use soft pads from 0.2mm or 0.5mm from arctic or any chinese knockoffs marketed as GPU pads.As for existing pink pads its hard to say because its sticky and might become brittle as time progresses. I think 1mm and 0.5mm pads should be sufficient for your laptop.

Thanks,so you would use 0.5mm on the ones with white paste and 1mm to replace the pink pads?

[K4sum1]

Should I go for the SYY-157? It's very cheap for how well it performs, I can get 15 grams for the price of the expensive 2-4 gram tubes of other well performing pastes.

[JeanLegi]

On 6/14/2022 at 7:05 PM, electrosoft said:

 

I'll have to add a tube to my collection for testing when available. Looks promising.

 

 

 

Same here my Apex should be arrive in 1-2 days and I let myself be surprised how it will perform with the GE76 which i have still here 😈

 

 

The thermalright TFX is just a good one when i played just a simple game like Order of Battle: WW2 the 3080 from the GE76 was most of the time in the temp limit but currently nothing of this and the cpu performs good too with this paste.

 

Edit:

Currently i test the Apex and it looks like that the contact pressure for the gpu is not enough i have slightly higher temps than with the TFX. I think I will go for some mix  of using TFX for the GPU and Apex for the CPU.

 

[JeanLegi]

After 2 days of using i decided to change the gpu back to tfx as you can see with the GE76 Raider 11UH the paste was not well distributed on the GPU but for the CPU it was well distributed and better temperatures as with the TFX. i change back because i play a simple game Order of battle: WW2 and the GPU reach 80° and I'm really sure that this was not with the TFX paste.

[mido]

Has anyone a guide for lapping laptop's heatsink? How much are the materials for the process? Is it hard?

[Vasudev]

22 hours ago, mido said:

Has anyone a guide for lapping laptop's heatsink? How much are the materials for the process? Is it hard?

Don't sand it too much. When i was doing it for the first time, i nearly took too much and in turn reduced pressure. Use 800-1000 grit and try sanding it in one direction just twice/thrice.

I think @Mr. Fox@jaybee83@Reciever @Papusan and others can help you in getting exact or precise process.

[Mr. Fox]

If you make it thinner it can make it weaker and impair contact as Brother @Vasudev experienced. If it is not flat you should consider replacing with one that is flat (or flatter) if the cold plate is a thin copper sheet. Making it shiny like a mirror can help a tiny bit with better temps with ordinary thermal paste, but you do not want that if you plan to use liquid metal. You actually want to scuff it up a bit with fine sandpaper (not polish it) so the liquid metal can stick better. More important on a laptop that anything else is even contact and increasing contact pressure.

[Falkentyne]

On 6/5/2022 at 10:22 AM, Vasudev said:

Yeah MX4 dry out quickly. TFX does seem to hold its own after many years/months acc. to @Rofa1234@Falkentyne and others.

 

TFX keeps performing decently over time but the temps DO degrade.  It's a paste, not magic, and no paste is immune to degradation.  Seen it on my RTX 3090 FE.  Lost about 5C over 4 months.

The best way to avoid degradation is to use liquid metal (usually stable long term, after losing a couple C after a godly temp reduction on direct die (BGA CPU's, desktop GPU's, while it's stable on top of IHS and under IHS due to increased mounting pressure), or to use phase change products, which are largely immune to any of these effects while not being as effective as overall LM, it's more stable long term.

 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256803559684957.html?gatewayAdapt=4itemAdapt

 

https://www.moddiy.com/products/Laird-TPCM-780SP-High-Performance-CPU-Interface-Material-(W{47}mK->-5.5).html

[cylix]

I gave  Gelid Extreme a try but i was getting 77 deg on gpu and 84 on Cpu in BF2042 so i switch back to Phobya Nanogrease and got a 6 deg reduction with it. Its still the best paste for my Clevo. but i think if i want unter 70 deg on the GPU side ill need to try LM on the 2080 to tame it. Might do that in the future if i have the time. 

[jaybee83]

3 hours ago, cylix said:

I gave  Gelid Extreme a try but i was getting 77 deg on gpu and 84 on Cpu in BF2042 so i switch back to Phobya Nanogrease and got a 6 deg reduction with it. Its still the best paste for my Clevo. but i think if i want unter 70 deg on the GPU side ill need to try LM on the 2080 to tame it. Might do that in the future if i have the time. 

be sure that this is not due to poorly fitted heatsink vs actual thermal paste quality. liquid metal in the former case would do absolutely nothing and give u worse temps than any regular paste, actually... perfect fit is key in that regard 

[mido]

4 hours ago, Vasudev said:

Don't sand it too much. When i was doing it for the first time, i nearly took too much and in turn reduced pressure. Use 800-1000 grit and try sanding it in one direction just twice/thrice.

I think @Mr. Fox@jaybee83@Reciever @Papusan and others can help you in getting exact or precise process.

 

4 hours ago, Mr. Fox said:

If you make it thinner it can make it weaker and impair contact as Brother @Vasudev experienced. If it is not flat you should consider replacing with one that is flat (or flatter) if the cold plate is a thin copper sheet. Making it shiny like a mirror can help a tiny bit with better temps with ordinary thermal paste, but you do not want that if you plan to use liquid metal. You actually want to scuff it up a bit with fine sandpaper (not polish it) so the liquid metal can stick better. More important on a laptop that anything else is even contact and increasing contact pressure.

 

I dont plan to use LM, just plain TFX. I remember some member at nbr forum decreasing a few degrees by lapping, but dont remember if he also posted the procedure.