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Please recommend me a thermal paste

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badboyeee

badboyeee

Member
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Joined
Aug 12, 2010
Location
SoCal
Hello I would like newbie advice on what thermal paste I should get.

I've done a little research and the most popular is Arctic Silver 5. It's pretty cheap. But I heard its hard to remove and most importantly can damage your system if careless and gets some on the motherboard. Also takes long to "cure".

Then I heard the Shin-Etsu stuff is the best performing. Found some G751 for a good price. But I heard its thick and a pain to paste properly on the CPU.

I think the Artic Cooling MX2 seems to be a good one for me. Cheaper, safe and pretty easy to apply.

I intend to use this on my CPU, Chipset, and maybe even GPU. I've only mounted a HSF on a CPU once so ease of application is my main concern. Then price and performance.

Any other recommendations? Thanks
 
Last edited:
NT-H1 is my favorite, no curing time and it's not electrically conductive.

I've heard some good things about Indigo Extreme as well.
 
I love the MX2 also. Easy to apply and remove and very effective. Plus, you can buy a big @SS tube of it for less than $30 shipped. When you do heatsink testing, you end up using a lot of TIM during the testing.
 
I did an indigoxtreme installation just recently and was quite satisfied with the temps...that said, it's a bit unnecessary for most people. Mx-2 is a good balance of performance and price imo.
 
Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I will look into them. I also found OCZ Freeze that seems to fit my bill.

I have another question, is it bad to lift off the HSF from the CPU after its already been mounted? to see how well the thermal paste spread??
 
Not bad as long as you clean all the paste off and remount with fresh paste...if you mean just lift it then put it back down...then...yes/
 
m0r7if3r said:
Not bad as long as you clean all the paste off and remount with fresh paste...if you mean just lift it then put it back down...then...yes/
Click to expand...

ohh okay.. yes thats what i meant..

hmmm im not seeing why its bad to do that? :shrug:
 
Introduces air pockets gaps, the best spread is with a proper application per the manufacturers instructions and a single mount per paste application. It can be worthwhile doing a couple mounts and applications to ensure you are applying it well and getting good coverage.
 
Ok, I'll probably do a practice mount first.

I just pulled the trigger on the AC MX-2 thermal paste.

Thanks again everyone for the help.
 
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