Looking for good thermal compound for good OC temperature

[mohdzarif]

I've ruined the pre-applied compound on my Corsair H80i a little bit by rubbing the pump on my CPU too hard. I just installed this cooler last week and today I doubt that the compound spread well when I first installed it, so I tried to fix something that's perfectly working fine.

Instead of fixing it, I ruined it. Max temperature when running Prime95 increased a little bit.

I wanna ask recommendations on good thermal compound for my H80i copper cold plate. I heard someone said that some compound don't mesh well with certain type of material, is this true?

Is Noctua NT-H1 good?

 

[woboy]

Noctua, Gelid Extreme, Arctic MX-4,

 

[ninjacore]

They're all within a few degrees of one another, so whichever you find on sale

 

[EarthDog]

They're all within a few degrees of one another, so whichever you find on sale

Exactly.. all within a couple of C... your biggest issue is getting the block on right, not the TIM.

 

[woboy]

The most comprehensive study I've seen found differences in paste application, thickness (viscosity), cooler pressure, and cooler surface finish all affected results.
All within a couple degrees.
Some of the expensive/ "diamond" compounds top listings, but chemical action can discolor surfaces,
long term results inconclusive.
Just pick a paste, look at reviews (mostly dated) and go.

 

[trents]

The temp performance difference between a cheap TIM and a quality TIM can be significant but there are only small differences between the good ones. The best I have found is Liquid Ultra which seems to give me about 4c lower temps than any other paste I have used. Liquid Ultra is fluxless solder and is litterally, well . . . metal in liquid form. The drawbacks are that it is more expensive, more difficult to apply, is conductive (so you don't want to have it spill over on to the socket traces), more difficult to remove and it can stain the CPU face and the cooler block. With the struggle you are already having in mounting your cooler block I probably would not recommend it in this case. Sounds like you need to work on your technique some. It might also be wise to take the motherboard out of the case before you apply the cooling block to give you more room to work and/or enlist the help of another pair of hands.

 

[ninjacore]

I would advise against the liquid metal stuff. Good results, but it's a pain to work with.

 

[unph4zed]

I would advise against the liquid metal stuff. Good results, but it's a pain to work with.

I agree with this. Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra pretty much ruined my waterblock and started to perform very poorly after about a year. Working with MX4 again was a dream after that experience.

 

[trents]

I agree with this. Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra pretty much ruined my waterblock and started to perform very poorly after about a year. Working with MX4 again was a dream after that experience.

Was the waterblock copper or aluminum? Liquid Ultra is not to be used with aluminum.