Thermal Paste with the best heat transfer?

[deltawars]

Hi guys I come here from the land of lasers, I'm not really into computer hardware but I do have 3 minings rigs 10X R9270 OC and 4X R9290 in total , anyway I thought this would be the best place to ask what is the thermal paste with the fastest heat transfer? I'm going to use it in a laser and the maximum temperature if it ever does reach it will be 50oc but it will run at 30oc %99 of the time, it doesn't matter if it is conductive or not, or weather it is a paste or glue and I don't want to spend any more then £20 on it, anyway I look forward to a reply and thanks for your help

 

[Witchdoctor]

I have had good luck with this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835426020

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

I just want to say, I'm very jealous of your mining rig. I only have my 7850 and 270x

What about MX-4?

The cooling experts will know the right stuff to use

 

[deltawars]

It's a big investment with them rigs, you probably wont be jealous when it doesn't pay off lol

When I was looking around on the internet I did come across MX-4 but I just want to see if there is anything better.

 

[greg2601]

Gelid Supreme. Lowered my temps by 4° to 6°..

 

[Witchdoctor]

I have had better results with TX2 than TX4

But the paste I linked above has worked best for me.

 

[Woomack]

Gelid Supreme is much cheaper than Extreme while temps are not much worse. It's also much easier to apply. Other that I would use on gfx cards are MX4 or Zalman STG2. Similar price and performance.
There are many other TIMs around but these above are in reasonable price and work good on gfx cards.

 

[greg2601]

I meant Gelid Extreme; I just wasn't thinking.

 

[RnRollie]

best thermal xfer: Coollaboratory CLU or Indigo eXtreme

after that it does not really matter; (flat or mated) contact surface makes more difference as TIM, so you can get whatever you can pick up "at the corner shop"
AS5, MX4, PK1, PK3,.... list is endless
The difference between the "best" and the "worst" TIM expresses itself in a few °C , 5 or 7 °C if i remember correctly.

That being said : the "legendary" AS5 is getting long in the tooth, its showing its age. So, besides MX4, Prolimatech PK1 or PK3 are quite good

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I'm worried about using computer thermal interface material with a 300-500°C operating temperature.
This stuff isn't made to run that hot.

 

[Silver_Pharaoh]

I'm worried about using computer thermal interface material with a 300-500°C operating temperature.
This stuff isn't made to run that hot.

I think he meant to say 30°C - 50°C instead.

 

[Bobnova]

"Best" paste? Last time I checked that was IC Diamond. Expensive, but it's the best.
If you drop the "paste" requirement, the liquid metal and metal film things are slightly better if I recall correctly.
They are also expensive.

If you want the best, you really can't put a price cap on it.

Once you get past the low end bulk stuff the difference in temps between worst-of-the-top-end and best-of-the-best isn't very high. I like MX2 personally, as it's cheap and effective.

 

[EarthDog]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thermal-paste-performance-benchmark,3616.html

You can see the difference between decent and the best is only a 1-2C at most. Your mount will botch that difference up. Get a decent cheap paste like MX-2 or something and call it a day. There are bigger fish to fry.

 

[doyll]

Quality of mounting is way more important then what TIM. Remove the top 2 or 3 exotic TIMs and the next 20 are all within a degree or two in top reviews.. and 2c is typical tolerance of error.

 

[Evilsizer]

just want to point out, there is this post of MX4 on GPU's. i havent gone looking at others but this is just something to think about.

then there is the Coollaboratory Liquid Pro/Ultra tim's, if you thought about them. Do not use either of them with alu based heatsinks.

Since im getting my ducks in a row, i was going to nab some PK3 for my next build. though i havent seen AS-C2 compared to other tops TIM's, if it has been then they mislabeled. As the reviews i have seen only have AS-C listed in their line up and not the newer AS-C2.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

just want to point out, there is this post of MX4 on GPU's. i havent gone looking at others but this is just something to think about.

I can confirm this finding.

I, myself used Arctic Cooling MX-2 (MX-2 and MX-4 are very similar) on a GPU and found I was having to replace the paste fairly often to keep good cooling performance. In my case I used it on the GPU of a Playstation 3, and was having to replace it once every 3-5 months. Every time I replaced the paste it was completely dried up. Apparently they put out a lot more heat than your average CPU and cause the paste to dry out at an accelerated rate.

So, I'd be really interested to find out what paste(s) are good for use on GPU's. Or better for use on GPU's, to put it another way.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I can confirm this finding.

I, myself used Arctic Cooling MX-2 (MX-2 and MX-4 are very similar) on a GPU and found I was having to replace the paste fairly often to keep good cooling performance. In my case I used it on the GPU of a Playstation 3, and was having to replace it once every 3-5 months. Every time I replaced the paste it was completely dried up. Apparently they put out a lot more heat than your average CPU and cause the paste to dry out at an accelerated rate.

So, I'd be really interested to find out what paste(s) are good for use on GPU's. Or better for use on GPU's, to put it another way.

Ceramique2 does very well with GPUs.

 

[Evilsizer]

well i think correctly it would be higher then cpu thermal temps. anything that might be in the 80c range. since these TIM's are used on cpus which dont like high temps like GPU's can take.

without a Temp range guide on tim's its going to take alot of testing to find out. since tim's could dry out under higher temps at different rates. might be why some high heat loads like 80c+ use thermal pads instead since they dont dry out.

*edit*
wonder what it would take to get tim manufactures to provide long term temp ranges. that way we can select the best tim for GPU's and one for out cpu's.
as another though, i dont see liquid metal tim's having this high heat issue, the only concern is to not use alu on the mating surface of the hs to the die.

 

[Shell]

Gallium alloys are by far the best, but expensive and conductive.

The rest don't seem to have a massive difference. Mounting it perfectly seems just as important as the TIM.