Themal Paste Choice

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ryanskeltis

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Jul 20, 2013
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Im buying the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO and it comes with thermal paste.

my question is, will the thermal paste that comes with the EVO be good enough or should i go with a different brand of thermal paste to overclock my cpu, i have the AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core black edition and want to keep it cool, does thermal paste really make a difference with the cooling?
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Oct 9, 2006
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Use the supplied paste.

The paste might make a minor difference, but it is not really that important.
It is more important that you apply the paste well. Too much acts as an insulator. Too little will not spread far enough.
A small drop is usually sufficient.
 
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Calculatron

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The stock thermal compound that it comes with should be sufficient.

If you use another brand, you might, at most, notice a couple degrees of difference; nothing to get too excited over.

More important, these days, is making sure your heatsink has proper contact with the CPU, and proper application of the thermal compound.
 
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Calculatron

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MagR

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Hi

Most thermal pastes from reputable firms such as Cooler Master are pretty good these days so the stock paste should be ok. I personally use Arctic Cooling MX-4 as I like its consistency (neither runny nor stiff) and it is neither electrically conductive or capacitative so safe. As other posters have said it is the application that is more important.

Do a trial run if in doubt. Put a small blob in the middle of the cpu's heatspreader and attach the cooler. When you take it off you should see a circle of paste which stretches nearly to the edges of the cpu. If it goes over you've used too much. If the circle of paste stops well short of the edges you've used too little. Using this method the corners will be uncovered by paste but it doesn't matter as the cpu cores don't stretch there. After testing always clean off the paste and reapply even if the amount was correct as you won't get a good bond and may trap air bubbles by trying to reuse the same paste.

Hope this helps

Mag
 
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BranFlake5

BranFlake5

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Jul 9, 2013
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Pre-applied, no, But the tubes that come with coolers are fine if you apply it right. Arctic silver only reduces temps 1 degree (sometimes) and it's another 8 bucks. It is good if you replace the paste later on after removing a heatsink.
 
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Ice0verlord

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Please do not listen to people who say stock thermal paste if fine... I have built many Custom computers that will blow your mind away... and thermal paste does matter... Arctic Silver 5 is good but it is highly conductive.. so if u get any on ur motherboard.. and u dont clean it off it is toast.. also Arctic Silver 5 takes 72 hours to cure/set.... and it is still not as good as GC-Extreme. GC-Extreme also has no cure time unlike AS5 and it is Non Conductive meaning if you get some on ur motherboard you will be fine.

Most people don't know about AS5 cure time it does make a difference... but most people are impatient to let it cure.

So your winner is GC-Extreme when faced with how long it will last and the temps it can keep ur cpu From getting hot... GC-Extreme wins... people say Arctic Silver 5 is good but GC-Extreme win keeping CPU/GPU cooler by around 5C

 
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BranFlake5

BranFlake5

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Thermaltake's paste is better... http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Thermal-Compound-Roundup-September-2011/1377/5
 
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Calculatron

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The last thermal compound round-up of HardwareSecrets was actually February of 2012: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Thermal-Compound-Roundup-February-2012/1490/5

Like all results, it should be taken with some salt. Other sets of tests will show different results. The big lesson to take away is that most thermal compound, these days, will operate within a margin of error of one-another. Once you surpass 3C or more, it's time to take notice, but not without scrutiny.
 
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Ice0verlord

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the otherthing u need to be looking at is Liquid cooled vs Air Cooled which makes a big difference

 
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Ice0verlord

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ok heres the thing stock thermal paste... it doesnt last yes it works... but in a less than a year back to repasting... I live by this rule every year 1/2 -> 2 years do a thermal repaste it will keep you cpu and the lowest temps especially if you multi task as much as i do.
 
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