Thermal compound risky to apply?

dragearen · Aug 5, 2014

Hi all, I just bought a Sager NP7338/Clevo W230SS laptop, and it is notorious for running pretty hot. As such, I thought it might be a good idea to put some compound on, so I picked up some Arctic Silver MX-4. Just as I was undoing the screws on my heatsink, my brother, who has worked in IT for 15 years, said that applying it was risky and could make my computer hotter if it wasn't the right compound.

He said that compounds will have certain heatspecs, and you have to match the heatspec the system is designed for. Also that heatsinks will frequently have a different kind of compound than the CPU/GPU. (Which makes no sense to me, isn't the compound a layer in between the heatsink and the CPU?)

I have never heard of any of this before, and understood compound as a fairly straightforward process that can help save your computer in the long run. Is he right? Should I do my research and try to find the heatspecs of the OEM compound, or just use the OEM?

O_Pgamer96 · Aug 5, 2014

I would suggest at least making sure that mx-4 has better performance than the stock stuff and that it wouldnt leak out any where due to a different viscosity. Hes right about doing research first but its not always a bad thing.

JackNaylorPE · Aug 5, 2014

Clevo lappies are renowned for their cooling performance; they "feel" hot as the cooling system does a great job getting the heat from inside to outside.... and you can buy them with special thermal compounds pre-applied.

These are the top 5 out of the non-liquid metal stuff

Tuniq TX-3 (0) Aluminum Oxide Moderate 37.65°C A+
Gelid GC-Extreme (0) Aluminum Oxide Low / Thin 37.65°C A+
Thermaltake Grease A2150 (4) Polysynthetic Silver Low / Thin 37.65°C A+
Arctic Silver 5 Polysynthetic Thermal Compound (4) Polysynthetic Silver Low / Thin 37.55°C A+
Shin-Etsu MicroSi G751 (0) Aluminum Oxide Moderate 37.55°C A+

(Test results by Benchmark Reviews .com)

Since the review IC Diamond has cracked the top echelon and that;s what Clevo offers.

(0) No Curing Time or Special Application Suggested
(4) Arctic Silver 5 Application Instructions (up to 200-hours recommended curing time)

Th 200 hours of thermal cycling kills AS5 in my book.... yes that doesn't mean running, it means time spent warming up and time spent cooling down.

I think bro must work in software and the hardware geeks are pulling his leg.

I like Gelid the best ....stays spreadable longer. IC Diamond ya better warm up the tube in a glass of water before using and work fast. Shin Etsu 751 is a top notch TIM at very reasonable cost.

When it comes to TIMs, better is "always better".

But I agree w/ bro in one respect.....if you are doing it for the 1st time, odds are good that the guy at the factory will have done a better application job than you did.

Next time have the IC Diamond pre-applied by Clevo....on many models it's free, on other's it's a $30 or so charge

http://www.lpc-digital.com/sager-np7338.html

IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU $35.00

Sometimes even when it;s not free, it can be free .... if ya paid attention and looked at the web site for the "discounts", let's say ya build cost was $1325 ..... well one of those discounts kicks in at $1350, you might add an extra 450 to the discount.... so $1325 + $35 - $50 and ya just saved $15 for spending $35

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Thermal compound risky to apply?

dragearen

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JackNaylorPE

O_Pgamer96

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JackNaylorPE

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