Thermal Paste for Laptop

TadashiTG

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Apr 23, 2013
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I want to change the Thermal Paste on my laptop, and I have checked many types of Thermal Pastes but can't decided. I have a MSI GE60 0ND/0NC, but I also want to change the Thermal paste on a VAIO laptop as well. I'm not sure which thermal paste to use, I was looking only at the thermal conductivity but I read that the viscosity also matters. I also read about self curing? I'm not sure what is that though. An other thing I'm also confused about is the method of spreading. One more thing is the amount I need to buy to cover 4 surfaces( 2xCPU + 2xGPU ) or 5 if possible(+1xCPU)
 
Solution
I used the pea method, to apply a tiny little dot of thermal paste to these components. Not too much though! Just a tiny amount. You'll probably need a bit of isopropyl alcohol and a paper towel to remove the crusty old thermal paste that used to be there. :)

mcdonh

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1 tube should do it for all those devices, basically you just put a small line about the size of a grain of rice on the CPU/GPU then put the cooler on it which will spread the paste, I'm not to sure about how that works on laptops, honestly you might be better off getting a professional to do it as laptops are very tricky to work with in general.

Also how do you know the thermal paste needs changing, its not a overly common thing
 
If you stick with the thermal paste which is conductive, follow this chart for the best.
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/thermal-compound-charts/-1-Thermal-Conductivity,3361.html

I used Liquid Metal Pro when I did mine and dropped only a few degrees on CPU and GPU each. Although at the same time I upgraded the CPU up to a 3632QM so the fact it didn't have an increase is good. You can get it on amazon usually for around $13 and it has enough to use on many CPU and GPUs but be careful cause it will break down aluminum.

If you are putting it on aluminum, then go for one of the Prolimatech which has a big improvement over Arctic Silver 5 and doesn't break down aluminum since it contains aluminum.
 

TadashiTG

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thank you everyone for answering, greatly appreciated.

The reason I want to do this is because the VAIO is always super hot and the fan always run at top speed, if I would talk with someone over Skype the other person would hear the fan.
For the MSI the fan keeps going on and off each few seconds on idle operation, which is really annoying.
Apparently both devices have these problems commonly, so I'm hoping a really good thermal paste would help.I know for sure it would help the VAIO. I know the VAIO must have some crap thermal paste and most likely not well applied, as for the msi I read it should come with MX-2 but I also believe its not well applied. I've seen videos and pictures of the laptops being taken apart. Also this is general for most laptops, as I've seen it with other laptops as well.

As I read about the AS5, it is capacitive so it might hurt my CPU/GPU if it touches multiple exposed connections nearby them, I would rather avoid that. Using a less thermally conductive but non-capacitive thermal paste would worth it a lot better for me since this is my first time.

The Coolaboratory Liquid Pro hurts aluminum as you said, and as the website also says. My heat sink is copper, but is it safe on the CPU/GPU side? Do they all come with some non-aluminum metal?

@Alex Kelly: How did you apply the thermal paste?
 

T3PShooter

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What you heard about AS5 is incorrect and an internet rumor. Check their own website. It is non-conductive electrically. AS5 is your best option and can be used on both the CPU and GPU. This really isn't a major decision since you can use almost any thermal paste solution for your laptop and have results that are within 5C of one another.
 

Alex Kelly

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I opened up the computer, grounded myself and removed the screws covering the heat sinks for the CPU and GPU, then I applied a little blob of AS5 to both components, and re applied the heatsink. The laptop has worked perfectly since. :)
Best of luck
 


Nope, I'm not. I don't look at thermal paste as conductive of heat, i look at it as how easy heat passes through it, or how bad it impedes the passage of heat. I only look at its conductive properties in terms of electricity. When it comes to that, Liquid Metal Pro is far better than anything else. It is the most conductive also, but everyone else was advising thermal pastes that are conductive so I figured he should at least be told which is best.
 
TadashiTG: I just did some searching and it turns out that Arctic silver 5 is in fact not conductive of electricity. While it contains microscopic silver particles they are also mixed in with a lot of other non-conductive bits. The result is that in order to actually cause a short it would require the silver pieces to line up and touch perfectly enough to make a wire inside of the paste reaching to another piece of metal, but because its mostly other stuff this doesn't happen.

Given this information, its best you use that instead as Liquid Metal Pro is as its name suggests, 100% metal. It conducts electricity extremely well and it is a liquid. I think the only reason it doesn't leak out off coolers and gets all over the place is because you only use a very fine small amount of it. So to avoid problems with that, use Arctic Silver, its probably the best thermal paste that isn't conductive.
 


Yes, I know that. I was telling him if he is going to use one which conducts electricity that he should at least use the best one he could. I used the link to give him a list of thermal pastes that are better at cooling than Arctic Silver 5. I wasn't using it as a list of how much electricity they conduct, I don't think any such list or research has been done.
 


Which is what I told him just 5 seconds ago after learning that AC5 isn't conductive, as I had always heard it was conductive before. However if he did use something else or look for something else that chart still shows the bulk of thermal pastes available and which are better or similar to AC5 for him to choose from.
 

TadashiTG

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I'm interested in a bit more details about this step if you don't mind :D

about the ArticSilver 5
Arctic Silver 5 was formulated to conduct heat, not electricity.
(While much safer than electrically conductive silver and copper greases, Arctic Silver 5 should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. While it is not electrically conductive, the compound is very slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical paths.)
There's a difference between conducting electricity and being capacitive. If its capacitive, it means its basically a capacitor, capacitors hold electrical charges, and if they are connected in the wrong place they can damage components. Most likely if it makes a connection it wont do any harm but there's a chance it connects to where harm may occur.
 

Alex Kelly

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I used the pea method, to apply a tiny little dot of thermal paste to these components. Not too much though! Just a tiny amount. You'll probably need a bit of isopropyl alcohol and a paper towel to remove the crusty old thermal paste that used to be there. :)
 
Solution

TadashiTG

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Thank you everyone, I found that Toms had made a Thermal Paste comparison and the charts IInuyasha74 posted a link of, were the result of that article.
I decided to go Gelid GC-Extreme at the end, because it is once of best according to the article and I could find it easily near me.
these are the links for the articles for whoever is interested
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thermal-paste-heat-sink-heat-spreader,3600.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thermal-paste-performance-benchmark,3616.html