What Thermal Grease for My New i7-4930K CPU? Any Opinions?

[TheRuler8510]

RE: What Thermal Grease should I use for My New i7-4930K CPU?

It seems to me that you only get what you pay for.  The thermal grease that is touted as being good for new gaming PCs is cheap compared to the boron nitride compound I use on my MOSFET projects (by 2x to 3x!). They are also made with different materials.

So what is really best for a CPU in a PC after you cut through all the hype?

Any Opinions?

Thanks,

[grumpydoc]

It matters much less what you put on than that you apply it correctly.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thermal-paste-performance-benchmark,3616-19.html is a good graph - if you ignore the "liquid metal" ones which do seem better and the joke ones at the end a mere 2.4^oC separates all of the compounds.

[SeanB]

If you already have the borin nitride then use it. Otherwise pretty much all are similar provided they are applied properly. I have used plain white grease in some cases as I did not have any other around, and it did another 2 years before the CrapXon caps did the usual pop and sizzle act. They were bulging when I first cleaned that CPU, and after the dust jungle was removed it was a lot better performer.

Going out now to fix another, dead OHL PSU ( very dead and basically a big ball of fluff inside) with a cheap Thermaltake unit, along with a cheap case fan ( $2 fan and $20 PSU), so after the obligatory dedust and replacement it should boot XP just fine again. Not my PC, the FIL's one so I am eating the cost, and of course the warranty expected is forever, so bought a PSU with a 2 year warranty, and hope the mobo dies or the HDD next.

[NiHaoMike]

Where I currently work, they just use ordinary thermal grease for working on rack servers. However, the thermal grease that is installed at the factory is gray in color, similar to what's included with some Cooler Master heatsinks.

Do spend a little extra on some Deltas. With proper planning, just one is enough for a PC with one high end CPU and one or two high end GPUs.

[hgg]

Arctic Cooling MX-2.  Definitely one of the best.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186020

Alternatively Arctic Silver 5.   Same performance but it needs 200 hours burn in time...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007

Apply a very thin and homogenous film. 
The most important factor though is the heat sink that you will use.

George.

[Conrad Hoffman]

The gap, or lack thereof, is more important than the grease. The biggest mistake people make is using too much. Also, have a look at the Aavid phase change compound. That gets you the minimum gap by liquefying as it warms up, and thus can beat most other greases, not because it's a superior thermal conductor, but because there isn't much of it.

[rdl]

Just buy the Intel boxed processors with the heat sink included. They have a pre-applied thermal solutiion and it comes with a three year warranty. Why screw around with anything else?

[hgg]

The included Intel heat sink is the worst thing you can leave on top of your brand new processor...
They barely keep the temperature to a normal level and they are very noisy.

Buy this heat sink as well and you are good to go.   
http://www.scythe-eu.com/en/products/cpu-cooler/mugen-4.html
Excellent coolling, completely silent and Made in Japan... 


George.

[Legit-Design]

Best thermal grease is the one that you actually have in hand and is easy to clean and apply. More expensive thermal greases are for people who want to squeeze the last few degrees from their core temperatures because otherwise their computer becomes unstable. After finding maximum stable overlock, just decrease it few 100s of Mhz to make it rock stable. No point in chasing that last few degrees to make it stable. If you want to have hobby where you want to squeeze the last few Mhz out of that cpu then it's a different story.

If I had to recommend one I'd say arctic ceramique, cheap and one tube will mount tens if not almost a hundred heatsinks. Just add half a rice grain middle of the IHS, then mount cooler on top of that. Clean both surfaces first with IPA or some other alcohol. The less you use the compound the better it works. If you are unsure about the contact just wipe everything clean and try again, and it wont even cost a fortune.

[tautech]

Just buy the Intel boxed processors with the heat sink included. They have a pre-applied thermal solutiion and it comes with a three year warranty. Why screw around with anything else?

This is exactly the thoughts I had on my last build, use other than supplied and possibly void the warranty.
But I was careful to use a big finned sink with a copper button that contacts the CPU.
CPU rarely goes above 30 C (I3 2120 @3.3G)

[EEVblog]

I'd wager that you'd not be able to reliably measure the difference. the effects of application and heatsink pressure etc would have more effect than the type used.

[Fsck]

unless you plan to overclock, doesn't matter (mostly).

however, certain compositions dry up faster than other compositions, so functional lifetime is a pretty huge variance. typically not an issue unless you're exceeding >3 years of relatively high temp use.

I'd just use your BN compound.

[Rerouter]

Not certain if this is still the case, but with the 3000 series (3770 for me) the main limiter to cooling was the thermal pad beneath the cpu metal lid, to such an extent that it did not matter where on the paste spectrum you used, as it was the prior thermal junction doing it a dis-service, people went and investigated this to the extent that there are a few hundred page long threads out on the net of people De-lidding the CPU and heat-sinking the die directly just to get around the limitation,

My own recommendation is a diamond powder based paste from nano, more so that the abrasive contents polished the surfaces over the first few months that by the time it began to dry out it had actually improved the thermal resistance to a point that it no longer mattered,

[Marco]

Why screw around with anything else?

Noise, although I prefer to simply have my computer in another room nowadays.

[Legit-Design]

My own recommendation is a diamond powder based paste from nano, more so that the abrasive contents polished the surfaces over the first few months that by the time it began to dry out it had actually improved the thermal resistance to a point that it no longer mattered,

Does this polishing happen by thermal expansion or do you physically move the heatsink around on the heatspreader?

I'd just use your BN compound.

This.
Had a quick googling about boron nitride, in best cases looks to be up with the typical thermal compounds typically used in computers.

And like mentioned already the actual application of the thermal compound is what will matter most.
http://www.legitreviews.com/gelid-silent-spirit-lga-1366-cpu-cooler-review_893/8

when you remove the heatsink it should look something like in the picture. Half a rice grain middle of the heatspreader.

[rdl]

My living room computer is an i5-3570K (with stock Intel heat sink). Most of the time the fan barely spins, I would have to put my ear against it to hear anything. The only time it makes noise is when playing games, and then it's the video card, not the CPU fan, making most of the noise.

Why screw around with anything else?

Noise, although I prefer to simply have my computer in another room nowadays.

[Rerouter]

Another supporter of low noise, as i do have mine in my own bedroom, it took time and planning, but even with the sides off takes shoving ones head inside the case to hear any definable fan noise.

And to the op, it was more from thermal cycling,