I'll be interested in finding out what the best thermal paste is.

i would either go with Arctic silver 5, Ocz Freeze, or NT-H1 from noctua.

yes but i would like to hear from a EVGA person.. does removing the hs and replacing the TIM void your lifetime warranty

Hi Guys,

After reading MWPARRISH's excellent post I will be reapplying my TIM this week.

I spent a lot of time researching thermal paste today and it seems that the best out there are th IC7 Diamond compound and the MX-3 Arctic.

I know it is expensive but I just bought this paste.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/7299/thr-44/Innovation_Cooling_Diamond_24_Carat_Thermal_Compound_-_48_Grams.html?tl=g8c127s754

Innovation Cooling Diamond "24 Carat" Thermal Compound - 4.8 Grams

Does anyone have any experience with this compound? From what I have found it appears to be the best and "MOST" expensive.

khatru311

Innovation Cooling Diamond "24 Carat" Thermal Compound - 4.8 Grams

Does anyone have any experience with this compound? From what I have found it appears to be the best and "MOST" expensive.

Yeah I'm not sure where some people think its easy to apply...the stuff is extremely viscous, the colder it is the harder it is to apply and spread.  Its like trying to spread dried bubble gum lol.  I read a few tips to drop the syringe in hot water to let it loosen up a bit, which helps, but as soon as it hits the cold IHS it just gets all gummy again.
 
The other thing is...as advertised, it has little bits of ground up diamond in it.  So it tends to scratch/blemish your IHS and heatsink base.  Just something to consider, doesn't come off either so consider it permanent.  Its also the most difficult TIM to remove by far of any I've used.  It'll strip the cotton off your Q-tips and once you've gone through a half dozen or so, the real fun starts if you use any traditional solvent to try and remove it.  The *ONLY* thing I've found that works well is ArctiClean (great stuff btw, well worth the $6 so I recommend this for anyone), which removes it without any problems.
 
In any case, it cools well enough but honestly, not much different than any of the other top thermal compounds, and certainly not enough for me to continue using it.  It also doesn't last as long either.  I have a 1.5g syringe of it and used up a little more than 1/2 on 2 CPU applications.  Something like AS5 or OCZ Freeze, a little syringe 2-3g syringe of those lasts years....  In the end its worth trying once and then deciding if its worth it for you if you think you're getting another 1-2C cooler temps.  I found its difference to be negligible and the cons outweighing the pros so I no longer bother with it, hope that helps.

Just a quick round-up...

IC Diamond 7/24 = Great performance, non-capacitive, no curing time, thick
Arctic Cooling MX-3 = Great performance, non-capacitive, no curing time, thick 
Arctic Cooling MX-2 = Great performance, non-capacitive, no curing time, thin/easy application 
Arctic Silver 5 = Good performance (slightly worse than above), curing time, not too thick but not very thin either, capacitive 
Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400 = Great performance, unsure if it is capacitive or not (CM doesn't say so I'm assuming it is), no curing time, thick 
OCZ Freeze = Great performance (better than AS5 and MX-2 from my experience), non-capacitive, no curing time, thin/easy application

khatru311

Hi Guys,

After reading MWPARRISH's excellent post I will be reapplying my TIM this week.

I spent a lot of time researching thermal paste today and it seems that the best out there are th IC7 Diamond compound and the MX-3 Arctic.

I know it is expensive but I just bought this paste.

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/7299/thr-44/Innovation_Cooling_Diamond_24_Carat_Thermal_Compound_-_48_Grams.html?tl=g8c127s754

Innovation Cooling Diamond "24 Carat" Thermal Compound - 4.8 Grams

Does anyone have any experience with this compound? From what I have found it appears to be the best and "MOST" expensive.

MX-2 will easly match IC diamonds performance at 1/4th the price http://skinneelabs.com/tim-v2.html Shin-Etsu X23-7783D is the most expensive at $7 a gram but it also is the best you can buy.

Hey Chizow,

I did the same thing! I took the extra fan cage from my old 900 and put it in my case as well. I since removed it in favor of the side fan. I think I will try your idea of flipping one of the back exhaust fans.

I have considered adding a window AC uint to the room. Unfortunately I do not have a top/ down window only side to side and I don' think there is anyway to fix that.

rekcah980

yes but i would like to hear from a EVGA person.. does removing the hs and replacing the TIM void your lifetime warranty

almost everyone looking for max cooling performance replaces the stock TIM. very few would actually do if it wasn't allowed by warranty.

in fact, when i reported one of my 480 being 12*C hotter consistently and regardless of it's position in my case -- they said to go ahead and replace the TIM myself.

think about it -- EVGA knows the paste is globbed on in manufacturing and that it gets crusty after long use. the advisement of TIM replacement should actually extend the life of the card over the original stock paste if properly applied.

mwparrish
That is disgusting. Looks like mud. I'm not really interested in tiny diamond bits scratching up my heatsink and heatspreader either.

I never keep my tech much over a year -- so when I resell it -- I prefer it to be as pristine as possible. Clearly IC Diamond is not for me.

Ya its pretty nasty stuff, its more like fine cement and loc-tite epoxy mixed together.  I pity the fool who tries to remove this without the aid of ArctiClean.  But ya that's why I won't touch the stuff again, not only do you risk warranty by using it, resale is also less forgiving if you have a buyer that's skeptical because "their TIM never does that."

I manufacture waterblocks and liquid cooling solutions for High power electronics  ,perhaps you would like to rephrase your comment.

zschopf1
Chizow don't bother with him, he's not sure what he's saying. As far as I've read and compared to multiple forums he's not researching, he's just stating based on preferance not actuality.
 
Thanks for posts everyone! There's a large debate over this, but please be sure to keep it clean and unbiased, thanks!

Ah OK lol, that makes sense then.  But ya sorry for muddying up your thread.

chizow

lol, man if you really cared about this company you'd stop trying to pimp their products for them.  If anything you just make them look bad spouting all this unfounded nonsense and contradictory BS.  What makes this so funny is that the key characteristic they use to market their product, the use of real diamond (and its accompanying characteristics), is what you're doing your best to disprove by saying its not really diamond.  Its really quite amusing.

I agree completely, he thinks we are attacking him... We're only setting things straight. I honestly don't care what he think diamonds are or aren't. Synthetically they are the same in and out. However he keeps stating they are fake, as in nothing as good as the real ones let alone not from the ground.
 
If we used real diamonds we could easily say $50 to the gram. Only because it is authentic and not synthetic thats the only difference.
 
Facts lie within lies and lies lie within truths. Falcon, don't claim you have credibility because you've used the product, the facts are only as straight as the user. =)
 
Edit: As well I'm still going with Arctic Cooling MX-2 since it is more reasonable for me personally.

OCZ  Freeze  my friend... I have had very good luck 

Thanks,
Mack4033