4 ms·

I would recommend a thermal pad as an alternative to paste (I bought this: https://www.innovationcooling.com/products/ic-graphite-thermal-pad/ https://www.innov

I would recommend a thermal pad as an alternative to paste (I bought this: https://www.innovationcooling.com/products/ic-graphite-thermal-pad/ https://www.innovationcooling.com/products/ic-graphite-therm... ). You won't ever have an issue with dry paste, and from what I can tell the CPU/GPU only runs a degree or so hotter than when using premium thermal paste.

sgerenser 6y ago
Interesting, I’ve always heard that thermal pads are far inferior to paste.
- dijit 6y ago
  They are, but it's always a trade-off. Stock paste goes for longevity and cooling, so it's kinda crummy at both. Thermal pads go for longevity with a sacrifice to cooling. High performance paste like arctic silver goes for cooling over longevity; but can be re-applied many times as it doesn't damage hardware. Liquid metal like Thermal Grizzly's: conductonaught, goes for extreme cooling at the expense of hardware. (IE; it will literally eat your computer, slowly, over time).
  - bboygravity 6y ago
    > They are, but it's always a trade-off. According to a Linus techtips video on Youtube the difference is not really measurable. So I kind of tend to think that a high quality thermal pad is just simply superior in every way. The only reason I didn't try it, is because I couldn't find any in stock.
    - dijit 6y ago
      LTT noted differences, but yes, they're not large: https://youtu.be/YpphKzmDiJM?t=420 https://youtu.be/YpphKzmDiJM?t=420 FWIW Steve Burke did an even more detailed burn down of these pads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niAQs8dZohE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niAQs8dZohE (LTT was later able to get -20C cooling with Liquid Metal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdTsra-uLBI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdTsra-uLBI )
- throwaway2048 6y ago
  far inferior is a pretty huge exaggeration, graphite pads are plainly good enough in the vast majority of cases, without all the annoying downsides of paste.

sgerenser 6y ago

Interesting, I’ve always heard that thermal pads are far inferior to paste.

dijit 6y ago
They are, but it's always a trade-off. Stock paste goes for longevity and cooling, so it's kinda crummy at both. Thermal pads go for longevity with a sacrifice to cooling. High performance paste like arctic silver goes for cooling over longevity; but can be re-applied many times as it doesn't damage hardware. Liquid metal like Thermal Grizzly's: conductonaught, goes for extreme cooling at the expense of hardware. (IE; it will literally eat your computer, slowly, over time).
- bboygravity 6y ago
  > They are, but it's always a trade-off. According to a Linus techtips video on Youtube the difference is not really measurable. So I kind of tend to think that a high quality thermal pad is just simply superior in every way. The only reason I didn't try it, is because I couldn't find any in stock.
  - dijit 6y ago
    LTT noted differences, but yes, they're not large: https://youtu.be/YpphKzmDiJM?t=420 https://youtu.be/YpphKzmDiJM?t=420 FWIW Steve Burke did an even more detailed burn down of these pads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niAQs8dZohE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niAQs8dZohE (LTT was later able to get -20C cooling with Liquid Metal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdTsra-uLBI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdTsra-uLBI )
throwaway2048 6y ago
far inferior is a pretty huge exaggeration, graphite pads are plainly good enough in the vast majority of cases, without all the annoying downsides of paste.