CPU/Mobo Thermal Paste Which one to go for ?

[Dushie]

Starting this thread, need inputs on which thermal paste is good to go for as seeing multiple options in the market. Planning to setup an old pc with 4770k , which has a cooler master fan.
Kindly recommend any decent thermal paste which will be good. I saw a couple on Amazon like, Cooler Master Mastergel Regular, ARCTIC MX-4 ,Cooler Master Cryofuze .
See few local bands too that are giving grey paste. Any suggestions and inputs are welcome.

 

[psyph3r]

Can't go wrong with this one for the price, performance and quantity.

Noctua NT-H2 3.5g Thermal Compound

NT-H2 is the further improved second generation of Noctua’s award-winning hybrid thermal compound. Combining the iconic NT-H1’s proven features, superb ease-of-use and renowned long-term stability with a novel, fine-tuned formula of micro particles for even better thermal performance, NT-H2 is...

www.primeabgb.com

 

[mokendkomer]

if it's anything other than noctua, I hawk tuah

 

[anmolbhard004]

I once used thermal paste to stick some heatsinks on my sfp . but they gave up. what went wrong?

 

[ibose]

I once used thermal paste to stick some heatsinks on my sfp . but they gave up. what went wrong?

It is not meant for sticking. Rather look at this -
Take a look at this acce & peri 15MM x 25M Thermal Conductive Tape Double-Sided Adhesive Cooling Tape for Heat Sink LED Strips, LED Tube, IC Chip-Set (0.59 in x 82 ft) 25 m Double-sided Tape on Flipkart

https://dl.flipkart.com/s/xkG4n8NNNN

 

[nRiTeCh]

Thermal girzzly.

 

[ranvijaty]

You don't need a really expensive thermal paste for that CPU. I have used cooler master master gel (320rs) on amazon for 4 years on my ryzen 5 3600 and it works well enough keeps temperature under 75C under load. (Keep in mind, any Branded thermal paste will do the job decently well as long as your heatsink is not the bottleneck). IMO (no shade to others) thermal grizzly and other expensive pastes are overkill. Also thermal grizzly apart from being expensive is notorious for drying out quite quickly and needing constant repasting after few months. IF you want to spend so much, you are much better off importing Honeywell PTM 7950 which won't dry out as long your pc is alive as it is a phase change material.

TLDR:
Go for budget thermal paste
1) Cooler master (cheapest and does the job well; anecdotal experience )
2) Noctua
3) Arctic mx4 or mx6

If you want something expensive go for PTM 7950.

 

[Emperor]

Since 1996 till today with i3-6100 intel (all non gaming PC with stock cooler) keep using Rs.25/- grey paste that filled in mini injection (Made in China) and till date no issue. Each injection last for 4-5 apply. Minimum using once in year, if too much dust accumulate in cabinet over processor fan etc., need to remove heat sink to clean fan so at that time applied again, may be twice in year.

 

[nRiTeCh]

Since 1996 till today with i3-6100 intel (all non gaming PC with stock cooler) keep using Rs.25/- grey paste that filled in mini injection (Made in China) and till date no issue. Each injection last for 4-5 apply. Minimum using once in year, if too much dust accumulate in cabinet over processor fan etc., need to remove heat sink to clean fan so at that time applied again, may be twice in year.

Actually, even a nominal paste works fine unless the nature of the processor itself is too hot or keeps spiking or if one is overclocking. I'm still using one cooler master paste bought from UK in 2017. It has dried like a limestone/chuna but it performs well.
The challenging period is only from March to June during hot bad summer days and rest of the times its cool so nothing to bother about hence I gave up on buying a new paste.

 

[Tracer_Bullet]

Minimum using once in year, if too much dust accumulate in cabinet over processor fan etc., need to remove heat sink to clean fan so at that time applied again, may be twice in year.

I use the paste that deepcool provides with cpu cooler. So far have not had to replace it with a 3300x build running for 3years+ now and another cpu applied 8 months back.
Previously i had used Arctic ceramique 2 more than a decade ago on a laptop. I did not have to replace that paste ever again.

I don't think its worth replacing paste so often. You can just use a blower to remove dust from heatsink and fans. It works very well. Can use brush on fans too for contact cleaning, but maybe its not needed that much if its not bad.

The challenging period is only from March to June during hot bad summer days and rest of the times its cool so nothing to bother about hence I gave up on buying a new paste.

I had bought a paste long ago - Arctic ceramique 2 - from ebay when it was still alive. very large tube, did not know what i needed. After few applications have never had to use it
But anyway, point is that i kept it in freezer all these years and its still good. God knows when ill need it though, its just a backup for now.

 

[Ssreek]

I'm using Notcua H1, had better experience with this compared to Cooler Master's thermal paste.

 

[PunkX 75]

There isn't any need to go for a performance-based paste such as the NT-H1 or Thermal Grizzly. The system is old. Get a basic Cooler Master one or a Corsair TM30, and call it a day.