IC Diamond 7 paste consistency?

lttUser1234 · April 16, 2018

Recently when I was at Micro Center I had to get a new motherboard because my old one died. I also had to get new thermal compound because my AIO Corsair cooler only came with the stock thermal paste and in order to replace the motherboard I needed new paste because I had to remove the waterblock. I noticed when putting my system back together and using the IC Diamond 7 that the paste consistency wasn't like a "goo" it was more of a hard paste that had a hard time coming out of the applicator syringe. It was very hard to spread around and seem like it was sitting on the shelf too long and expired? Am I right?

Is this the normal consistency of this thermal paste? I was expecting something like Arctic Silver like I used to use in 2011 when I built my last custom computer that was spreadable like spreadable cheese consistency. The IC Diamond 7 came out hard and non-goo like.

Skiiwee29 · April 16, 2018

Thats normal. IC Diamond is very thick. If its to hard for you to push out as is, you can take a cup of hot water and place it in there for like 2 or 3 minutes to heat it up to make it easier to push out. But this is normal for it.

Mooshi · April 16, 2018

Never used that paste, but I'd say as far as performance and consistency that Noctua's paste is probably the best overall.

W-L · April 16, 2018

7 hours ago, lttUser1234 said:

Recently when I was at Micro Center I had to get a new motherboard because my old one died. I also had to get new thermal compound because my AIO Corsair cooler only came with the stock thermal paste and in order to replace the motherboard I needed new paste because I had to remove the waterblock. I noticed when putting my system back together and using the IC Diamond 7 that the paste consistency wasn't like a "goo" it was more of a hard paste that had a hard time coming out of the applicator syringe. It was very hard to spread around and seem like it was sitting on the shelf too long and expired? Am I right?

Is this the normal consistency of this thermal paste? I was expecting something like Arctic Silver like I used to use in 2011 when I built my last custom computer that was spreadable like spreadable cheese consistency. The IC Diamond 7 came out hard and non-goo like.

IC diamond as said is extremely vicious and thick, it doesn’t readily spread like others such as MX-4 or Kryonaut. You have to either work it a bit or as suggest warming it up is not a bad idea. Just note this paste does scratch surfaces as it has a high diamond content for thermal conductivity.