Thermal Pads

[AvengerDragon]

I recently rewatched some cooling videos that LTT made (gold tub, delidding, liquid metal, graphite cooling pads) and, in one video, they found that IC Graphite Thermal Pads were as effective as most thermal paste. They are also reusable and eliminate hotspots (linus burnt himself while trying to burn a thermal pad).

 

Anyway, I was thinking about replacing the thermal solution in my mid 2013 macbook air because it doesn't cool well anymore. I was thinking about IC DIamond vs IC graphite, and the price of those pads (3cm*3cm $10 or 4cm*4cm $13) is scaring em away from them. I also noticed that there are a lot of generic thermal pads and wondered if any of them are any good. Have there been any head to head tests? Has anyone suggested this to LTT (I thought about it, but didn't want to suggest something he's already rejected)?

 

Also, I know Intel's thermal solution is designed for longevity over performance, as Linus described, but I wasn't sure about Apple's thermal paste. I don't expect to get better performance, but I would like to get better cooling. My system is always hot. It's not my main system, but, despite its age, I like to use it for writing and when I need something portable (my Lenovo flex 5 is a little bulky by comparison).

[tarfeef101]

Couple things:

1) Normal thermal pads != graphite pads. Most "normal" pads are designed for things that need much less performance like MOSFETs in VRMs, etc. Don't use those for a CPU/GPU. The pad used for the Radeon VII, the IC Graphite, or the thermal grizzly graphite pad would all work (might be more I don't know of off of the top of my head), but normal thermal pads are not the same or good enough. they're either just too thick or have too low thermal conductivity

 

2) Liquid metal or you're a scrub (pls don't actually do that. laptops and liquid metal is not smart. it can move. that's bad)
 

3) I would advise just a good, normal thermal paste of your choosing (won't recommend one cause i ain't into thermal paste wars). It's easy, well tested, and most importantly, will always be the right thickness. The last thing you want is to get a pad that's too thick or too thin, and makes improper contact.

[Windows7ge]

I did a topic relative to this a while back. I didn't do as extensive testing as you're exactly asking for but a fairly basic comparison of some generic graphite compared to my previously favorite thermal compound yielded negligible change.

Just recently I purchased a 180mm x 180mm square for $69.33 about 1/3~1/4 the cost if I wanted the equal coverage of IC Graphite squares.

 

It does have to be understood though that this comes with none of the warranties or insurances but from personal experience it works and works well. The posts following my topic was a user by Innovation Cooling. They're not labeled an Industry Affiliate so I don't know if it is seriously the company themselves but they didn't like me showing people a seriously cheaper alternative xD.