Longevity-Focused Thermal Paste for Laptop(s)

[DVAlt]

Hi everyone,

I'm running a 3 year-old laptop (MSI GL62, 7700HQ & GTX 1050) and I've been experiencing high temperature on my CPU at over 94 degree Celsius (it used to be around 90 degree Celsius at max but it usually stayed around 84 degree Celsius under load). I've been thinking of repasting it but not quite sure of what to get. I want to get a thermal paste that will do me a solid for at least 2 years since I'm planning to build a desktop but still in the saving up process (LOL). I don't mind getting an "okay-performance" thermal paste because I'm sure it would at least be better than whatever it is on top of my CPU right now. I've done a little bit of research and most people recommend Arctic MX4 or Noctua NT-H1 for their longevity and good performance but I'm open to any suggestion because I know not much people care enough to try a lot of brands and models of thermal paste, I just wanna hear your experience on whatever you've tried before.

 

I live in a country where there is few of computer enthusiasts, so I don't exactly have a lot of options from a trusted retailer (better safe than getting an old thermal paste, right?). I've narrowed down my options to those that have the best performance according to what a lot of articles (and some people) said which is:

- Noctua NT-H2

- Cooler Master MasterGel Maker

- Arctic MX4

- Noctua NT-H1

- Cooler Master MasterGel Pro V2

I put this in order from the most expensive (which is just over 13 USD) but really, I don't mind any of these options' cost. 

 

Oh, and one more thing, is there any recommended method to apply the thermal paste on a laptop since I knew it doesn't really matter in a consumer desktop?

 

Thanks

[TukangUsapEmenq]

Arctic MX-4 did the job fine enough on me, around 88-90 CPU max and 70-73 GPU max on (really) maximum load (both reaching 95-99 usage), got a tube of it and it's darn usable for 5 laptops and 2 PCs so far. I don't know about Noctua's performance, but lots of people said it's good either.

 

5 minutes ago, Cluff said:

Oh, and one more thing, is there any recommended method to apply the thermal paste on a laptop since I knew it doesn't really matter in a consumer desktop?

Just put enough of it. Not too much, but not too little either. A size of grain of rice along the CPU die would be enough.

[DVAlt]

3 minutes ago, dhannemon13 said:

Arctic MX-4 did the job fine enough on me, around 88-90 CPU max and 70-73 GPU max on (really) maximum load (both reaching 95-99 usage), got a tube of it and it's darn usable for 5 laptops and 2 PCs so far. I don't know about Noctua's performance, but lots of people said it's good either.

 

Just put enough of it. Not too much, but not too little either. A size of grain of rice along the CPU die would be enough.

How's your experience on the performance over time? I read some forums where people said that they have "sudden" performance degradation after a few months. To be fair, I am expecting some degradation in performance over time but I hope that it won't be bad enough to get my CPU thermal throttling.

 

Also, thanks for the tip on the TIM application.

[TukangUsapEmenq]

Just now, Cluff said:

How's your experience on the performance over time? I read some forums where people said that they have "sudden" performance degradation after a few months. To be fair, I am expecting some degradation in performance over time but I hope that it won't be bad enough to get my CPU thermal throttling.

 

Also, thanks for the tip on the TIM application.

I'd say it's good enough for me. Applied it months ago (forgot exactly when) and, kind of constantly running heavy loads (Dota 2 , RDR2 and GTA 5) and I actually never felt it throttling at all, except in some case of RDR2 which I kind of feel some drops (which is expected, laptop's under-powered for the game anyway). Usually idling around 37-42 degrees (on around 27-31 ambient, yeah it's hot af here).

 

I'd say it's kind of better than the paste from the manufacturer before with few degree of difference.

 

Actually using it on a 1500X and 1050Ti system (both re-pasted), I barely bother to check the temps (as it won't even touch 80 anyway, even I OC'ed it by +200 MHz, stock cooler) but it runs fine without any issues.

[DVAlt]

1 minute ago, dhannemon13 said:

I'd say it's good enough for me. Applied it months ago (forgot exactly when) and, kind of constantly running heavy loads (Dota 2 , RDR2 and GTA 5) and I actually never felt it throttling at all, except in some case of RDR2 which I kind of feel some drops (which is expected, laptop's under-powered for the game anyway). Usually idling around 37-42 degrees (on around 27-31 ambient, yeah it's hot af here).

 

I'd say it's kind of better than the paste from the manufacturer before with few degree of difference.

 

Actually using it on a 1500X and 1050Ti system (both re-pasted), I barely bother to check the temps (as it won't even touch 80 anyway, even I OC'ed it by +200 MHz, stock cooler) but it runs fine without any issues.

That is some pretty good temps in my opinion. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[TukangUsapEmenq]

1 minute ago, Cluff said:

That is some pretty good temps in my opinion. Thanks for sharing your experience.

You're welcome. And I don't think of getting too pricey paste would be worth anyway, no matter how expensive it is the laptop would just run like a stove, as, you know, how inefficient laptop coolers are. The MX-4 I bought is the 'cheapest' one (I bought the last year production batch, kind of 20% cheaper than the new productions one) that got the good reputation here. Heck, it claims to have 8 years shelf time so.. Why not.

 

Rather to save it for the PC.

[Falkentyne]

None of those.

If you want the longest lasting thermal paste, use Thermalright TFX.  Several people have tested this on laptops with outstanding results long term.

It can be difficult to spread, so just apply a line across the die (BGA CPU), or two long intersecting X's edge to edge (GPU or IHS covered CPU) and let it spread by pressure.

[freeagent]

TFX is pretty good stuff. I wasted some on the stock cooler for 3600 because I wiped the factory stuff off, but didn't have enough TF8 for a full application.. And I couldn't get TF8 so I grabbed some TFX. Looking forward to being able to use my big coolers when I get my mount. It is a little more difficult to spread then TF8, but it seems to be working really well. As well as it can anyways.. 

[DVAlt]

On 12/15/2020 at 4:23 AM, Falkentyne said:

None of those.

If you want the longest lasting thermal paste, use Thermalright TFX.  Several people have tested this on laptops with outstanding results long term.

It can be difficult to spread, so just apply a line across the die (BGA CPU), or two long intersecting X's edge to edge (GPU or IHS covered CPU) and let it spread by pressure.

Interesting, thanks for the info. Unfortunately though, I can't really find it here in my country

But, hey, if there's anyone looking for a long-lasting thermal paste they can check it out. The listed specification is pretty darn good as well, though I haven't found many reviews of it yet.

[Falkentyne]

5 hours ago, Cluff said:

Interesting, thanks for the info. Unfortunately though, I can't really find it here in my country

But, hey, if there's anyone looking for a long-lasting thermal paste they can check it out. The listed specification is pretty darn good as well, though I haven't found many reviews of it yet.

Maybe this will help.

Sample size of 1 but still...

 

I used the Thermalright TF-X on my new Acer Triton 500 and it should be the best TIM ever for laptop. Being viscous AF give TFX the advantage of never pumping out.
1st repaste on my laptop with the old Kryonaut and it pumped out after a month, 2nd repaste with TFX and the result has been fantastic for over 6 months already.
Being viscous AF also means the TFX is impossible to spread, I think some reviewers (like Luumi) judged TFX wrongly by not heating the paste up with a hair dryer before mounting the cooler, leading to a bigger gap between CPU and heatsink because of how viscous TFX is. That or TFX is not supposed to perform that well on CPU because it cannot get as thinly spread as other paste and only perform its best on GPU and Laptop.

 

 

https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/thermal-grizzly-kryonaut-extreme-thermal-grease-has-thermal-conductivity-of-14-2-w-mk.435511/page-2#post-5861772