TIM recommendations for a silent build

[thewelshbrummie]

I'm planning out my next build, an HTPC for media viewing on my TV. No GPU required, purely a media streaming build.

 

I'll be using the Streacom DB4 because... I want to. It's a completely silent build, with no fans of any kind and it uses heatpipes only to transfer heat to the case sides, which are themselves the heatsink. Basically the heatpipes are limited to a 105W max-TDP with the extra heatsink kit. I intend on using the iGPU and at most a Core i5 -T or Ryzen APU with some BIOS based power limiting.

 

What I need though is some good quality thermal paste and in a decent quantity, probably 10x what you'd normally use since there's at least 4 places where I'll need it. Over the years I've used Arctic Silver 5 but was thinking of using MX4 for this build... but I'm open to other suggestions. The last few I've done have used stock coolers or had paste or a thermal pad pre-applied so it's been years since I've last used any.

 

Thoughts on alternatives?

[Blue4130]

3 minutes ago, thewelshbrummie said:

I'm planning out my next build, an HTPC for media viewing on my TV. No GPU required, purely a media streaming build.

 

I'll be using the Streacom DB4 because... I want to. It's a completely silent build, with no fans of any kind and it uses heatpipes only to transfer heat to the case sides, which are themselves the heatsink. Basically the heatpipes are limited to a 105W max-TDP with the extra heatsink kit. I intend on using the iGPU and at most a Core i5 -T or Ryzen APU with some BIOS based power limiting.

 

What I need though is some good quality thermal paste and in a decent quantity, probably 10x what you'd normally use since there's at least 4 places where I'll need it. Over the years I've used Arctic Silver 5 but was thinking of using MX4 for this build... but I'm open to other suggestions. The last few I've done have used stock coolers or had paste or a thermal pad pre-applied so it's been years since I've last used any.

 

Thoughts on alternatives?

Any modern thermal paste. They are all within spitting distance of each other performance wise (unless you go liquid metal) Just get whatever is reasonably priced for a big tube in your area.

[Hinjima]

10 minutes ago, thewelshbrummie said:

I'm planning out my next build, an HTPC for media viewing on my TV. No GPU required, purely a media streaming build.

 

I'll be using the Streacom DB4 because... I want to. It's a completely silent build, with no fans of any kind and it uses heatpipes only to transfer heat to the case sides, which are themselves the heatsink. Basically the heatpipes are limited to a 105W max-TDP with the extra heatsink kit. I intend on using the iGPU and at most a Core i5 -T or Ryzen APU with some BIOS based power limiting.

 

What I need though is some good quality thermal paste and in a decent quantity, probably 10x what you'd normally use since there's at least 4 places where I'll need it. Over the years I've used Arctic Silver 5 but was thinking of using MX4 for this build... but I'm open to other suggestions. The last few I've done have used stock coolers or had paste or a thermal pad pre-applied so it's been years since I've last used any.

 

Thoughts on alternatives?

The higher end pastes like NT-H1, NT-H2, MX4, Actic silver 5 etc are all going to be within a degree or two from one another.

What actually matters more is the cooler itself, the fans and airflow throughout the build

 

I have been using NT-H1 for years and its been great.  I will try Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut when I upgrade my CPU to the 9800X3D.  Not because I care about tempratures because its all going to be within margin of error, but mainly because I just want to try something new.

[Snarks Domain]

Cool idea to tranfer heat to the side of the case, buit you don't want to use Thermal Paste for that, you want to use Thermal Putty. YOu can still use paste or a Phase Change MAterial on the CPU itself of course.

For a good putty you'll watrn to look into the following:
Upsiren UTP-8
CX-H1300

Laird T-Putty 607

Halnziye HY235 or HY256

You'll likely weant to buy at least 50g, but maybe even 100g. You should not need to spend more than $45 on putty, and that's if you buy 100g. you can basically wear a pair of Nitrile gloves and shape it how you like. Once you assemble stuff you can scoop any excess that has pressed out. Works really good and won't dry out like a paste will.
 

[Blue4130]

11 minutes ago, Snarks Domain said:

Cool idea to tranfer heat to the side of the case, buit you don't want to use Thermal Paste for that, you want to use Thermal Putty. YOu can still use paste or a Phase Change MAterial on the CPU itself of course.

For a good putty you'll watrn to look into the following:
Upsiren UTP-8
CX-H1300

Laird T-Putty 607

Halnziye HY235 or HY256

You'll likely weant to buy at least 50g, but maybe even 100g. You should not need to spend more than $45 on putty, and that's if you buy 100g. you can basically wear a pair of Nitrile gloves and shape it how you like. Once you assemble stuff you can scoop any excess that has pressed out. Works really good and won't dry out like a paste will.
 

Please explain why you think that you need putty for this, paste will work just fine though it will be messy.

[Snarks Domain]

5 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

Please explain why you think that you need putty for this, paste will work just fine though it will be messy.

For the amount he plans to use, paste will be more expensive I think. Depending how he mounts the heat pipe to the side panel paste mayu work if he gets a good clamping pressure (ie. Screwed down somehow with brackets and self tapping screws or something). But a putty will out perform a paste if the gap is 0.1mm or more.

[Blue4130]

2 minutes ago, Snarks Domain said:

For the amount he plans to use, paste will be more expensive I think. Depending how he mounts the heat pipe to the side panel paste mayu work if he gets a good clamping pressure (ie. Screwed down somehow with brackets and self tapping screws or something). But a putty will out perform a paste if the gap is 0.1mm or more.

If you look in the manual, it seems to have adequate clamping pressure. It is bolted to the side afterall. As for the gap, I can't say what it is, but the contact patch seems to be well machined.

 

It does call for a pad, though I guess that is just for ease of application.

[Snarks Domain]

4 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

If you look in the manual, it seems to have adequate clamping pressure. It is bolted to the side afterall. As for the gap, I can't say what it is, but the contact patch seems to be well machined.

 

It does call for a pad, though I guess that is just for ease of application.

Yeah, lots of options to go with.

I just figured I'd add my input as I've tested out a lot of thermal putties and they seems to work really well, especially anywhere a pad is normally used, even GDDR6X with an aggressive overclock and heavy load.