Pre-applied thermal paste is better than custom paste

[PainBlame]

So i have a i7 5820k intel processor, and i wanted to push it to the absolute max. I have a Corsair Hydro Series H100i V2 Extreme Performance Water cooler. 

So i bought some artic silver thermal paste, i removed the old stuff professionally with other products made just for this type of stuff. Overclocked to 4.6ghz with 4.2ghz cache at 1.2909 volts.

 

I did benchmarks before so i could see the difference. In Aida64 i got an average stress test of 76.2C after 30 mins. It was stable from there.

As i removed the pre applied paste that came with the cooler i noticed it is a very little amount. The original paste was very thin, and almost like a soft powder with no moisture in it. I've see the Linus videos where the only factor in thermal paste would be not putting enough paste You could load up as much paste as you want and it wouldn't make a difference. 

 

So i assumed that if i added more a little more paste then i would see atleast 1 degree improvment but in fact i noticed the moment i turned on my computer with my idle temps that it was worse! I put a lot of paste. Like this is my first time in my life doing this so IDK. I put enough to cover the entire CPU. The paste was on the reaching all edges of the CPU. I tightened the thing even more than it was before.

 

My stress temps with my set up after 30 mins was 76.2C stable.

My stress temps after i applied my own paste afrer 30 mins was 79.4C, in fact the AIDA 64 test stopped because of hardware failure after an hour.

 

I'm gonna remove the old paste and apply a lot less now and ill update if it gets better. But before i do i'm gonna let it run for a few days on this paste, maybe it takes time for it to settle or something.

 

UPDATE: After a day with the new thermal paste, my cpu has become stable at 77.4C for 2 hours now.

 

 

[RadiatingLight]

Did you de-lid the CPU or just put thermal paste over the IHS?

[PainBlame]

2 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

Did you de-lid the CPU or just put thermal paste over the IHS?

What do you de-lid? I just took off the water cooler copper cap and cleaned both the cpu and the cooler with chemicals and than i put paste right on top of the cpu without removing the cpu.

 

Also i just realized that my idle temps are back to what they were on the original paste.

[RadiatingLight]

Just now, PainBlame said:

What do you de-lid? I just took off the water cooler copper cap and cleaned both the cpu and the cooler with chemicals and than i put paste right on top of the cpu without removing the cpu

Yeah ok, so you didn't de-lid

 

8 minutes ago, PainBlame said:

The paste was on the reaching all edges of the CPU.

Before or after you tightened the cooler?

 

 

this is de-lidding BTW, and it WILL give you temperature drops, but it is very risky and could kill your CPU.

 

[PainBlame]

Just now, RadiatingLight said:

Yeah ok, so you didn't de-lid

 

Before or after you tightened the cooler?

 

 

this is de-lidding BTW, and it WILL give you temperature drops, but it is very risky and could kill your CPU.

 

yeah i'm not about to risk my brand new $400 cpu

[Freezanator]

2 minutes ago, PainBlame said:

What do you de-lid? I just took off the water cooler copper cap and cleaned both the cpu and the cooler with chemicals and than i put paste right on top of the cpu without removing the cpu

Don't overdo it. Just put about the size of a pea or a cooked grain of rice will do, but the most you should go is an 'X' with each of the 4 arms of the 'X' about 5mm in length.

[xentropa]

Ideally, you should still have a metal to metal contact and the paste only fills in any gaps.  If u put too much paste the cooler will be resting on a layer of paste.

[Cyracus]

It is true that too much paste won't hurt thermal performance, however iirc (as I can't access arctic silvers site atm) it's electrically conductive so be careful it doesn't get anywhere because bricking parts because you splotched a mountain of conductive paste on your cpu isn't good.

 

Also I'm seeing a lot of people saying that as5 (what I'm assuming you got) is crap and that it has a bake in period, and is still crap. But the conventional wisdom I've always heard and given is that as long as it's made to be thermal paste it should work, and make sure you mounted the cooler properly tight on the cpu, and when installing you can place the cooler down, then pick it up to make sure you don't have any gaps or air pockets to screw up your paste job, but once you power on consider the paste used and replace if disassembled. But low or uneven mounting pressure can yield poor thermal performance, just don't go full ham with a screwdriver and break your mobo, usually finger tight with a 1/4 to 1/2 turn with a screwdriver should be ok, and you can usually find instruction on proper tightness in the manual

[DaMainMan]

45 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

Did you de-lid the CPU or just put thermal paste over the IHS?

 

Does anyone actually do this?

I mean for youtube and stuff ok - but I have never heard of anyone actually doing it at home for their rig.

[Arkratos]

17 minutes ago, DaMainMan said:

 

Does anyone actually do this?

I mean for youtube and stuff ok - but I have never heard of anyone actually doing it at home for their rig.

I did it on a g3258, because it's a cheap chip, it's not difficult if you use the vice method.  In fact I found a 3d printable tool to make it even easier.

But to answer your question, I'm the only person I know in person that has done it, but it is a thing some hardcore people do.

[Eddie Current]

I try to use as little as possible, I woulds estimate a grain of rice than spread evenly with my finger.

[0ld_Chicken]

3 hours ago, DaMainMan said:

 

Does anyone actually do this?

I mean for youtube and stuff ok - but I have never heard of anyone actually doing it at home for their rig.

Yes, people do I don't even use the ihs anymore. Just strap the block right to that die. I can use 1.55v and not thermal throttle

[RadiatingLight]

5 hours ago, 0ld_Chicken said:

Yes, people do I don't even use the ihs anymore. Just strap the block right to that die. I can use 1.55v and not thermal throttle

at 1.55v don't expect your CPU to live long.

[0ld_Chicken]

36 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

at 1.55v don't expect your CPU to live long.

It's seen less than 15 min at that voltage. Been running 1.39v for my 5.0 daily driver

[RadiatingLight]

28 minutes ago, 0ld_Chicken said:

It's seen less than 15 min at that voltage. Been running 1.39v for my 5.0 daily driver

OK. I was thinking you were running at 1.55v all the time, which would degrade your CPU life pretty damn fast.