Best Thermal Paste?

[django_keyes]

Hey Guys this is a stupid question. 

 

I was wondering what is the best thermal paste for use with a liquid cooler or AIO.  It needs to be easy to work with (somewhat) and have good performance. Any tips?

[For Science!]

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut performed well in a recent roundup

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thermal-paste-comparison,5108.html

[Oshino Shinobu]

Pretty much any of them. The difference between the best and the worst is only a few degrees. Just go for something easily available like Arctic MX-4/2 or Noctua NT-H1.

 

If you include the liquid metal TIMs, then Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra is the best in terms of performance. It's not something I'd recommend using though as it's potentially dangerous for components as it's electrically conductive. 

[Bananasplit_00]

i prefer NT-H1, works great. dropped temps quite a nice amount over stock garbage paste usiually

[Lord Nicoll]

Let's see, the best "normal" thermal pastes are usually nano diamond based, so something like Antec Formula 7 or IC DIamond with Thermal Grizzly's Kyronaut the best for cool temps and general use that isn't nano diamond, but the absolute best is Thermal Grizzly Conductanaut, similar to cool laboratories Liquid Ultra, but it's performance is better and it lasts longer. They also sell it in larger quantities, I got 5g syringe for £43 including shipping. 

[Rodney Doe]

I've heard "Shin Etsu" is the best if you can find the real stuff

[bughtoo]

On 6. 8. 2017 at 10:02 PM, Oshino Shinobu said:

Pretty much any of them. The difference between the best and the worst is only a few degrees. Just go for something easily available like Arctic MX-4/2 or Noctua NT-H1.

 

If you include the liquid metal TIMs, then Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra is the best in terms of performance. It's not something I'd recommend using though as it's potentially dangerous for components as it's electrically conductive. 

excuse me, Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra seems to have 38.4 thermal conductivity, Thermal Grizzly conductonaut 73.2, almost double, how is the best then?

[Oshino Shinobu]

15 minutes ago, bughtoo said:

excuse me, Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra seems to have 38.4 thermal conductivity, Thermal Grizzly conductonaut 73.2, almost double, how is the best then?

I haven't seen any results for Conductonaut compared with Liquid Ultra or Liquid Pro from Coollaboratory, so I can't really comment on how good or bad it is. Coollaboratory tops every roundup I've seen so that's what I say is best (in terms of pure performance). Better to go off comparative results than just pure specs which aren't necessarily reflected in the real world. 

 

If you find a test comparing Conductonaut to Liquid Pro or Ultra and it beats them, I'm happy to change what I'd say is best, but I haven't been able to find any comparisons and all the roundups I've seen, including those from this year, none have Conductonaut, only their normal Kryonaught TIM. 

 

EDIT: There actually seems to be very little on Conductonaut in general. I've only been able to find people reporting their results independently without really taking into account different variables, so can't be used as a comparison. It may well be better, but I can't find anything to show it is, so I can't really "recommend" it (I don't recommend liquid metal TIMs). 

[lexidobe]

Use whatever makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. I tried MX2, MX4, IC Diamond AS5, Noctua and other pastes, and they all perform within 1 degree of each other. I use MX2, but only because I can get a 65 gram tube for $20 on Amazon.