Kraken x52 stock thermal paste or use something else?

A Silver · September 28, 2017

I am getting a Kraken x52 and it comes with pre applied thermal compound. Should I use that or wipe it off and apply arctic MX-4?

PlayStation 2 · September 28, 2017

Meh, it should be alright. Most you'd see is a couple degree difference, which could even fall within some margin of error.

TVwazhere · September 28, 2017

39 minutes ago, A Silver said:

I am getting a Kraken x52 and it comes with pre applied thermal compound. Should I use that or wipe it off and apply arctic MX-4?

I used the paste that came on the Corsair H90, never had a problem with it, only replaced it after two years when I was replacing the fan anyways.

Though, if you already have the extra thermal grease laying around, might as well use it.

Zebedeeboing · September 28, 2017

For the sake of a handful of beer tokens I would spend the extra on some high performance stuff.. if you blew all of that money on an AIO (which I hope was for space saving/aesthetic reasons... and not cooling/value ) then the extra few degrees are worth the pennies. It might only be a few degrees but given how balanced fan profiles vs temps can be it might trim some unwanted noise in some scenarios.