Seeking thermal paste designed for extended use and durability
Seeking thermal paste designed for extended use and durability
I've been exploring thermal pastes and am focusing on options that stay effective for two years or more without significant performance drops. I'm willing to trade a bit of cost for longer-lasting results. Arctic Silver 5 seems to be a reliable choice, though some users report issues with longevity and temperature rise. Arctic MX-4 promises an eight-year lifespan but has been criticized for overheating and short-term reliability problems. Many reviews suggest it may not be genuine from Chinese manufacturers. If you're open to higher prices, other brands like Arctic Silver or specialized long-life products might be worth considering.
I've relied on Arctic silver 5 for a lot of my PCs over the years; now I switch to kryonaut for a slight improvement. Honestly, any paste should last forever. Two years isn't something to stress about. Most PCs I've built—over twenty—have never had their CPU heatsinks removed, and some are still functioning well after more than ten years.
I prefer something that doesn’t dry out and isn’t liquid metal. The diamond powder paste I bought a few years back caught my attention. It seems to be made from ICdiamond, though I’m not certain. It contains very tiny industrial diamonds. It stays stable over time—no drying—and offers good conductivity. After five years, it’s still functioning well even after gently shaking the cooler.
Using IC diamond on bare cores works well. Antec Formula 7 is a popular choice. The IC Diamond spreads unevenly and is quite bulky. It requires some burn-in time. Avoid cooling until the burn-in is complete. It offers solid thermal performance.
I don't have the exact age of my tubes. They might have thickened over time. I had three of them. Now I'm down to just one left. The Antec Formula 7 is quite simple to apply. I believe it performs better than the IC diamond version. But these are the only two diamond pastes I've used besides Antec Formula 6, which has nearly the same conductivity as the 7. I've applied this for at least 12 years across, around 50-75 different CPUs and a few GPUs too.
The product is also a diamond-filled paste. I mainly recall buying from stores where you chose the diamond size and their composition. I searched for the tiniest options with the best material ratio. The items weren't particularly affordable.