Am getting a replacement laptop motherboard including soldered-on CPU, and I assume it won't be supplied with thermal paste?
It's just an old laptop and I just want something that will work and is cheap. What should I get?
What Thermal Paste to Use - Can I Just Get The Cheapest One from China?
inherentchoice on 25/02/2019 - 00:20
Poll Options
- 6Just buy the cheapest one online, it will be fine
- 27Buy a particular brand or type
- 1Other
Comments
Plus one to the correct application. The mating surfaces need to be flush, thus the amount you use is really tiny, just to fill the microscopic gaps. Thus if it is a one off thing, buy the smallest syringe of paste you can find, but from a reputable company or brand. For a large cpu, you will need about 3-4 grains of rice size, for a small cpu like a raspberry pi, you'd need 1/2 to 1 grain of rice size. Following that, the remainder will sit in your toolbox for the next 10 years. I used to use it all the time when building high powered amplifiers. The good paste will not dry out and spreads evenly when clamped down, the poor paste will clump, not spread evenly, dry out and become a barrier itself to heat transfer.
For a large cpu, you will need about 3-4 grains of rice size
I think these days for all mainstream CPUs these days, laptop or desktop, it's just 1 rice grain of thermal paste.
just head down to your local umart store
branded ones starting from $4 that will do it, don't go tighter than that no point skimp on $1 order from no brand china
https://www.umart.com.au/Thermal-Paste_C.html?category=671&d…
Thanks for the link. I might just use this option.
Just an update, I went to Umart and the helpful employee gave me a free one. I think it comes with certain hardware and they must have some left over.
get a main brand from an au store.
LTT tried some bulk cheap thermal paste in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaoTARN3sv4tl;dw - the bulk paste resulted in a temp that was 6 degrees higher than the 'good stuff'.
I use Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut Thermal Grease but it's more of a 'performance paste' $$$.
Great paste for your main gaming rig.
Are you planning just factory clock speed and voltages?
Yes. Boring old laptop that I have decided to keep going rather than replacing, so I am tempted to spend $1 on thermal grease instead of $5.
This is OzBargain after all rather than an IT forum.
Does the replacement mb/cpu not come with a fan already attached and therefore have thermal paste already used?
No I have to use the old heat sink and fans.
Arctic Silver 5
There have been many many tests with some swearing brands make a difference and others suggesting it's quite insignificant unless for extreme setups. Since they're not that expensive anyway, buy a cheap branded one like Arctic Silver or Coolermaster. Both less than $10.
The correct application of the paste is far more important than the brand though so make sure to do your research and watch videos.