The Quest for the Perfect Thermal Paste: A Journey of Trial and Error

We set out to create a custom thermal paste, a crucial component in cooling systems, by reconstituting existing thermal dust with alcohol. Our goal was to improve upon the standard thermal interface material provided by Intel, which we believed could be optimized for better performance. The process began with experimentation, as we sought to find the optimal method for applying and spreading the thermal paste.

Initially, our attempts at placing the thermal dust directly onto the CPU were met with limited success. We worried that without a way to spread it evenly, coverage would be inadequate. Mashing the dust into a ball seemed like a promising solution, but unfortunately, it simply flaked out and turned into a weird powder. Our team was stumped, unsure of what to do next.

It was then that we turned to what seemed like an unconventional idea: soaking the thermal dust in alcohol. This method allowed us to reconstitute the paste into a more workable state, although we were skeptical about its effectiveness. The addition of a makeshift pestle, fashioned from an Allen key, helped us mix and apply the paste with greater precision.

However, our efforts were soon compromised by a rather unexpected event: an alcohol spill. Our attempts to spread the reconstituted thermal paste had been thwarted, and we were left wondering if this was indeed a blessing in disguise. With no choice but to press on, we set up our system and waited for the alcohol to dry.

The results of our experiment were nothing short of astonishing. At idle temperatures, our application yielded an average temperature of just over 6 degrees above ambient, whereas Intel's standard thermal paste reached temperatures as high as 60 degrees Celsius during a single load cycle. This difference was striking, with our custom-made paste reaching a maximum temperature of nearly 90 degrees Celsius.

So what factors had contributed to this disparity in performance? Our initial suspicion was that the application method might be at fault, but further analysis revealed that it was indeed the thermal paste itself that was to blame. The poor thermal conductivity of the paste was the primary culprit, and our findings supported a theory: Intel's choice of longevity-optimized TIM rather than performance-oriented material made all the difference.

In conclusion, our journey in creating a custom thermal paste has been nothing short of enlightening. While we have uncovered some valuable insights into the world of thermal management, it is clear that there are still many variables at play when it comes to optimizing this critical component. The next step will be to refine our understanding of these factors and apply them to future experiments.

FreshBooks: Accounting for Small Businesses and Freelancers

In between our thermal paste adventure, we'd like to take a moment to talk about FreshBooks, an online cloud-based accounting solution designed specifically for small businesses and freelancers. This powerful tool allows you to create and send professional-looking invoices in just a couple of clicks, set up online payments easily, and track expenses and hours with ease.

With FreshBooks, you can streamline your financial management and get paid faster – up to four days sooner than with traditional methods. The platform is designed for how you work, not against it, so you can focus on what matters most: serving your clients and growing your business.

Whether you're a solo freelancer or the leader of a team, FreshBooks has got you covered. You can track expenses, manage projects, and generate reports with ease – all from the comfort of your own device. And, as a special treat for our audience, you can get a free 30-day trial by visiting freshbooks.com/techtips and entering "techtips" in the how did you hear about us section.

So why not take FreshBooks for a spin? Your business (and your accountant) will thank you.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso everyone knows that for a cpu to last longer and perform optimally it needs to stay cool which makes it all the more confusing that intel over the last few generations at least according to comments from the tech community has been using seemingly the worst possible thermal compound between the dyes of their processors and the integrated heat spreaders that go on top of them but the problem is that the only way to evaluate that thermal compound that we have now is to take off the spreader replace it with something else and check the results but we're actually changing a lot of variables when we do that so we devised a test to find out once and for all just how bad is intel's thermal paste alex here has got an entire bag of intel cpus with their junk thermal compound and we're going to be harvesting all of it and then comparing it with the well-respected nth1 from noctua a premium thermal paste on a d-lidded liquid metaled extreme edition cpu so come along for the ride tunnelbear makes really simple privacy apps so people can enjoy a more open internet to try it out for free visit tunnelbear.com ltt to get a baseline we first needed to apply some nth1 thermal paste from noctua and mount the nhd15 cooler that we'd be using for our tests it performs as well if not better than large aios but is way easier to mount all of our testing was done in our conference room to keep ambient temperatures locked at 24 degrees at stock speeds with multi-core enhancement turned off and the cpu fan at full blast 30 minutes starting now while our control thermal test was running we had some time to begin what we're calling the grand tim harvest we aren't totally sure if these processors work but we don't want to just destroy them like so many things d-litting is pretty simple when you have the right tools place the cpu in the little vise tighten until the top moves a bit and then remove the lid which normally you would do by hand but these ones seemed pretty reluctant to let go and we wanted to get this over with once all the cpus were opened we scraped off all the thermal interface material we could get at with a guitar pick and then carefully placed it on an esd bag now you might be thinking guys those are third gen core series chips that came out six years ago how can this be a fair comparison well the longevity of intel's paste is one of the main justifications that we have heard for them using it also it's a heck of a lot easier to get a bag of third-gen chips than uh 8th gen chips oh the savagery look at this this is like they came in and wrecked up the place well you don't have to do that to them well that's a fair point okay so oh so this is it yeah that's all of it right there don't blow on it i'm not gonna blow on it so this is our harvested thermal interface material from four cpus this looks like it should be more than enough for our 7980xe after inspection we found that our first application of thermal paste was excellent so these results should be perfect for our comparison do you think there's like a good way to get this on there i think we're in uncharted waters here right now i hadn't really given it a lot of thought to be perfectly honest with you several methods of applying the old thermal goop were considered including just placing it onto the cpu but without a way to spread it around we were concerned that we wouldn't get adequate coverage mashing it into a ball seemed promising but it just kind of flaked out and turned into a weird powder finally we turned to what seemed like the soberist idea soaking it in alcohol is that doing anything i'm not sure yet alex although this doesn't seem like the best of ideas it's actually not the worst ever either the alcohol should allow what is currently thermal dust to turn back into more of a paste for application and then quickly evaporate away our spudger ended up being too fine of a tool so we swapped it out using the allen key from the d-litting tool as a makeshift pestle for our bottle cap mortar making a reconstituted thermal paste here oh i don't miss it what's going on i spilled the alcohol so ridiculous this alcohol spill might have been a blessing in disguise this may be one of the dumbest things we've ever done yeah i was trying to think of dumber things but this is really up there should we try to spread it out more or i mean we got the particle size pretty small ish with the tim spread out to the best of our abilities all we could do was wait for the alcohol to dry like i guess we should just go for it now this we have no choice but we've committed this much time and energy to this now initial temperatures at idle had us at just over six degrees over ambient meaning that our application worked at least to some degree well it might just be more oddly now it was like 30 watts before outfit like eight okay so you don't think it's the material heating up and spreading out i think it's just windows as all the way started but we wouldn't know how well it worked until we hit it with an intense load uh it didn't i mean it didn't instantly overheat but this is probably a fair bit hotter 88. now our earlier test gave us a maximum temperature of 60 degrees and an average temperature across the course of 50 degrees while maintaining a cpu power of about 150 watts with our reconstituted intel tim we almost immediately blew past that reaching a maximum of up to 89 degrees ouch before settling into an average of 75 degrees to be clear this is a totally acceptable number that shouldn't harm the processor within its expected lifespan but 25 degrees more than the enthusiast solution still isn't great but is the problem the paste or the application this is the real moment of truth because we weren't expecting it to perform as well anyway right did it spread actually it did i think if we described that as sub-optimal but adequate it doesn't seem to have um liquided up at all so with our decent enough application we feel at this point that it's safe to say that the 25 degree difference was at least largely due to the poor thermal conductivity of the paste that is inside the cpu and supporting our theory is the fact that this difference is actually pretty close to the temperature difference that you can achieve after deleting a cpu and replacing that stock thermal interface material so to answer our original question there are a number of variables that you end up changing when swapping out thermal paste in your delidded processor including mounting pressure the thickness of the application the silicone seal the flatness of the heat spreader but as everyone expected it's intel's choice of a longevity optimized tim rather than a performance optimized one and their decision to eschew solder that makes up the bulk of the difference speaking of difference maybe you're looking for a way to make a difference to your small business or you do freelance work well freshbooks is the online cloud-based accounting solution that's built for how you work it allows you to create and send professional looking invoices in just a couple of clicks set up online payments easily so you can get paid up to four days faster see when your client has seen your invoice putting an end to the guessing games and take the full functionality of the freshbooks platform out with you on the go so you can track expenses and track hours and all of that good stuff on android and ios so check them out at the link in the video description that's freshbooks.com tech tips and just enter tech tips in the how did you hear about us section you can get a free 30-day trial so thanks for watching guys a huge shout out to free geek vancouver for providing us with all these cpus to harvest uh thermal interface material from if this video sucked you guys know what to do but it was awesome get subscribed hit that like button or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description also link down there is our merch store which has cool shirts like this one and our community forum which you should totally joinso everyone knows that for a cpu to last longer and perform optimally it needs to stay cool which makes it all the more confusing that intel over the last few generations at least according to comments from the tech community has been using seemingly the worst possible thermal compound between the dyes of their processors and the integrated heat spreaders that go on top of them but the problem is that the only way to evaluate that thermal compound that we have now is to take off the spreader replace it with something else and check the results but we're actually changing a lot of variables when we do that so we devised a test to find out once and for all just how bad is intel's thermal paste alex here has got an entire bag of intel cpus with their junk thermal compound and we're going to be harvesting all of it and then comparing it with the well-respected nth1 from noctua a premium thermal paste on a d-lidded liquid metaled extreme edition cpu so come along for the ride tunnelbear makes really simple privacy apps so people can enjoy a more open internet to try it out for free visit tunnelbear.com ltt to get a baseline we first needed to apply some nth1 thermal paste from noctua and mount the nhd15 cooler that we'd be using for our tests it performs as well if not better than large aios but is way easier to mount all of our testing was done in our conference room to keep ambient temperatures locked at 24 degrees at stock speeds with multi-core enhancement turned off and the cpu fan at full blast 30 minutes starting now while our control thermal test was running we had some time to begin what we're calling the grand tim harvest we aren't totally sure if these processors work but we don't want to just destroy them like so many things d-litting is pretty simple when you have the right tools place the cpu in the little vise tighten until the top moves a bit and then remove the lid which normally you would do by hand but these ones seemed pretty reluctant to let go and we wanted to get this over with once all the cpus were opened we scraped off all the thermal interface material we could get at with a guitar pick and then carefully placed it on an esd bag now you might be thinking guys those are third gen core series chips that came out six years ago how can this be a fair comparison well the longevity of intel's paste is one of the main justifications that we have heard for them using it also it's a heck of a lot easier to get a bag of third-gen chips than uh 8th gen chips oh the savagery look at this this is like they came in and wrecked up the place well you don't have to do that to them well that's a fair point okay so oh so this is it yeah that's all of it right there don't blow on it i'm not gonna blow on it so this is our harvested thermal interface material from four cpus this looks like it should be more than enough for our 7980xe after inspection we found that our first application of thermal paste was excellent so these results should be perfect for our comparison do you think there's like a good way to get this on there i think we're in uncharted waters here right now i hadn't really given it a lot of thought to be perfectly honest with you several methods of applying the old thermal goop were considered including just placing it onto the cpu but without a way to spread it around we were concerned that we wouldn't get adequate coverage mashing it into a ball seemed promising but it just kind of flaked out and turned into a weird powder finally we turned to what seemed like the soberist idea soaking it in alcohol is that doing anything i'm not sure yet alex although this doesn't seem like the best of ideas it's actually not the worst ever either the alcohol should allow what is currently thermal dust to turn back into more of a paste for application and then quickly evaporate away our spudger ended up being too fine of a tool so we swapped it out using the allen key from the d-litting tool as a makeshift pestle for our bottle cap mortar making a reconstituted thermal paste here oh i don't miss it what's going on i spilled the alcohol so ridiculous this alcohol spill might have been a blessing in disguise this may be one of the dumbest things we've ever done yeah i was trying to think of dumber things but this is really up there should we try to spread it out more or i mean we got the particle size pretty small ish with the tim spread out to the best of our abilities all we could do was wait for the alcohol to dry like i guess we should just go for it now this we have no choice but we've committed this much time and energy to this now initial temperatures at idle had us at just over six degrees over ambient meaning that our application worked at least to some degree well it might just be more oddly now it was like 30 watts before outfit like eight okay so you don't think it's the material heating up and spreading out i think it's just windows as all the way started but we wouldn't know how well it worked until we hit it with an intense load uh it didn't i mean it didn't instantly overheat but this is probably a fair bit hotter 88. now our earlier test gave us a maximum temperature of 60 degrees and an average temperature across the course of 50 degrees while maintaining a cpu power of about 150 watts with our reconstituted intel tim we almost immediately blew past that reaching a maximum of up to 89 degrees ouch before settling into an average of 75 degrees to be clear this is a totally acceptable number that shouldn't harm the processor within its expected lifespan but 25 degrees more than the enthusiast solution still isn't great but is the problem the paste or the application this is the real moment of truth because we weren't expecting it to perform as well anyway right did it spread actually it did i think if we described that as sub-optimal but adequate it doesn't seem to have um liquided up at all so with our decent enough application we feel at this point that it's safe to say that the 25 degree difference was at least largely due to the poor thermal conductivity of the paste that is inside the cpu and supporting our theory is the fact that this difference is actually pretty close to the temperature difference that you can achieve after deleting a cpu and replacing that stock thermal interface material so to answer our original question there are a number of variables that you end up changing when swapping out thermal paste in your delidded processor including mounting pressure the thickness of the application the silicone seal the flatness of the heat spreader but as everyone expected it's intel's choice of a longevity optimized tim rather than a performance optimized one and their decision to eschew solder that makes up the bulk of the difference speaking of difference maybe you're looking for a way to make a difference to your small business or you do freelance work well freshbooks is the online cloud-based accounting solution that's built for how you work it allows you to create and send professional looking invoices in just a couple of clicks set up online payments easily so you can get paid up to four days faster see when your client has seen your invoice putting an end to the guessing games and take the full functionality of the freshbooks platform out with you on the go so you can track expenses and track hours and all of that good stuff on android and ios so check them out at the link in the video description that's freshbooks.com tech tips and just enter tech tips in the how did you hear about us section you can get a free 30-day trial so thanks for watching guys a huge shout out to free geek vancouver for providing us with all these cpus to harvest uh thermal interface material from if this video sucked you guys know what to do but it was awesome get subscribed hit that like button or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description also link down there is our merch store which has cool shirts like this one and our community forum which you should totally join\n"