I need paste. I figure I may as well get a fair bit more of it than I need for my current PC project as I have some LED lighting projects lined up that will need paste. Some of these lighting projects could be fairly high-power, outdoor, and present more heat per MM than a typical desktop CPU.
Looks like chinese GD900 and arctic MX-2, MX-4 are the two contenders for sub $1/g. Arctic is like 66 cents and GD900 is just 15 cents. Any opinions on MX-2 vs MX-4? The quality control of the GD900 is likely pretty poor and as such reviews are all over the place. Not unlike some of the better known brands, but I think this may be more due to the differences in review methodology?
At less than $2 per gram we have Noctua Noctua NT-H1 at $1.5/g for 10g. Hard to go wrong with Noctua. Also arctic silver 5 which looks like is about $1.5/g.
Reeven RT-Pro is supposed to be a good value paste, but I can't find any anywhere, not even on the manufacturer's site, or any of the links they provide.
Scythe, at about $2/g is, according to Tom's Hardware roundup, decent paste. But as they say it's what's bundled with Scythe coolers, it's unclear if their Thermal Elixer 2 on Amazon is the same stuff Tom's tested.
Any other options?
Any anecdotes on your favorite paste's longevity? I wish I remembered what the hell I put under my Thermalright Silver arrow 11 years ago. I haven't noticed a performance difference in all this time. It's either what came with the cooler or arctic silver 5. I didn't OC very long so max temps were mostly in the 50s.
Looks like chinese GD900 and arctic MX-2, MX-4 are the two contenders for sub $1/g. Arctic is like 66 cents and GD900 is just 15 cents. Any opinions on MX-2 vs MX-4? The quality control of the GD900 is likely pretty poor and as such reviews are all over the place. Not unlike some of the better known brands, but I think this may be more due to the differences in review methodology?
At less than $2 per gram we have Noctua Noctua NT-H1 at $1.5/g for 10g. Hard to go wrong with Noctua. Also arctic silver 5 which looks like is about $1.5/g.
Reeven RT-Pro is supposed to be a good value paste, but I can't find any anywhere, not even on the manufacturer's site, or any of the links they provide.
Scythe, at about $2/g is, according to Tom's Hardware roundup, decent paste. But as they say it's what's bundled with Scythe coolers, it's unclear if their Thermal Elixer 2 on Amazon is the same stuff Tom's tested.
Any other options?
Any anecdotes on your favorite paste's longevity? I wish I remembered what the hell I put under my Thermalright Silver arrow 11 years ago. I haven't noticed a performance difference in all this time. It's either what came with the cooler or arctic silver 5. I didn't OC very long so max temps were mostly in the 50s.