NZXT Kraken Z73 Thermal Paste Question

1Wolf

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 10, 2007
Messages
433
Is the pre-applied thermal paste on an NZXT Kraken Z73 on an AMD 5950X pretty decent to just go ahead and use? Or is it the popular opinion to clean it off and use something else?

I've always used Corsair AIO's in past years for intel builds and their pre-applied thermal paste has always been great as far as I could tell. I always got the temps I expected and I don't know that I would have done any better by cleaning off whatever thermal pad they put on there and replacing it with one of the aftermarket choices.

If you're of the mind that the pre-applied thermal paste should be removed and replaced, what would you suggest?

Thanks!
 
Is the pre-applied thermal paste on an NZXT Kraken Z73 on an AMD 5950X pretty decent to just go ahead and use? Or is it the popular opinion to clean it off and use something else?

I've always used Corsair AIO's in past years for intel builds and their pre-applied thermal paste has always been great as far as I could tell. I always got the temps I expected and I don't know that I would have done any better by cleaning off whatever thermal pad they put on there and replacing it with one of the aftermarket choices.

If you're of the mind that the pre-applied thermal paste should be removed and replaced, what would you suggest?

Thanks!
It should be fine. Most of the top quality compounds will give you very similar performance (noctua, grizzly, mx-4, etc.) so it's pretty much up to you to just pick one if you want.
 
I would use the original TIM, if it's already on there, particularly if you're looking at having to buy something else.
 
Hmmm this is making me question my decision. I just goty first AIO and I ordered conductonaut cuz yolo and now I'm not sure if I should bother? I'd be happy with a 4c drop.

It's an EVGA 280mm fwiw
 
Hmmm this is making me question my decision. I just goty first AIO and I ordered conductonaut cuz yolo and now I'm not sure if I should bother? I'd be happy with a 4c drop.

It's an EVGA 280mm fwiw
If Conductonaut is the indium based liquid metal kind, I’d abort. That stuff is a pain in the ass to clean off, and it’s real easy to get it in places it shouldn’t go. It’s good for competitive overclocking, but kind of a liability for regular systems.

Just use a good regular TIM like kryonaut or Arctic Silver 5. Something similar should come preapplied, anyway.
 
Just use the pre-applied unless you are very picky about paste and temps. Would be surprised if you would see more than a 3-4 degree difference compared to the best thermal pastes (outside of liquid metal), probably more like 1-3 degrees. I would advise you to make sure you have more paste around though, in case you get a bad mount or have to remove your cooler at some point. I am a big fan of Noctua NT-H1 as it spreads easily and works well for several years without reapplying paste. The difference between NT-H1 and NT-H2 is minor (about 1 degree) and not worth it for most systems and in my experience hydronaut is about equal to or slightly better than NT-H2, at least in the short term. Haven't tried kryonaut though.

I can't remember having had massive gains when swapping the pre-applied pastes on AIOs, usually only about 1-2 degrees.
 
If Conductonaut is the indium based liquid metal kind, I’d abort. That stuff is a pain in the ass to clean off, and it’s real easy to get it in places it shouldn’t go. It’s good for competitive overclocking, but kind of a liability for regular systems.

Just use a good regular TIM like kryonaut or Arctic Silver 5. Something similar should come preapplied, anyway.
not to mention we just had someone here with a "no post" problem from it dripping down into the cpu socket.

OP, use the pre-applied, its good.
 
If Conductonaut is the indium based liquid metal kind, I’d abort. That stuff is a pain in the ass to clean off, and it’s real easy to get it in places it shouldn’t go. It’s good for competitive overclocking, but kind of a liability for regular systems.

Just use a good regular TIM like kryonaut or Arctic Silver 5. Something similar should come preapplied, anyway.
This. I wouldn't use it on a system that is in a typical orientation. There is nothing stopping gravity from causing it to leak down into the socket and destroy everything. There is a reason why the ps5 has a barrier around the LM.
 
Thanks to everyone for the responses. Looks like I'll just go with the pre-applied stuff. Good to go! Thanks!

Just use the pre-applied unless you are very picky about paste and temps. Would be surprised if you would see more than a 3-4 degree difference compared to the best thermal pastes (outside of liquid metal), probably more like 1-3 degrees. I would advise you to make sure you have more paste around though, in case you get a bad mount or have to remove your cooler at some point. I am a big fan of Noctua NT-H1 as it spreads easily and works well for several years without reapplying paste. The difference between NT-H1 and NT-H2 is minor (about 1 degree) and not worth it for most systems and in my experience hydronaut is about equal to or slightly better than NT-H2, at least in the short term. Haven't tried kryonaut though.

I can't remember having had massive gains when swapping the pre-applied pastes on AIOs, usually only about 1-2 degrees.

Thanks for that advice. I hadn't actually thought of the fact that I might need to have some on hand just in case I goof up the mount. Thats a really good point and it would really suck to get to the point that I'm seating the cooler and I goof it up a bit and don't have any on hand to reapply. Thanks for that tip!
 
Back
Top