Should PC Builders Buy This in BULK?
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,237 words · ~6 min read
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thermal compound. We need it to aid thermal transfer between the hot pieces
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of silicon in our computers and the
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hunks of metal that are responsible for dissipating their heat into the air. But
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there are so many different solutions out there, ranging from stuff that's
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included with your product for free all the way up to pads that can cost
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multiple dollars each for singleuse
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applications. Not to mention that even with the tubes, they're so small that
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you have to be frequently reordering them. Paying for shipping on these
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things is inordinately expensive. But maybe there's another
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way. What if you could order in bulk one
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time enough thermal paste to last you
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for the rest of your life? Well, I certainly tried.
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Synergy is the software that lets you share your mouse and keyboard between
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multiple computers. Check it out at the link in the video
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description. So, right out of the gate, my main reason for buying thermal grease
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in bulk has been kicked in the head. Term of validity, 2 years. So, no, it
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will not indeed last you a lifetime.
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unfortunately. But uh what else does this thing have to say for itself? There
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wasn't a lot of information on the Amazon page. I just kind of ordered it
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and went from there. But apparently there are more choices, all of which are
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either better or looks like better than
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the one that I got, which is the HY610.
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Uh there's some instructions for how to apply and uh some sort of
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features. Is low thermal resistance and
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high thermal conductivity the same thing? Isn't that basically the same
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thing as heat transfer? I mean, I guess if I was charged with writing the uh the
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the marketing bullet points for a tub of thermal goop, I probably wouldn't be
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able to do much better. Anyway, let's open it
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up. Step one, open the film.
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Okay, we're having a little bit of difficulty with step one
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here. What the crap? What kind of
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horrible film is this? Come on. Wow.
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It's a really different color from most thermal compounds that I've
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used and has really different packaging
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that seems to be designed to keep you out of it. That is
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uh that is pretty exciting.
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Okay. Wow, it's got kind of like a gold color to it. I was expecting it to just
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be like your standard white, you know, silicone type. Step two, mix the oil
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that has separated from the rest of the thermal compound for 1 to 2 minutes.
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That is a long time. And the included stick is really
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not very good. But this is what royal peanut
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butter looks like. Okay, this is not a very good stir
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stick. Okay, mission accomplished, I
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guess. New thermal compound skin enhancer gives you that shiny
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glow. Seriously, look at that. So, the first step in evaluating
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the value of buying in bulk is to have a
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look at how much we paid for it. So apparently it's not available right now,
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but apparently we paid 90 bucks for it and you get an entire kilogram of their
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thermal grease compound silicone for
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CPUVGA heat sink. So when you compare that to something like a tube of Arctic
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aluminina, 1.75 gram and you're paying a few bucks
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for that. So, if you were paying the same rate for something like IC Diamond,
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again, this is uh 24 carats, whatever that is in real measurements. GH.
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Okay. And they don't even list it. Brilliant. Well, whatever. The point is
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that this buying like this is much much
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more expensive. Oh my
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gosh. Oh crap. I got thermal compound
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all over my
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Okay, that's fine because that leads me into the second important thing when
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we're evaluating value. We got to look at performance. So, in order to do that,
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we are going to need some paper towel. We are going to need some rubbing
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alcohol. And we are going to need a
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computer, which I conveniently have right here. And we will get to that in a
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moment after I'm done cleaning my laptop.
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So, here's how we're doing the test. IC Diamond isn't the best thermal compound
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on the market, but it's right up there. It's a high performance thermal
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compound, and if this stuff gets us anywhere near that, then it looks like a
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much better deal. So, on the test bench behind me, I've been running on a Cooler
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Master AIO with a 5960X about an hour and 20 minutes of
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IDA stress test with just the stress FPU
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box checked. And our CPU temps are sitting at 58 to 59°. I would consider
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either of those to be a tie when we're done this. So, all that's left to do now
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is shut this puppy down, replace the thermal compound that's on here with our
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Value Special HY600 thermal grease, fire
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it back up, wait for it to reach equilibrium, and have a look at the
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results. Okay. Right. So, that's a very good
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application of the IC diamond that was on there. That's actually really good
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for us to know.
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Okay. So, we'll use the spatula method of
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applying it, I guess. Oh, crap. I got
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it. Um, okay. You know what? This is actually kind of hard, Brandon. I know
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it's hard. This applicator is not optimal. I'm not blaming you. It's just
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funny. Okay. And it is already crappier.
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So, um, this stuff sucks.
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Um, 64 degrees. That is a full 6° higher
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than a high quality thermal compound. Meaning that I just spent
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$90 on some really crappy thermal paste.
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Not
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recommended. Do you use Amazon? Well, we
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do and we think they're great. I personally have two Amazon Prime
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accounts. That's right. One is not enough for me. I have one for Amazon
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Canada and one for the US. What's Prime, you might ask? And I might respond,
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really? You've never heard of Prime? Okay. It costs $99 annually and gives
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you access to a ton of cool features. Prime now, which is in very, very
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limited regions like free two-hour delivery. They've got their regular free
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Prime shipping. They've got access to Prime Video, which is unlimited
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streaming of movies and TV episodes, Twitch Prime, which gives you exclusive
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discounts on physical games and new releases, as well as what are all these
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stupid notes about the WAN Show, blah blah blah. Consider subscribing over
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there, etc., whatever. The point is, check it out at the link below, Amazon
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Prime. Also, you could just go buy stuff because they have
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everything. So, thanks for watching, guys. If you dislike this video, you can
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hit that dislike button. But if you liked it, hit the like button. Get subscribed. Maybe consider checking out
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the links in the video description. We've got where to buy the stuff we
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featured. Buy other stuff. Maybe we'll link that instead. We've got our merch
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store. We've got our community forum. And we've got other videos which you
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should definitely check out. I will see you guys again next time.