# ALternative to thermal paste?



## raycityclick

what would be a good alternative to using thermal paste? every store in my area is out for some odd reason and my temps are getting around 54C on load "oblivion" and my computer has already shutdown one for high temps.i thought i heard toothpaste was a good alternative. but others would be appreaciated.


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## timmay7

Quote:


Originally Posted by *raycityclick*
what would be a good alternative to using thermal paste? every store in my area is out for some odd reason and my temps are getting around 54C on load "oblivion" and my computer has already shutdown one for high temps.i thought i heard toothpaste was a good alternative. but others would be appreaciated.

AS5! Arctic Silver 5! The best out there. 99.9% silver

whoops, didnt see you didnt want any thermal paste. Well then i have no idea what you want, but something conductive is always good


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## SoaDMTGguy

The only alternative would be the pad that comes on most stock heatsinks. I see in your rig showcase that you have a XP-90. That should have come with thermalpast, which I asume your using.


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## sccr64472

Quote:


Originally Posted by *raycityclick*
what would be a good alternative to using thermal paste? every store in my area is out for some odd reason and my temps are getting around 54C on load "oblivion" and my computer has already shutdown one for high temps.i thought i heard toothpaste was a good alternative. but others would be appreaciated.

Cod liver oil...
"In the past, we have argued that there is very little difference between cod liver oil and arctic silver, aside from the naturally occurring degradation of the first and the rather odor-less nature of AS. Combined, these features make a decision rather simple."
http://www.lostcircuits.com/advice/carbon_black/


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## raycityclick

well the problem is that the paste that was on there kinda wore off so to speak with all the tearing down and reabuilding and cleaning so there is like hardly no paste on it and i have no more, and all the stores don't have any, and i really want to finish up oblivion...."notice i said finish" but everytime i get 2o min into it it shuts off bc of temps so i need "SOMTHING" to get me by until monday.


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## sccr64472

Quote:


Originally Posted by *raycityclick*
well the problem is that the paste that was on there kinda wore off so to speak with all the tearing down and reabuilding and cleaning so there is like hardly no paste on it and i have no more, and all the stores don't have any, and i really want to finish up oblivion...."notice i said finish" but everytime i get 2o min into it it shuts off bc of temps so i need "SOMTHING" to get me by until monday.

Never use paste or grease twice. If you ever take off the heatsink, or even lift it up, completely remove the old and apply new. If you lift the heatsink once it's placed down onto the cpu, you're risking getting heat pockets. (air pockets)


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## Fishie36

Just order it online then
http://www.easypckits.com/products/as5/


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## raycityclick

ok thanks.


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## Chosen

tin foil


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## BlueAngel

Yes, I know this is an old topic, and people like to b*tch when people post on old topics, but to those people, up yours.







HehE, I was just messing around with this and decided to try liquid metal, what you put on your cars to patch rust, you can find this at most auto shops. I was just messing around with an old Opteron 248 that I had, it seemed to work pretty well, I got it from 2.2 â€" 2.5GHz with the stock cooler, before I could only get 2.37GHz. A note, once you do this it is permanent; you will not be able to remove the heat sink. Also you should let the liquid metal set fully before you turn your motherboard upright.


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## AceMon

Quote:


Originally Posted by *BlueAngel*
Yes, I know this is an old topic, and people like to b*tch when people post on old topics, but to those people, up yours.







HehE, I was just messing around with this and decided to try liquid metal, what you put on your cars to patch rust, you can find this at most auto shops. I was just messing around with an old Opteron 248 that I had, it seemed to work pretty well, I got it from 2.2 â€" 2.5GHz with the stock cooler, before I could only get 2.37GHz. A note, once you do this it is permanent; you will not be able to remove the heat sink. Also you should let the liquid metal set fully before you turn your motherboard upright.

Ummmm.......now why would I want to 'glue' my CPU to my heatsink?


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## Aqualan

Positively DO NOT liquid metal your HS to the CPU. It's a very bad idea.


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## Sec_1971

AGS Dielectric Connector Protector works like a charm. You can get a small tube of it for $1 at AutoZone or something similar. It actually works better than the Artic Freeze or whatever the Hell it's called. My CPU is running at 42C using it.


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## Blackhawk4

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Sec_1971* 
AGS Dielectric Connector Protector works like a charm. You can get a small tube of it for $1 at AutoZone or something similar. It actually works better than the Artic Freeze or whatever the Hell it's called. My CPU is running at 42C using it.

Sorry if I'm a little rude, but this thread is 4 years old and there is little to 0 reason to bring this thread from the grave....please if possible try to not to do up old threads, because it's pointless.


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## Brentonator

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Blackhawk4* 
Sorry if I'm a little rude, but this thread is 4 years old and there is little to 0 reason to bring this thread from the grave....please if possible try to not to do up old threads, because it's pointless.

As a matter of absolute fact







Blackhawk, his post was absolutely NOT pointless. Without Aqualan I would be bumping this thread from my iPhone right now.

1. He provided the only useful solution on a google search for "thermal paste alternative"
2. He helped out potentially thousands of people around the world.

Have you ever searched for a solution on Google and found a thread only to find some darshcycle's post: "google it *****" or "answering this question is pointless" when that was the only search result remotely related to the question?

Forums are Google search results.

AGS Dielectric Connector Protector as a great thermal paste alternative FTW!


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## G33K

If your stock TIM is causing overheats, scraping it off and using toothpaste is only going to make it worse... I'd go to Newegg or something if you can ASAP and get a new cooler and TIM, or if you're overclocking, bump down the clock speed a tad.

:[] Sorry, didn't notice I was replying to a 4 year old thread.


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## jm3

i used nickel based never seize on my work computer and it works very well lol


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## JeanF

OCZ freeze better than Arc 5


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## artcuda

*So what if the thread is 4 yrs old*

Totally helped me. I'm in the boonies and if not for this thread, I would have nbever known about dieelectric greese ....which I just so happened to have!!! Thanks beacoup. Rock on.


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## Buggsy

jm3 said:


> i used nickel based never seize on my work computer and it works very well lol


Oh mate, definitely gonna keep that one in mind. Some guy on youtube used Copper Infused anti-seize on his Pentium D930 and got 60c on prime95 vs 64c using radioshack silicone heatsink compound. Nuts!


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## MacLover

Hello guys,
I personally use K5 PRO for many years and I don't have any complain.If you want to give a try this tutorial will help you a lot


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## white owl

MacLover said:


> Hello guys,
> I personally use K5 PRO for many years and I don't have any complain.If you want to give a try this tutorial will help you a lot
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gD4ZBOp-bE





BlueAngel said:


> Yes, I know this is an old topic, and people like to b*tch when people post on old topics, but to those people, up yours.


This thread is older than iPhone. Think about that.


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## 8051

white owl said:


> This thread is older than iPhone. Think about that.


Blue Angel only has one post to overclock.net and that's from 2006!


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## white owl

8051 said:


> Blue Angel only has one post to overclock.net and that's from 2006!


Yeah, see what happens is someone googles "alternative to thermal paste" or something like that then they come across this thread and don't realize when it's from, they just see info related to their quire. Not a big deal IMO but anyone posting in this thread is long gone and will never see what they've said.


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## The Pook

not sure why is such a hot topic warranting a grave digging, but mustard, butter, and chocolate work as thermal paste too if you lower your standards enough. 










the selling points of thermal paste are the ability to withstand hundreds of hot/cold cycles without breaking down. if you just need something to test if something works ... fine, but that's not a thermal paste _alternative_.


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## Chargeit

white owl said:


> This thread is older than iPhone. Think about that.


I had a full head of hair back when this topic was started.


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## BeeDeeEff

So earlier this week someone brought this thread to my attention, anyone try using silver or copper leaf?

https://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=149780

With standard mounting pressure I would assume only the edges would oxidize/tarnish over time, but also idk if one should worry about any cold welding or air gaps. I wonder if one could use leaf on only some parts of the IHS to target specific areas for better contact pressure. 

Filling in low areas so to speak instead of re-leveling the surface by lapping.


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## Kommando Kodiak

Theres also the no thermal paste option -- stop screaming at your monitor-- it only works if you perfectly flatten both the cpu and heatsink/waterblock to such flatness the van der wals forces come into play aka wringing happens which is a phenomenon wherein 2 flat things suction together, you dont need thermal paste


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## Kommando Kodiak

example of wringing


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## T.Sharp

Kommando Kodiak said:


> Theres also the no thermal paste option -- stop screaming at your monitor-- it only works if you perfectly flatten both the cpu and heatsink/waterblock to such flatness the van der wals forces come into play aka wringing happens which is a phenomenon wherein 2 flat things suction together, you dont need thermal paste


Try doing that with an Intel CPU. The socket latch deforms the IHS when you close it. Only way to make sure it's flat would be to remove the latch and rely on the cooler to hold it in the socket, or cut the socket out of a board and lap the IHS under tension.

And of course most people don't have to tools to actually lap an IHS / cooler. Sand paper on a piece of glass isn't lapping and it will never produce a surface that can be wrung. But I like the idea of wringing a cooler and CPU. There was a guy who tried this with an AMD chip, but there have been no updates recently.

The worlds flattest CPU.


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