Thermal Paste vs Thermal Pad - Why don’t we use these??

[@anyhandlewoulddo]

...''Stick with the thermal paste for now''... That summarizes it. Thanks!

[@Great_America]

The material used for thermal pads makes a huge difference on the thermal conductivity. Grizzly Minus Pad 8 is a perfect example. And the main issue with thermal paste is that you can’t use it for filling large gaps between heatsinks and components. 3 an 4 mm thermal pads can do just that.

[@amortalbeing]

play this at 2x

[@BoatRocker619]

1.25

[@miketengu]

Haha

[@King_Bitcoin]

Its BETTER WTF.

[@zakapholiac9377]

Thank you!!!!

[@pepeshopping]

The REAL reason that the Pad is so much worse is that it canNOT conform itself to FILL the tiniest gaps, as the semi-liquid paste can!

[@ImmortalChanger]

that's literally what he says in the video

[@DC9V]

​@@ImmortalChanger What pepeshopping tried to say is that on top of the fact that thermal pads prevent the metal surfaces from making direct contact, also the thermal pads themselves don't make perfekt contact with the metal surfaces, allowing air to get trapped at both sides of the pad, similar to bubbles under a strip of tape. It's probably the reason why some folks put a thin layer of thermal paste under their thermal pads.

[@xc5103]

@@DC9V That's actually what I was thinking. Just coat the surface of the CPU with thermal paste, and coat the surface of the cooler contact with thermal paste, then have the pad sandwiched between the CPU and the cooler contact

[@HenryOfGnarlia]

@@DC9V the whole purpose of the pad is to be temporary and reusable. Putting paste on it completely defeats the purpose. And if you're going to put paste, there is no point in having a pad

[@DC9V]

@@HenryOfGnarlia good point

[@user--PM]

paste works well for almost everyone in almost every general situation, very specific pastes are made for exotic situations. graphine pads are for people like reviewers that are going to swap out the cpu constantly and dont need the absolute best liquid thermal connection, just a consistent one. most pastes will last a really long time. ive pasted my cpu with some artic silver 5, and ran it with out issues for 5 years straight. so long as you aren't jostling the connection, even if it dies out, it's far more connective thermally than air, but if you crack the dry paste, air gets in and thermals take a dive. so changing the paste depends on your circumstances. if your pc doesn't get moved, is isolated from vibration, the thermal compound will last a really long time, while graphine pads wont dry out, and as long as you dont break something while moving your pc, it could be used in situations where paste would dry out and crack. though they make even better pastes these days that claim to never dry out, but it most certainly will, it just takes a lot longer.

[@bobmnz6914]

Not really they get destroyed very easily. Trial I saw got two uses out of the Graphene. And the second clampdown had a tear in the pad. Still seemed to work ok. But like I wrote fragile. So, treat with care.

[@cleopodra]

Watched a million thermal paste videos and none of them gave your explanation. Thank you !

[@sushantbhatia9930]

You tube teachers telling in thermal paste with practical how to apply on you tube.

[@aok79]

From the perspective of engineering, the heating pad is matched with the irregular surface of the material from the engineering perspective. It uses high-performance thermal conductivity and eliminates the air gap, thereby improving the overall thermal conversion capacity and making the device working at a lower temperature.

[@OriginalRaveParty]

I've only ever bought one tube of thermal paste and it was MX-2 about a decade ago. It's been fine ever since. The thermal pads are useful for little devices like my raspberry pis, when attaching little metal heatsinks.

[@d00dEEE]

lol, sounds familiar. I've been using the same 20g syringe of MX-4 for about 8-9 years now. Looks like it's about half full now.

[@thelowmein9143]

Wait, I was told that thermal paste can’t be stored more than 3-4 years in the tube... is one one trying to sell me more paste needlessly?

[@OriginalRaveParty]

@@thelowmein9143 My CPU is 32°C at idle and rarely gets even up into the 60s after hours of gaming, so I guess that the proof is in the results 😀

[@goorthiss]

Replace to the GD900-1, GD007 or GC-Extreme, Noctua NT-H2. Thermal Paste ftom Arctic was a good 15 years ago for 2 core processors. If you really want to reduce the temperature then use a Honeywell PTM7950 for CPU, GPU core and Laird Tputty 607 for vrams.

[@filagain4137]

@@thelowmein9143 The paste will age over time which will affect its thermal conductivity performance, practically every chemical will break down eventually. However as long as it doesn't harden in the tube and can be used, I guess it's okay. My 4gr MX4 finally runs out after 6 years from purchase date, don't seems to have noticeable difference but I would assume there will be slight performance different compared to brand new batch though.

[@Catalinddm]

The only thing I picture while you're talking about the TIM is: The verge paste application. Cheers, mate.

[@TechteamGB]

Don't forget your tweezers!

[@CMDR_CLASSIFIED]

@@TechteamGB And screw with confidence!

[@WhoTnT]

I use the Innovation Cooling Graphite Thermal Pad and it's only 1 or 2C hotter than paste so it depends on the pad that you use.

[@KaitainCPS]

Yep, I've been using IC's pads for the last five years instead of paste and prefer them overall. I've built four PCs with them during that time and am happy with the performance and the convenience.

[@viniciusschadeck4992]

@@KaitainCPS can you tell me how to find good thermal pads? i kinda not like the paste, it is toxic and clean this shit once a few time is even worst than clean it constantly, because you not see all dry parts falling, soo some toxic shit can be where it not can be... I'am loking for thermal pads with this 1 degree difference to shift for good, but need to understand how to choice those and this video not helps, only put people against new techs LOL

[@Super80sMan]

I just put a pea sized drop in the center of the cpu and then apply the cooler as even as possible. Seems to work very well and Core Temp shows good temps.

[@hershy1594]

Just found this video after wondering why a Dell M.2 SSD I was working on had that pad. Thank you for explaining clearly why that is!

[@deanstoyanov6665]

Because use the bottom aluminium panel for cooling and if was just paste will dry very fast and there got little moving. Every time when you lift or move the laptop you will see a bit moving of the back panel. About that there is very elastic pad. In some cases there must have two different pads with different thickness. Like SAMSUNG 980, because the surface have a different thickness. And when you use just one pad on the thinner area the pad may be not reach the aluminium panel and stays wormer. The original one is very thick and may be enough. But you can't be sure.

[@Magneticitist]

I seem to see quite a bit of combinations of both for some reason.. Light paste with pink thermal pads. I personally wonder over the tradeoff of filling tiny non observable gaps and crevices with further insulating material as opposed to a tighter more firm metal to metal connection where these macroscopic gaps are just filled with air via compromise. The best option to me seems an extremely thin layer of paste to simply fill gaps without actually providing more insulation between the surfaces which do almost perfectly mate.

[@fazercraig9652]

I'm using a graphite pad (its an Innovation cooling graphite thermal pad) on my cpu and it performs better than a lot of paste. Max temp when gaming is 60c and the average temps is between 42c and 50c mostly.

[@ClaysonWood]

Have you used PTM7950 by honeywell? its non conductive

[@slay3rgamingyt]

@@ClaysonWood my laptop came with it pre-installed (legion 5)

[@tickleboi6581]

There is graphite on the ground

[@pianosidechat]

ok but there's also 12-15 W/km thermal pads that are also very thin, can you test those vs thermal paste?

[@christianflores3437]

Like which

[@johnclark6190]

Good info but misses key info: Does the TEMP RANGE make a difference? A silicone pad may not be as effective for a CPU of higher temps, but how does it perform for the lower range of temps of NVME. Many NVME are also uneven heights between chips and controller. Would love to see such a video.

[@PeachCake-zs6gn]

When I started my career, my Boss built all our work PCs, we had one PC that was "misbehaving" and so one day I helped him take the PC apart to investigate if there was anything wrong. We took the CPU cooler off and saw there was NO paste on the CPU. The look on his face as he realized he completely forgot was priceless. The computer still worked for months in this setup, but it definitely had issues.

[@jimmybdietaryandvital-sigh8450]

I just found your channel. I've always wondered why some GPU's have thermal pads; what should we use (paste or Pads) elsewhere and why. You covered it all. Great job!

[@wigjuice]

The thermal pad was obviously not installed correctly. I've used them for years (different brand) and there's never been any results even close to this...unless it was applied incorrectly. This video is just bad.

[@numbr6]

How about graphite sheet thermal "pads"? They seem thiner than silicone pads and are easily reusable if you are removing to clean the CPU heat sink and fan.

[@PrismBot]

From testing videos I've seen from the likes of JayzTwoCents and Gamers Nexus, too much paste does not hurt performance. It just has diminishing returns.

[@tahsinanan147]

Can i use both Paste and Pad , Like putting paste on both sides of pad ? Would it make any improvement than worst result ?

[@danydepp8487]

Agree and also according to manufacturers, thermal paste can last so many years like from 5 to 10 years lifespam. The only reason to repaste is when you take out the heat sink for changing the cpu or when the CPU is overheating, so there is no reason to repaste besides that. Also thermal pads last even more.

[@manuelelliotortizsepulveda1657]

Dearest sir, your data it is well but, ¿What about Pertiel electric pads, could help in MacBook Pro and Air to cold it better?

[@halalmeatshophk]

so basically if using a thermal pad, it is ALWAYS better to use the thinnest possible , right ?

[@DGtL_GK-pm9kx]

what should i use for my gpu vram? for my laptop

[@SteveSiegelin]

Also if I'm not mistaken they both have different uses and I'm doing the research now to see if you're supposed to use silicone pads for water cooling instead of thermal paste. I'm getting different results with paste than other people get with pads. You're my first video I've watched in the comparison so I've got a lot of research to do😅

[@monilvalia9425]

can i put thermal paste instead of thermal pads (not on cpu, gpu) but on those lesser heat generating components.

[@captaingreenhat]

0:24 if you are this sloppy installing thermal paste, you shouldn't be allowed to build a pc. lmao

[@RollerCoasteraddict]

Quick question you might be able to answer ... I just purchased an Arcade1up Big Buck cabinet the PCB has a cooler with a fan and uses a thermal pad to cool the chip ... Would it be better if I used thermal paste instead?

[@johnricher133]

Yes you can, from results latest thermal paste can last even 7 years that's what they say

[@ytrew9717]

How durable are the pads? 3, 5, 10 years?

[@SunriseSearcher]

Tell me one reason you are not using a 0.5mm pad and instead, use a 1.5mm pad. These pads are for gap filling. The 0.5mm would work better. Maybe not like the paste, but 3x times better than the 1.5mm pad.

[@ManasChachra]

the thickness doesnt matter as much as the surface of the pad

[@abbyleyva2211]

I have a new mini pc with a plastic cover on top of an N100 cpu. It's fanless, so I'm worried about heat. The top cover is a sort of micro waffle grid design. It's uneven and i want to place an old cpu heatsink on top of the plastic cover to help with excess heat. The bottom of the large heat sync has a copper base, and won't cover the whole cover. I'm guessing the paste may be a bit messy and i was considering a heat pad. I also see adhesive heat tape. What do you recommend? Thanks for the video.

[@mikelagaffe]

ok, but now...how effective a paste do i need? idk anything about what is good numbers vs what is not good. . my friend got some arctic mx4 at around 4w/mk to re paste his ps4 . and it worked wonders . but i have a pretty high end gaming laptop... and i have no idea what it came with..only thst its probably due to be changed... theres a place in town wich sells their best paste before gowing towards liquid metal , that is advertised to be at 8.5w/mk... and i have read that liquid metal if not applied properly could very well damage the board, and since its my first time around messing with that kind of stuff i dont wanna risk frying my pc... would that 8.5w/mk be enough, or should.i look for something even better?is there any better without going liquid metal...

[@greymack]

Very informative, how do you rate the pre applied paste you get on some coolers, to me they almost look like those pads

[@TechteamGB]

I can't say I've run any quantitative testing, but from a qualitative view I'd say they have tradeoffs - it's a very even application which is generally better than you'll get with DIY paste, but it's also a bit thicker (consistency, rather than Z height) than most pastes you apply yourself. It's also not always going to be the best performing compared to something with higher thermal conductivity. For beginners I think it's great, takes the knowledge/guesswork out of PC building, but might not be quite as good as high end 'aftermarket' paste.

[@m.smanoj4688]

On laptop vram and vrms what to use bro pls tell me I own rog strix g15 For cpu i oredered liquid metal of thermal grizzly for gpu ordered thermal grizzly extreme For vram and vrms what to use som say pad and some paste Can iuse Arctic mx4 for vram and vrms pls reply

[@hubertmendel4587]

I bought a thermal pad for my 2015 MacBook Air because I want to see how cooler I can make it and when watching youtube at 1080p with Sonoma. It runs 10-15°C cooler. I put the thermal pad on the heat sink itself, a few on small components and on Apple proprietary NVMe SSD.

[@troytaylor1913]

I had to sand the heat sink flat. I did 11 passes in X 's cleaning the paper on each pass. Not sure why the pits it's made out of copper. It could be an electrical reaction to the silver or something, I'm not sure. I had to clean the processor with a razor. I'll see if I help with the thermal throttling I was having. The same thing with my AMD FX-8120 heatsink it is copper and it's getting light pitting. Could some heat sink grease prevent that, I think the corrosion over time is creating a gap?

[@ZeroWalker26]

I was thinking could Thermal pad be decent enough for an old Pentrium III 1Ghz cpu. I use that old Desktop for Retro PC game that does not even exist on Gog or steam but on disc.

[@goorthiss]

You could do a test with Arctic MX-5 paste vs Honeywell PTM7950 phase-change thermopad.

[@getl0st]

Sorry, but we are in the clown part of the Internet...

[@jefferywyss8740]

Hi guys. I'd like to use these in a vacuum. Do they out-gas? Silicone based thermal pads do.

[@ellenorbjornsdottir1166]

Both solutions are intended to grout the holes in the thermal interface. One does it much better.

[@mikescott4008]

Will have a look at the 1mm thick as the appliance firewall I have has too much of a gap. Wanted to use thermal paste as I would normally would.

[@pr0fessoro]

tese pads are for the memory chips, not fo rhe cooler... for the cooler pads have 0.2 mm tickness

[@doralnashtyjaym.755]

paste go in into holes of cpu and transfer heats more effective while pads do not go into the holes of the cpu but still transfer heat into the cpu fan but not as effective as the paste (theoretically)

[@fourbypete]

What if you applied thermal paste then pad then paste?

[@jayfixincars2157]

Why didnt you test with the thickest pad? Hmmmmm

[@larrytaylor2692]

So why wouldn’t Gpu makers design better heat sinks and use paste on gpus?

[@SparkyOne549]

So, the thermal pads haven’t improved any since I saw reviews from a number of years ago.

[@roy1112able]

They have, he used the version for application on vram not on cpu. I have been using thermal grizzly carbonaut for a year and its slightly worse ( 2 c ) but nowhere near as these ones

[@lawerancelanham]

You only need a layer of paste as thin as scotch tape (hint, hint). That's it!! Anymore than that is wasteful and performance hindering.

[@94Mrwayne]

Something has to give cause I've changed the thermal paste about 5 times on my ps4 pro and it goes back to being a jet after 1 month.

[@Kaldrin]

Thanks a lot for this explanation, it's much clearer now

[@liowyew]

With thermal pad, when you pull out the air/water cooler, you also pull out the cpu.

[@keywizz211]

the best video of this kind i've seen till now very advising I opened my 10 year old laptop and I saw that on its cpu and gpu had paste on but on two other chip-like black components that were also covered by the heat sink had some pads. So I was wondering, can I replace everything even those pads with paste ? Or is it only for the metal parts ( those black chips look like some plastic material )

[@marioalday5966]

BTW, put your CPU box horizontal before aplying the paste.

[@kovokarota6282]

The funny thing is that Sony put thermal pads on Playstation 2 that I opened recently for restoration in 3 chips. I might remove the pads and put thermal paste instead.

[@Folk661]

Just FYI the material to look for is Graphene not graphite. It’s 1000 times more thermally conductive than any material on earth. Including silicon and copper. It’s also electrically conductive which means you have to be very careful when installing it in certain cpu sockets.

[@xtroncool007]

Best video I watched on you tube for simple basic know how of this topic Thank you

[@newstodayyt1]

0.5mm and 0.8mm thick is both fine I am using 0.8mm thick pad on my CPU and it's running fine

[@xarisvantan]

What do you guys suggest for ps4 and ps4pro? For processor and for the other chips,its suggestive to take out the small pads and put paste?

[@xO_oxDK]

I installed a thermal grizzly pad on the cpu and replaced the thicker pads on the memory with newer ones. Made it a lot quieter.

[@Allmayor]

@techteamGB , i got this stupid idea for a video. Put a drop of liquid metal on a pad and measure temps? In theory it should make heat transfer better, while not spilling because of being retained by pores in graphene 😅 Testable?

[@kemizehabib-mohammed8791]

Hello. My question is: Are there any other recommendable alternatives to thermal pastes and thermal pads? I'm building something using thermoelectric peltier coolers, and I want to attach finned heatsinks on the cold sides for better heat distribution. But the heatsinks must face downward, so I need them to really stick to the peltier modules. Thermal pastes are not adhesive though (ofcourse if I use enough, the heatsinks will stick but the problem with that is obvious). What other options do I have?

[@dager1]

I have been usinge IC Graphite Pad on my 16 core 32 thread Ryzen 3950x with Noctua d15 air cooler and also on my 11900k Cpu for years. I record weddings and other events so I have to edit and render a lot. Thats the only thing I use my computers for almost every day, and I have not been dissapointted by the Thermal Pads.

[@vlad_8011]

Thermal pad with not rated thermal conductivity ? Toothpaste is better ;)

[@MDFGamingVideo]

0:22 - Who were you trying to fool with this "messy" example? No one in their right mind applies thermal paste with the motherboard standing vertically? And good luck trying to apply a thermal pad that way. It's going to fall right off.

[@Synthematix]

Best thing ive ever used is ultrafine copper foil

[@Explore531]

thanks for the info about these pads I was about too buy them at Amazon, IL just get the thermal Paste instead

[@h.barkas1571]

As a fire and forget solution graphene pads will become more viable as prices will go down with wider adoption. I like you prefer thermal paste as I love to tinker and change components and let's face it it's satisfying to maintain your hardware at top performance.

[@letsg4353]

i think pad is good to put inside phone battery cover

[@josephshaff5194]

Paste. 1st build. Intel Core i5. Artic 360. RX-550 GPU. Only a rice sized amount ? Some else said bean sized.

[@paulgaurav72]

Cpu +tharmal paste+ thermal pad +thermal paste+ cpu cooler , i am curious to know the result

[@ForlornDevil]

Same result as if you used a whole tube of thermal paste. You want as thin a layer between your heatsink and CPU. As the video clearly explains, the paste is only to help fill gaps.

[@paulgaurav72]

@@ForlornDevil i did ,result was not impressive but I got high temperatures

[@mat.b.]

Use a better thermal w/mk pad and not a 6...

[@LeBurkaTron]

nort . nort 262?

[@hornantuutti5157]

Get ptm7950 pads and it works almost as good as liquid metal.

[@y_zass]

I just used the pre-applied thermal paste that came on my DeepCool AK400. It was applied on there perfectly and I'm only running an i5 12500 which this thing is straight overkill for anyways lol. I have a tube of Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut too, it wasn't worth cleaning off the factory applied paste to use it. A lot of people overthink this stuff, even end up damaging their components from taking their heatsink off over and over in pursuit of 1-3c lower temps.

[@tomaszk2242]

Very helpful. For the first time at all I paid attention to W/mk factor and realised, that even the best acquirable thermal paste should indeed be applied in... well, that's tricky now. There should be as little of it as possible, because it does disturb and does stand in the way, but in the meantime there should be quite a lot of it (in the microscopic dimension), as the actual, true connection between the core and the sink is only seemingly good - good to our eyes only. Anyway, the layer should be apparently thin as air, yet filling everything to the top. Now, the question (rethorical question) is what is the construction provided distance between my laptop processor delicate ceramic core, and the heatsink. I suppose there must have been some reasonably slight gap provied and I bet they didn't let the copper touch the core any firmly.

[@steve0680657]

Try a 0.5mm pad instead of a 1.5mm

[@zielonastolarnia]

He shows 3 sizes 0.5, 1 and 1.5 but uses 0.5 pad and NOT 1.5.

[@marcofreire]

WRONG. Too much paste does not make any difference. Tested in Linus Tech Tips. Also put paste and mount the cooler in the horizontal position.

[@Magneticitist]

Thermal paste is inherently not as good a conductor of heat as metal. Linus messed up.

[@vulpeslumina]

If more paste made no difference, then how come metal paste works better than ceramic paste, hmmmmm? What's gonna happen when all that excess metal paste squeezes out onto the surrounding mobo, hmmmmm? More paste is NOT better

[@myyoutubename152]

The pad is way too thick. Results would be better with a .2 or .5 mm pad.

[@Johny40Se7en]

They say that if using the pads to cover the whole CPU is like using a whole tube of thermal compound, what about trying the pad cut into a size of a pea, or grain of rice and putting it in the middle? try it like that please.

[@VIRTUAL.ARTofficial]

dude, seriously? what you think it will do with that air gap? it will just make bigger air gap around your "pea" OMG!

[@gSquare67]

@@VIRTUAL.ARTofficial 😹

[@ForlornDevil]

Obviously you misunderstood. Using a pea of liquid material means it spreads a very thin layer over the CPU when the heatsink presses down on it. Pads are solid and will not spread.

[@HOLLYWOODlosANGELES]

*Merci de nous expliquer par la théorie l'efficacité de la pâte thermique et des Pad. J'avais besoin de le comprendre, et du coup je vais parcourir votre chaîne...* Bon travail.

[@ThePr0Br0]

it's weird that the western world only covered the reusable graphite thermal pads, whereas the mention of thermal pads in china would refer to something like a honeywell 7950 phase change pad, which I'm pretty sure is not reusable but still heck of a lot better than something like kryonaut. As of writing this comment on 17th of march 2022 there is not a single video on phase change pads on youtube. weird

[@c0_oper]

i haven’t seen anything on YT either but saw some Reddit tests and reviews, that phase plaster legit, i think i’m gonna have to order it and repaste my Gigabyte G5 with it

[@toml9566]

You got me. I found honeywell ptm 7950 on Chinese forum, then searched on KZbin hoping to find a some review, only to find no one is doing video on that but everyone is talking about regular thermal pad... I am thinking about buying one ptm 7950 and use it on my 2080ti windforce's GPU DIE because I am tired of replacing thermal paste, especially on the GPU.

[@ThePr0Br0]

@@toml9566 wow, mines also a 2080ti, don't want to worry about thermal paste drying out anymore

[@benedictohernandez2459]

Thank you!

[@Echo3_]

I like that English people say NOT point 5 instead of 0.5 or .5 I think i`m going to adopted that

[@madalinradion]

Imagine saying that putting a blob of thermal paste on a cpu is too hard lmao, these people are probably the same type that would try to push the square through the triangle hole 😂😂

[@mikuhorizon]

If thermal pads are effective manufacturers would simply add thermal pad on every gpu and cpu ..

[@iraneman1668]

Is this a sponsored production? If not, why your end result is totally different form the current vastly published independent reviewer's result???! 😱🤔

[@shorty808100]

Looks like I’m repasting my CPU today when my MX-4 gets here

[@sushantbhatia9930]

Thanku sir for telling about that i know that use thermal paste on cpu and also thanks for links.

[@cyrousaloran2822]

Try to put liquid nitrogen

[@sleepwalker6825]

Paste all Day Long for Me ... Your Graphs show the prof is in the Pudding ... Do You rate Thermal Grizzly ??? Cheers for Vid

[@xedalpha1]

Also those pads are arctic pads are EXPENSIVE

[@john_doe668]

i actually got incredibly mad watching you apply the thermal paste on the CPU in the UPRIGHT position NEVER apply thermal paste in the upright position. it gets EVERYWHERE

[@Tintmaster775]

You used the wrong pad to compare to thermal paste.... so it wasn't apples to apples... you should have used the thermal grizzly pad against the thermal paste.

[@dayman888]

I am gonna use a sheet of silver

[@abbashasan7060]

Thankyou man

[@masonstuart2191]

Oh to have a diamond paste

[@rul1175]

This guy coukd put anyone to sleep.

[@SilkRobes]

very well presented👍

[@johandodenedgren7557]

Im going to try copper paste 🤓🤔

[@dopedrip3491]

Am going to use brush paste

[@johandodenedgren7557]

@@dopedrip3491 whats that?

[@dopedrip3491]

@@johandodenedgren7557 bro autocorrect toothpaste 😂

[@johandodenedgren7557]

@@dopedrip3491 hehe ah, make much more sense xD

[@dopedrip3491]

@@johandodenedgren7557 👽