OT Best Thermal Paste to Use Help

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gabriel Knight
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G

Gabriel Knight

This is a bit off topic though I cant find help for this anywhere else in
forums and such and knew this is sort of within this group, Im thinking of
using Tuniq TX-4 thermal paste for my playstation 3 but I need to know what
is the best to use? I will not use Arctic Silver 5 because its conductive or
any other paste that is conductive. I need to do a thermal paste renew on a
60gig PS3.

Sorry if this is not a welcome question here maybe someone can point me in
the right direction as the playstation network is still down and I cant post
questions there or signup for an account, I have tried
http://www.ps3chat.com/forumindex.php with this question but everyone dosnt
know either.

Thanks in advance
GK
 
Gabriel said:
This is a bit off topic though I cant find help for this anywhere else in
forums and such and knew this is sort of within this group, Im thinking of
using Tuniq TX-4 thermal paste for my playstation 3 but I need to know what
is the best to use? I will not use Arctic Silver 5 because its conductive or
any other paste that is conductive. I need to do a thermal paste renew on a
60gig PS3.

Sorry if this is not a welcome question here maybe someone can point me in
the right direction as the playstation network is still down and I cant post
questions there or signup for an account, I have tried
http://www.ps3chat.com/forumindex.php with this question but everyone dosnt
know either.

Thanks in advance
GK
Click to expand...

The TX-4 doesn't appear to be that friendly to use.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835154012

There is an article here, comparing some of them.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...sk=view&id=150&Itemid=62&limit=1&limitstart=1

The Shin Etsu stuff appears to be resold by others. And what's
interesting, is not everyone gets the same results.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233030

The AC MX-2 is on the same results page as the Shin Etsu, and
looking at a few reviews, is OK. And it might be non-conductive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186020

http://www.arctic.ac/index.php?eID=tx_mm_bccmsbase_zip&id=4383902874e71a995b8c65

I was hoping to find an MSDS (material handling data sheet) for
these products, to see what the active ingredient is, but found
no MSDS today at all.

Paul
 
Grinder said:
There's really not much point in using a thermal paste that is not
*thermally* conductive. Note that is entirely different from
*electrically* conductive.
Click to expand...

I wonder if OP is buying into the (very) old wive's tale about arctic silver
being electrically conductive.

Jon
 
Gabriel said:
Im thinking of using Tuniq TX-4 thermal paste for my playstation 3 but
I need to know what is the best to use? I will not use Arctic Silver 5
because its conductive or any other paste that is conductive.
Click to expand...

Very wise of you.

About any thermal paste is OK. Get something cheap from a car parts
store (often called "dielectric grease" there, used for keeping
ignition modules cool and waterproofing electrical connections), Radio
Shack, or an electronics/TV/radio parts supply ("transistor heatsink
grease").

Arctic Silver actually doesn't conduct electricity very much and
should be safe for about any low voltage stuff, provided you don't
smear it all over electrical connections. But you definitely don't
want to use anything like it (i.e. thermal paste made with pure metal
powder) on high voltage circuits, like inside a TV, monitor, or
computer's power supply. Legitimate manufacturers of thermal paste
know the electrical characteristics of their products, unlike Arctic
Silver, which apparently has never run tests at over 12 volts,
although Colin Thompson of the company bragged, "AS5 has become a
standard in the wind power industry for use in IGBTs which may run
fairly high voltage." BTW, don't assume that any thermal paste made
with pure metal powder won't conduct electricity just because a
regular ohm meter reads infinite ohms because all such thermal pastes
and even metal paints (98% zinc cold galvanizing primer) will do
that.
 
Gabriel said:
Im thinking of using Tuniq TX-4 thermal paste for my playstation 3
Click to expand...

BTW, some thermal pastes are advertised as being silicone-free, but
that's not important except in commercial production, where circuit
boards are washed in baths and getting the equipment contaminated with
silicone can be a problem. The non-silicone pastes are usually made
with ester oil, and some people find that getting it on the skin makes
them itchy.
 
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