Thermal Paste for laptop

td2008

Laptop has been overheating lately so going to attempt to open it up and clean it. Probably try replacing the thermal solution on the cpu when im at it, can anybody recommend any specific one? probably get it on ebay.
cheers

glynf

Arctic silver, but you should also pick up some cleaner like Articlean as well, got one of these last time & did the job fine.

Serephucus

Some like MX-4 is probably your best bet. It's non conductive, and doesn't have to cure (unlike AS5, which is pretty dated at this point, though still good if got cheap).

kilianmanning

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/IC-Diamond-7-CPU-Thermal-Paste-OEM-Tube-/190456553923?pt=UK_Motherboards_CPUs&hash=item2c581861c3

I use this, find it good

Serephucus

I was going to mention that. That's probably the one thermal paste you shouldn't use. Because there's diamond powder in the paste, it can scratch surfaces when put under pressure. With desktop CPUs and GPUs this is fine because they have a heatspreader. Laptop CPUs however don't, and that's not something you want to scratch.

Now, I've no idea how many applications of the paste are needed before an affect is seen - it might very well be a moot point - but it's just something I figured I should point out.

td2008

cheers lads, will look into those suggestions

zenno

td2008 wrote: »

Laptop has been overheating lately so going to attempt to open it up and clean it. Probably try replacing the thermal solution on the cpu when im at it, can anybody recommend any specific one? probably get it on ebay.
cheers

Probably too late now as this thread is a day old but if the laptop is over-heating, before you do anything with thermal paste open the fan to see if theres a big block of solidified fluff inside the casing of the fan as this is usually the cause of the over-heating as it's not getting sufficient air-intake. Theres usually a black flap at the front of the fan connected to the heatsink that is where the blockage would be.

td2008

Yeah that's why I'm opening it, bought a can of compressed air so want to clean the fan and vents, going to just replace the paste while i have it open.
Unfortunately i have to take the whole laptop apart to get to the fan but ill just take my time

zenno

td2008 wrote: »

Yeah that's why I'm opening it, bought a can of compressed air so want to clean the fan and vents, going to just replace the paste while i have it open.
Unfortunately i have to take the whole laptop apart to get to the fan but ill just take my time

right. compressed air is usually unworkable in the fan as i am sure if you look at the front black plastic flap on the fan when you remove the few screws you should see a rectangle shaped block of hardened fluff stuck into the front of it, just pull it out if that is the case and it should be fine thereafter.

zenno

Thermal paste http://www.dabs.ie/products/arctic-silver-5-premium-thermal-compound-3-5g-55P4.html

Tea_Bag

Sorry, this isn't very relevant to the op.

I love the IC diamond marketing stuff. I know its actually good TIM, but to say 'Purified synthetic diamond has a thermal conductivity of 2,000-2,500 W/mK compared to 406-429 W/mK for pure silver.'

but then when you read the fine print, 'Thermal Conductance: 4.5 W/m-K (data acquired with an ASTM D - 5470 thermal interface test instrument)'

it doesn't matter how fast its capable of transferring heat, you're at the limitations of copper at this point