IC Diamond Thermal Paste

Hey NBR members!

I have a few questions about IC Diamond and I would like some comments on it. So as a college student- I'm not so rich to pay vendors for IC Diamond and thought I'd apply thermal pastes myself (Plus I would like to learn for future repastes).

Questions:

1. I check around and have a general idea on how to paste IC Diamond on GPU's (Dot method, 5-5.5m), but I couldn't find any sources on the CPU, how would you go on pasting an Ivy processor?

2. Life span on a IC Diamond paste before a repaste?

3. As an novice, do you recommend I use IC Diamond? And if not, please recommend me your preferred easy-to-do brand.

4. I've heard IC Diamond will scratch your CPU/GPU, is that true?

Thats it, thank you guys!

 

there are dozens of high performance TIM's. why do you chose ICD? just because there's a bunch of threads about it in the fourm?
check some reviews. there are tons of them.

1 there's many youtube videos showing people how to apply paste on several components.

2 lifespan depends not only on the paste used but on the system itself. no one can say for sure how long it will last. but will sure last for months.
imo only change when you notice that temps got higher on average use.
I've a server runing a stock TIM for years without problems.
I got problems with some TIM's after just a few months.

3 if you are a novice I wouldn't recommend ICD because it's hard to apply. Actually I wouldn't recommend it to anyone because there's better and cheaper.

4 yeah it scratches. it's made of nano diamonds that is the hardest material on earth. if you scratch the cpu probably your warranty is over. if you lapped the cpu that is not a problem. just google you have many examples of the problem.

currently for myself on my systems I'm using polimatech pk-1. for other systems I use IceFusion 200G - Cooler Master because it's very cheap and has a very good performance.

chosing a thermal paste is much of a personal choice. in dozens of high performance ones you probably just get about 0.5C differences from each others. so it would be smart to choose it based on: how easy it is to apply, price, electrical conductivity, other problems.

 

I had a tear down I posted pics of after a 12 month install of ICD. I did the tear down because too many were saying how ICD did not hold up. Well my coooling was still 100% th same after the time frame and upon review of all the pics there were no scratches and the paste had hel up 100% without issue. a proper instal of ICD will last a very long time.

As far as scratching the only issue is in the removal. you have to properly remove it with acetone etc and not just try and scrape it off. Almost any oxide or the like is harder than the surface of copper or your chip so proper removal is always important.

There is a reason the Clevo and other vendors offer ICD. No matter what people claiming to be "God" may say. ICD is the best solution if you plan on running your chips north of 80C, especially for extended periods. It will not dry out, crack, boil out or degrade easily. Being hard to remove means it is hard for natural proccesses to remove it as well.

It is very easy to apply, just a drop about a pea size and attach your heat sink with some preasure. How hard is that? if it is too hard then you should not be placing a TIM to begin with.

Now there are other solutions out there that work well too. And it isn't the intial performance of ICD that should determine its use. Over other TIM's there is little difference. It is the sustained performance after a long period of time for which has been proven over and over again where a proper installation was done.................

 

please share your extensive test results.
if you claim to be the BEST then you have must have something to compare it with, right?

 

I'll just have to send it right back to you, since you say there is better out there where are your results especially over an extended period such as 1-3 years etc.........

 

I have used about a tube of ICD24 (4-5 time reapply + some new machine)
Apply is easy
Removal is moderate
scratching die actually is hard to achieve imo
The only culprit is the stain/polish on heat sink since I am more careless on them. (though probably not going to affect performance)

 

it's not hard imo.
actually it improves performance.

 

Two wrongs don't make a right. You are just making stuff up.

 

Well, ICD7 can indeed scratch your die. I was just a tad bit impatient with my CPU, hence the minor scratchs. Thankfully I was more careful with my GPU, so that die was fine.

Spoiler

 

I, myself at least, have had 1 year with an ICD application. I have yet to have another TIM install on a chip running at high temps overclocked last that long. Not only that at 1 year it had no signs of loosing cooling capability from the time it was installed. ( I have used ICD much longer but this was the longest time without an upgrade.)

Now agreed I am retentive about cleaning and the like. The same is true of any TIM application. Even to the point of shims to be sure that the heat sink lies with the best contact possible. That fact was evident by having to actually pry my heatsink off the CPU and NB because the seal was so tight.

Also I'll state not everyone has had my success. I can't speak for others and the reasons why. I would love to know the reason though. ICD, before the shims, worked fine for me even over a gapped install on my NB where there was no contact preasure. Maybe I am just that lucky.

I should add with using the Q9200 (over the prior C2D's in my systems) and two die contact instead of one plus the NB making three in total is the reason I went to shims. I tried an install with out shims and dry fitting it seemed like the HS was teetering between the three dies without proper flat contact. Also the two CPU dies did not properly contact the copper of the HS and slightly overlapped to the aluminum part of the HS.

 

You need solvent to avoid that. How do you take ICD off that results in that kind of scratches? I suggest you don't rub because you CPU die looks like someone just sandpapered it. You just scoop it off.

Even when I removed ICD24 off my CPU die with just dry tissue it does not have such scratches.

That being said I have been using ICD7 since 2008 on my P6860 FX.

 

I used ArtiClean. Put a couple drops on, waited about forty-five seconds, and slowly wiped it down. I then put more drops on the remainder as needed and repeated.

 

can't find anything better then articlean. really lovely stuff. also smells great lemon lol
I use it all the time with a piece of microfiber

it's better not to risk it trying other things like acetone etc.

 

Just want to check for application of ICD onto laptop chips, is it still the same method as there is not much pressure like on the desktop? I've done it on my desktop cpu before but not on my laptop.

Anyone care to share please?

 

it's really about the same. the pressure depends on the notebook model and desktop heatsink.
but anyway, all you want is to add an uniform layer of paste without leaving any gaps but without being excessive. minimum amount without gaps. how do you achieve it it really doesn't matter. there are many methods. ICD is harder to apply then most TIM's.

 

Actually it is easier. The proper method is not to spread out ICD. You place a small pea sized drop in the middle of the die and then assemble the HS being sure to apply even preasure. This spreads out the dropplet over the die and ensures no air gaps etc. Maybe this is why you had such a hard time and poor results.............

 

I found that applying ICD7 was easy. Then again, so was ProlimaTech pk-1 and Gelid GC Extreme. I used the same method TANWare just described for all of them.