IC Diamond 24 Giveaway/ Reliability Survey

[Crimsoned]

Right heatsinks seem to be pretty poor imho as far as machining (or casting more than likely) and rarely offer a optimal flat surface, and most of the times do not offer even pressure through the die.

You say you need a grain of rice or so for a 30mmx30mm I currently use less than that on laptops, for obvious surface area reasons.

What is happening here is the bond line is essentially your average particle size of the bulk loading of the paste and as the compound settles the excess is just squished out as it resolves down the average particle thickness for the final joint.

Basically you can never over apply you will still end up with best application that the mounting configuration can support. However if you under apply you will leave gaps that cause higher temperatures and shorten the life of the compound and of course the wasted time and compound in redoing the mount.

Correct however I have yet to see an overapplication on a notebook, actually render the best results. I seriously think the issue is lack of pressure to actually squeeze all of the TIM out.

Does your data still say more TIM is better in notebooks?
That was my real question.
I know desktop heatsinks can vary, the pressure exerted on the ihs is quite astonishing at times, specially with some custom coolers.

I will grab a few test subjects tomorrow from work and check over application of TIM, although I suspect the result will be the same as before which was poor performance.
I would lap a heatsink to a very good tolerance but I am afraid I sold my granite surface plate block a while ago when I stopped polishing, which I have regretted ever since.

Anyways, I am heading out to a local electronics store. I need more TIM, and I also need more screw/small part organization boxes.

I don't think they got IC Diamond, but if they do I will pick up a couple syringes and report back here to do you some use as well.

Besides I wouldn't mind switching TIM's for work, it's been a LONG time since I did any thermal comparisons personally.

[stinger608]

Andrew!!!!!!

Awesome to see ya over here my friend. Has been a long time.

For anyone wondering about IC Diamond, I was originally in the very first tests that were being conducted with the, then new, IC Diamond 7 over at HardwareLogic. Awesome product. I am soooooooo looking forward to getting the new IC Diamond 24!!

None the less it is great to see ya Andrew! Been too long man.

[mrzzz]

I like to overclock quite a bit, as such i lap/polish and 'balance' my heat-sinks (and the IHS if its terrible, which amds tend to be) so the pressure is as even as possible. Is there anybody else who has done this that has given results? I am curious how it performs under optimal (albeit pseudo unnatural) conditions.

[stinger608]

I like to overclock quite a bit, as such i lap/polish and 'balance' my heat-sinks (and the IHS if its terrible, which amds tend to be) so the pressure is as even as possible. Is there anybody else who has done this that has given results? I am curious how it performs under optimal (albeit pseudo unnatural) conditions.

Excellent point your making Mrzzz! It would be interesting to see some results from lapped heat sinks. Hopefully a fellow member chimes in and/or Andrew on this subject.

[IC Diamond]

Excellent point your making Mrzzz! It would be interesting to see some results from lapped heat sinks. Hopefully a fellow member chimes in and/or Andrew on this subject.

Definitely has an impact as again thermal compound is all about C/P -

On the OCUK giveaway one guy used the Contact and Pressure paper to optimize performance and independent of thermal compound he got a 7C overall performance improvement.

Mechanically getting the "perfect" mount will try the patience of the best of mechanic as the starting hardware (motherboard, HS, Mounting screws are all fairly loosely toleranced.

On our own synthetic test dies it is fairly easy to control C/P with 93% contact and calibrated spring mounts at 60 & 90 PSI My repeatability between tests is only a couple of 10th's of a degree and I usually run a few degrees better than the best real world lap job.

I use a belt sander to get the sink/IHS flat and then finalize with diamond stones, works pretty well but the edges are slightly rounded but not enough to make a real difference.

I have not looked at notebooks HS's but looks like we are headed that way as a part of the solution to the problem of high thermal loads.

I have had under consideration selling the C/P paper for some time to those that like to lap and could use it to jiggle into a better contact on their mounts it is rather a nifty tool even just using the raw images with no analysis

[Beefsticks]

Definitely has an impact as again thermal compound is all about C/P -

On the OCUK giveaway one guy used the Contact and Pressure paper to optimize performance and independent of thermal compound he got a 7C overall performance improvement.

Mechanically getting the "perfect" mount will try the patience of the best of mechanic as the starting hardware (motherboard, HS, Mounting screws are all fairly loosely toleranced.

On our own synthetic test dies it is fairly easy to control C/P with 93% contact and calibrated spring mounts at 60 & 90 PSI My repeatability between tests is only a couple of 10th's of a degree and I usually run a few degrees better than the best real world lap job.

I use a belt sander to get the sink/IHS flat and then finalize with diamond stones, works pretty well but the edges are slightly rounded but not enough to make a real difference.

I have not looked at notebooks HS's but looks like we are headed that way as a part of the solution to the problem of high thermal loads.

I have had under consideration selling the C/P paper for some time to those that like to lap and could use it to jiggle into a better contact on their mounts it is rather a nifty tool even just using the raw images with no analysis

I desperately need this C/P testing, as well as many Clevo P150EM/P170EM users. The GPU heatsinks for these models have been designed too cheaply, and the clips for the heatsink flex way too much for optimal pressure. I had my vendor apply an IC Diamond TIM application, and even this went down -10C after I modded my heatsink mount to add pressure in the correct location. But, I still have no idea whether or not optimal contact is being made or if enough TIM was used since I never took the heatsink off of the die yet, as I did not want to let air in since I have no IC Diamond at the moment to replace the application from the vendor. I'd greatly appreciate any assistance even if its just a referral to somewhere that might sell this paper.

Or I can try a thermal pad and see how it compresses over time possibly? Although I'd rather not cut thermal efficiency by 2/3 to test it, lol.


EDIT: Oh, I'm stupid. I just found that Fuji impression film link posted previously. lol. However, how am I to gauge what PSI I am going to need? I assume its one of the first 2 options. These heatstink clips are pretty weak so do you think 2-20 is a safe bet?

[IC Diamond]

I desperately need this C/P testing, as well as many Clevo P150EM/P170EM users. The GPU heatsinks for these models have been designed too cheaply, and the clips for the heatsink flex way too much for optimal pressure. I had my vendor apply an IC Diamond TIM application, and even this went down -10C after I modded my heatsink mount to add pressure in the correct location. But, I still have no idea whether or not optimal contact is being made or if enough TIM was used since I never took the heatsink off of the die yet, as I did not want to let air in since I have no IC Diamond at the moment to replace the application from the vendor. I'd greatly appreciate any assistance even if its just a referral to somewhere that might sell this paper.

Or I can try a thermal pad and see how it compresses over time possibly? Although I'd rather not cut thermal efficiency by 2/3 to test it, lol.


EDIT: Oh, I'm stupid. I just found that Fuji impression film link posted previously. lol. However, how am I to gauge what PSI I am going to need? I assume its one of the first 2 options. These heatstink clips are pretty weak so do you think 2-20 is a safe bet?

I can send you some film and paste if you would do the CPU for me?

ultra low 28 to 90 psi even though the clip may be light but on a smaller area PSI will be higher

[5482741]

Just re-pasted using much less compound than in the past.

Idle -

CPU:
45°C
44°C
38°C
46°C

GPU:
36°C


Load -

CPU:
85°C
88°C
84°C
85°C

GPU:
84°C

Results taken from my latest Vantage run:

Spoiler :

Ambient is 23°C.

[Crimsoned]

Just re-pasted using much less compound than in the past.

Idle -

CPU:
45°C
44°C
38°C
46°C

GPU:
36°C


Load -

CPU:
85°C
88°C
84°C
85°C

GPU:
84°C

Results taken from my latest Vantage run:

Spoiler :

Ambient is 23°C.

Were these temperatures lower than before when you used more TIM?

[IC Diamond]

Condensed version OCUK


For Comparison - I did not include all compounds as miscellaneous compounds tend to clutter the results and usually not noteworthy without a larger sampling.

AS 5 the most tested compound comprising about a quarter of our results runs about 2 C better than stock and the results here do not change much forum to forum. MX2 and MX3 nearly Identical in performance on this forum but does not match other forum results. MX4 half a degree better.

Shin Etsu did not test as well here as in other forums sample is not large so hard to tell (actually 17 end-user tests not 9 as posed above - typo on my part) The only thing about Shin Etsu could be perhaps it has a top recommended operating much less than most of the competitive compounds here (max 120C) so may not be as robust under heavy use found here.

Indigo Extreme was a good performer here and the liquid metal in general are very competitive when tested some liquid metals (LTM) on our synthetic test bed we found it equal to a solder joint about a .04-05 C improvement over ICD.







More later