Repasting chipset - pads or paste?

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futureprimitive

New Member
Dec 2, 2017
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Hey all, running a Supermicro X8DTL-iF with two xeons, they're kept cool and quiet by two Noctua coolers. My issue is the chipset, even with active cooling on it it'll still reach around 80c - whilst this is fine (or atleast within the heat spec of the chipset which is afaik 95c), this also requires having basically every intake fan in the case at 100%, along with the chipset fan which ends up being considerably loud. I'd imagine this heat stems from multiple factors; the board was most likely designed to be in a 2u etc with multiple fans on it, my Define R5 which I have the board in isn't too great for front airflow, and Intel providing some pretty weedy heatsinks for the 5500/5600 platform (Intel 5500 chipset heatsink tuning)

I have ordered a Phanteks P400A as it sports a mesh front with support for 3 120mm fans. As I'm going to be swapping the entire system into it, I figured I'd take the time to sort out the chipset - question is, do I use thermal paste or pads for this? Any advice is appreciated, cheers.
 

herby

Active Member
Aug 18, 2013
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Paste is always better at conducting heat, pads are really only better when you're cooling something like little chips on an uneven surface. Like a pcb with a bunch of SMD components all around.

I'm a little bit chicken so I always use non conductive paste. I hear Arctic MX-4 is pretty good and is non-conductive; although personally I use Arctic Silver Ceramique 2 on everything because I have a huge syringe of the stuff and it's good enough.
 

larrysb

Active Member
Nov 7, 2018
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Paste is better than pads. Very thin layer. Thermal Grizzly, Noctua and others all make quality thermal pastes.