Tuniq TX-4 Thermal Paste

[Thumper_23]

Has anyone tried Tuniq TX-4 thermal paste; if so what do you think of it?

[mw86]

never tried it but seen amazing numbers on it pertaining to temperature benefits

[Michael]

yep, same here. Never tried but saw good responses.

[0x29A]

Why risk disappointment, bleeding or anything else? Just get IC Diamond. Well known, performs well and won't disappoint.

[GeoCake]

Why risk disappointment, bleeding or anything else? Just get IC Diamond. Well known, performs well and won't disappoint.

No thanks. I don't want my core to be scratched, like it did with my old 920XM.

PK-1 is better.

Edited February 6, 2012 by GeoCake

[widezu69]

ICD scratches but compared to the PK-1 it still seems to pull ahead. I wonder if our heatsinks can stand up to Coolaboratory Liquid Ultra. That stuff corrodes aluminium and I'm afraid to use it.

[0x29A]

Your "core" is supposed to work properly and be cooled so, not look good, GeoCake. Nobody can see it anyway. The goal of the 'race' is obvious: thermal paste that conducts best wins.

Edited February 6, 2012 by 0x29A

[GeoCake]

Indeed.

2011 Thermal Compound Roundup – Results Compilation | Skinnee Labs

On top of being one of the best already, it's easy to work with (ensure you apply it properly) and since the core will remain in good shape, contact shouldn't be an issue. Personally, I have used both and I can say PK-1 is superior in every aspect.

"ICD-7 does well in bad contact situations, but does not improve when contact improves...so unfortunately, it becomes just an average paste overall. plus I keep telling people to avoid using ICD-7 in laptops because laptop CPU and GPU dies are lidless. The ICD-7 has particles in it that will scratch your dies with repeated applications and it will have a severe polishing affect on the copper heatsink contact which will affect your temps over time. ICD is more meant for desktop CPU's that have metal lids on the CPU dies" - SlickDude, Ph.D Mobile Cooling

Admin note: Insults removed.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Brian

[mw86]

Cool yourselves down haha lol. In the end for any normal user you wont see huge differences between performance pastes. Ive used ICD24 and Artic Silver MX4.... Barely seen a big difference .... Compare to the bottom line and big improvements but in expensive pastes there is small gains if any between one another. ICD is not the best out there. It will last years if applied good and does not bake out, dry out, crack and diamond is a good thermal conductor. I did in fact notice ever so small abrasion on cpu after ICD24 but if one is not pasting over and over like the average person... There shouldnt be any unless changed often. Its hard to avoid but apparently Jimbo has good experience with it and it requires a special way to go about removing it or you do scratch the die... Never wipe large chunks off... Try not to smear it... Ive found it stays moist after months of stress. You can try to pull upp the pieces instead of wipe. PK1 must be a very nice one too and i can see benefits of a thermal material that improves temps even when surfaces are even. How long does a PK1 paste job last under heavy usage?

[svl7]

Regarding the temps, ICD is the best paste I've used so far, but it's a pita to apply, MX-4 is much easier, but 2-3°C higher temps. And ICD does scratch the die.... true.

The classic AS5 is ok, but there are cheaper and better performing pastes.

ICD scratches but compared to the PK-1 it still seems to pull ahead. I wonder if our heatsinks can stand up to Coolaboratory Liquid Ultra. That stuff corrodes aluminium and I'm afraid to use it.

I ordered some liquid ultra recently, will see how well it works...

[0x29A]

Indeed.

2011 Thermal Compound Roundup – Results Compilation | Skinnee Labs

"Indeed" what? There is no IC Diamond featured in that 'roundup'. How can this prove anything? IC Perihelion is a different product. If we are talking ICD, let's talk ICD.

Edit: Note that ICP is a "cost effective" product as IC describes it. It's price is much lower than ICD's too. Clearly, it's not the same quality there. ICP is meant for mass, cost effective applications.

On top of being one of the best already, it's easy to work with (ensure you apply it properly) and since the core will remain in good shape, contact shouldn't be an issue. Personally, I have used both and I can say PK-1 is superior in every aspect.

And how exactly did you observe that? Let's face it, you didn't. You never conducted in-depth tests nor used that many computers in very heavy stress environments. You're just trolling. ICD's performance became already common knowledge and indeed can be proven in many test. The thing is you just decided you know better and keep talking shit.

"ICD-7 does well in bad contact situations, but does not improve when contact improves...so unfortunately, it becomes just an average paste overall. plus I keep telling people to avoid using ICD-7 in laptops because laptop CPU and GPU dies are lidless. The ICD-7 has particles in it that will scratch your dies with repeated applications and it will have a severe polishing affect on the copper heatsink contact which will affect your temps over time. ICD is more meant for desktop CPU's that have metal lids on the CPU dies" - SlickDude, Ph.D Mobile Cooling

Your 'expert' does not even seem to notice that the digit stands for volume of the tube with paste. 7 or 24 is not the name of the compound itself. If we are talking proper knowledge, let's talk proper knowledge and not just anything found on any blog anywhere. This is the problem with kids of the wikipedia era. You think that if you googled it it must be right. Again, this is common knowledge mobile CPUs are lidless. So what exactly? The fragment you quoted does not prove anything else apart the fact that questionable expert 'recommends' things (well, in the same way like you do).

WHERE IS YOUR ICD NOW, BRO?

Oh yeah, it's making the core work properly, right?

You haven't really proven anything, have you? So far we established that ICD scratches dies' surface, but apart from that nothing really. Are scratches bad and therefore make ICD perform worse than competition? Prove it, properly this time.

BTW, I really can't be your "bro". You're troll. I am human. Two different species. Are you sure this place is for you? You seem more like an NBR type to me.

ADMIN NOTE: Highlights in red are the only reason we ban people here at T|I. We don't ask much from visitors here except to be respectful towards other members. If you can't do that, this forum is not for you.

Edited February 9, 2012 by Brian

[GeoCake]

Woah, someone feels butt hurt.

I tested both TIMs intensively on my 2920XM at 4.4Ghz across all 4 cores (880 Priplane and 0 Flex). PK-1 was always lower, always that one degree. I'm just not bothered in posting my results; firstly, I didn't exactly record them for a massive essay or comparison and secondly, I'd rather link to a more reputable source, e.g. Skinnee. Maybe if you actually read the article and some of comments, you'd post a bit more than oh 'common knowledge' this and oh 'proper knowledge' that.

Disclaimer: No google or wikipedia article contributed to this post. Just common and proper knowledge, folks.

Edited February 7, 2012 by GeoCake

[0x29A]

I tested both TIMs intensively on my 2920XM at 4.4Ghz across all 4 cores (880 Priplane and 0 Flex). PK-1 was always lower, always that one degree. I'm just not bothered in posting my results

Like hell you did. Right. Unwilling to post results? You just don't have any, do you?

Disclaimer: No google or wikipedia article contributed to this post. Just common and proper knowledge, folks.

Proper knowledge is empirically proven knowledge. You made a claim and you cannot support it with proofs. All you are is just talk. Well... I think we are done here :-/ You are clearly unable to prove your point.

[GeoCake]

The result for me was simple: I use the better paste. Who wants a free cookie to guess what that was?

Oh, and this is what Skinnee had to say:

IC Diamond will only be tested after this testbed is ‘retired.’ Due to its severe polishing effect, ICD is not something I can test 15 mounts of and guarantee that the testbed will perform the same after as it did before (it permanently alters the CPU IHS and the block bases). That said, I did briefly test it while pre-testing for this testbed and procedure and I can say it’s really good with Poor Contact but does not improve much as contact improves, making it just an ‘okay’ paste when you have at least moderate contact, which most CPU blocks, most GPU blocks, and most heatsinks do. In the old testing, the Apogee GTZ used makes good contact and ICD just can’t keep up with Shin-Etsu X23-7783D (and wouldn’t keep up with Prolimatech PK-1).

You can keep using ICD, but I am afraid PK-1 is superior.

Edited February 7, 2012 by GeoCake

[StamatisX]

According to this http://skinneelabs.com/wp-content/uploads/TIMBestTemp5.png and to this http://skinneelabs.com/wp-content/uploads/TIMOverallTemp5.png

PK1 is by ~1C better than MX-4

and here is my comparison between MX-4 vs ICD

Innovation Cooling – Diamond 24 Review | Tech|Inferno

[svl7]

Guys, I want you to keep this at a polite level, for trolling and flaming go to NBR, no need for this here.

If you want to hear my opinion:

Skinneelab used IC Perihelion, which is not IC Diamond, as 0x29A already mentioned... it's an aluminium oxide compound with a slightly lower thermal conductivity. Using skinneelab as only reference when they didn't even tested ICD is not a good idea. And I don't really like the application method of skinneelab.

Here's a user review of several pastes, including ICD and Prolimatech, it's written in German, but the graphs are pretty self-explanatory: [user-Review] 11 Wärmeleitpasten im Vergleich

I have never used PK-1 so I can't compare it's performance with other pastes. What I can say is that ICD has an excellent performance (as already mentioned) and is really annoying to apply, especially on Desktop systems on which the dotting application doesn't deliver the best performance... it's already impossible to use. But it works fine on mobile systems. There's some scratching after cleaning off the paste, but it's no as severe as people think it is. Still, that's the reason I don't really use it anymore.

The thermal performance is excellent, check this thread for some comparison and pics of the paste on mobile components: http://forum.techinferno.com/general-notebook-discussions/913-ic-diamond-24-survey-results.html

One of the strengths of ICD is that it doesn't get "sucked out" as the pastes with lower viscosity, e.g. MX-4. It stays where it has to be.

If I look at skineelabs pics I'm simply shocked how much paste he used... way too much. This explains why he has the low viscosity pastes in front of the ranking... the superfluous paste gets pressed to the side when applying the heatsink, unlike high viscosity pastes.

In addition to this we're talking about mobile application here which is totally different to desktop usage... also regarding the pressure applied to the heatsink.

For me, the best paste I've used so far is MX-4, easy to apply, relatively cheap and a very decent performance. Plus, it's easy to wipe off.

I've ordered some Coolaboratory liquid ultra a while ago, will test it and might also grab some prolimatech, just for testing.

In the end I have to say that I don't really care about 1-2°C difference, since this can also be caused by a paste job which isn't perfect...

[unreal25]

BTW, I really can't be your "bro". You're troll. I am human. Two different species. Are you sure this place is for you? You seem more like an NBR type to me.

TBH, it's not like your post was less "NBR type". (Regardless or not he was right or not.)

@OP, you might find this thread interesting:

http://forum.techinferno.com/general-notebook-discussions/913-ic-diamond-24-survey-results.html

and Tuniq TX-4 vs ICD(-24) results here:

http://forum.techinferno.com/general-notebook-discussions/815-innovation-cooling-ic-diamond-giveaway-survey-6.html#post11083

[mw86]

Results speak... ICD was tested by members free in that survey unbiased. Icd was same consistency 6months later other pastes dry

[unreal25]

Yeah, my impression was that the only downside to ICD were possible scratches, but then again... I am not sure exactly to what extent would that matter if you keep repasting over the longer period (+ I imagine ICD also needs to be reapplied less often). For folks who are worried about the scratches, going with the other paste and having few degrees higher temp is an alternative.

I use AS5 (GPU die) and MX-4 (GPU memory), as MX-4 was a bit thicker and worked well after I took out the original cooling pads (like suggested in the M17x-R2 modding thread).

[Brian]

My opinion: ICD24 is obviously one of the top pastes out there, no denying that. However, my personal thermal paste of choice is MX-4. Like svl7 mentioned, its easy to apply and remove and it comes very close to ICD24 and other higher end pastes that 1-2C don't matter much. If ICD24 didn't scratch the die, I wouldn't mind but notebook dies don't have the large metal cover that the desktop ones do so a scratch can affect its resale value even if it doesn't affect the cooling at all.

[GeoCake]

Thermal Compound Roundup - January 2012 | Hardware Secrets

Anyone ever tried some Mayo?

Edited February 8, 2012 by GeoCake

[mw86]

My opinion: ICD24 is obviously one of the top pastes out there, no denying that. However, my personal thermal paste of choice is MX-4. Like svl7 mentioned, its easy to apply and remove and it comes very close to ICD24 and other higher end pastes that 1-2C don't matter much. If ICD24 didn't scratch the die, I wouldn't mind but notebook dies don't have the large metal cover that the desktop ones do so a scratch can affect its resale value even if it doesn't affect the cooling at all.

thats exactly it in mx4 and icd 1-2c difference. And for most who are cautious Mx4 is easy and right up with top dogs i use mx4 and ICD both have their applications... Icd and mx4 are thick and can be used on videocard vram

[0x29A]

Icd and mx4 are thick and can be used on videocard vram

That's exactly right. There were people replacing factory thermal pads on 580Ms in m18xes with ICD and the results were quite stunning. The point is to remember to use a non-conductive non-bleeding and thick enough paste to prevent short circuiting and proper application.