IC Diamond 24 Carat 4.8 Gram Thermal Compound

First things first, "Platinum Micro Inc" is selling either really old bulk stock or counterfeit IC Diamond. Bought a tube from them through this same listing and it came in a plastic bag, not a blister pack as pictured, and was significantly drier than I'm used to with IC Diamond. It's barely useable, after squeezing out a third of the tube that was basically chalk, I finally reached the very slightly viscous IC Diamond. It performs properly, so I expect it's real, just old. Do yourself a favor and choose the IC Cooling as the seller to get from the manufacturer, rather than Platinum Micro.Ok, now to the product. Been using this for a few years, and it's hands down the best paste when you can't use something conductive like liquid metal. Now, the big thing about this paste is don't spread it, and don't release pressure as soon as you stick it down. It really needs that full 50psi of mounting pressure to squeeze out on its own.Now, IC Diamond won't take 20C off your temps in a desktop with an integrated heat spreader (IHS), but for bare die components like laptops and GPUs, it's absolutely amazing. It really can drop 20C in some cases. I know it finally fixed my NUC8I7BEH issues inside the fanless Akasa Turing case, where I'd be bouncing off the 100C limit with high single thread frequencies, and now it's 80C under extreme load, max. And that uses three bare dies.NOW FOR THE IMPORTANT STUFF REGARDING SCRATCHES! The paste itself doesn't scratch. But anything even remotely hard with IC Diamond on it will scratch.The top reviewer isn't entirely wrong, though the scratches aren't due to the paste itself, but bad installation habits. The big thing about IC Diamond, is because it has actual diamonds in it (0.4 micron average size). This means they're going to scratch anything if you get them on something hard. However, the only way to actually introduce scratches to a die with this paste is by touching the applicator tip to the die in the attempt to either spread it or even just to wipe off the end of the tube. It turns the plastic into a diamond tipped stylus which just draws scratches all over the die. So be extremely careful not to touch the die with anything but the paste (or alcohol swabs after to cleanup), even the tip of the applicator. For bare dies, I actually squirt a blob on a gloved hand and coat the surface of the dies with a very thin layer of the paste (really will just leave a gray residue and that's it), and THEN apply the traditional blob or line, again being sure never to touch the applicator to the dies. Then mount and run for a couple min, then shut down and re-tighten once it's gotten hot. This helps it spread the best and make sure your tension is good. But it's the best paste I've ever used, even if difficult.Now when it comes to desktop CPUs with integrated heat spreaders, it's just the squirt in the middle and install, making sure your screws are fully tight. And if you've got a scratched IHS, IC Diamond on a microfiber cloth can actually even be used as a metal polish! Want a shiny IHS? That will work!So to summarize, once you squirt it in place, never EVER touch the tip of the applicator or anything else hard to the die, even trying to wipe off the dribble coming out of the tube. You will scratch your IHS or die with the diamonds on the tip of the applicator.Again, DON'T TOUCH THE DIE WITH ANYTHING, EVEN THE APPLICATOR TIP, WHEN IC DIAMOND IS ALREADY IN PLACE. IT WILL SCRATCH. However if you don't use something hard like a gloved finger tip, it won't scratch. Even wiping that last little string of paste that comes out at the end onto the die or IHS will scratch. Nothing hard. Period.Also, don't get it from Platinum Micro.

I purchased this after reading the reviews also. I'm a big fan of Arctic Silver 5, so it took a lot of research to try anything else. I have an ASUS ROG and the fans were running pretty hard during intense gaming even though it wasn't warm inside (I was under a heated blanket for warmth). I had read that the stock ASUS thermal paste had a high failure rate, so I decided to change the thermal paste on both the gpu and cpu before summer hits here (110 outside, 84 w ac on inside).I do not have before and after temps, tho that would be a good demonstration. what I CAN say is that when I was done I was really worried that I had somehow accidentally disabled the fans, because they simply weren't running. period. I finally got them to turn on a little bit with very intense usage----nothing like they were before even at idle.THAT's how cold this thing is keeping the processors. I was so impressed, I headed over to my overheating desktop graphics card and cpu. Once again, the paste worked admirably. I had enough in one 4.8 gram tube to get them all (cpu and gpu in laptop and desktop) with a little left over.A few notes: this stuff is REALLY thick. I heated mine up in boiling water for 2 minutes, and then ended up just throwing it in the microwave for about 2 minutes. I still came out super thick, like a really thick epoxy texture. (it's not a glue, its just super dense). I really like that it's electrically non-conductive. great for spillover. I used the arctic cleaner n prep and this stuff didn't really want to stick to the surface, so it may be less than compatible with that. it still worked. I just made a light haze with some of the compound on both surfaces, then squeezed a large pea size on the middle and plunked the heat sink back on. I did sort of turn the heat sink back and forth a bit as I pressed it down. the holding screws on the mounts did the rest.the ic diamond site has a great tutorial about application technique--they basically say use a pea size, not a line or other application style. creating a light haze on the surface with a small amount of the stuff prior to the pea application is acceptable per the tutorial-to fill in any ridges or uneven surfaces prior to putting the pea sized ball on it for the actual application of the paste.I understand this stuff doesn't break down much. I believe that, so I was wiling to shell out a few extra bucks for it, and to deal with the difficulty working with it. I also understand it is composed mostly of diamonds which is an interesting sidenote.So yeh, I have to agree with the other folks giving this rave reviews. i'm guessing this is going to become the new standard for thermal paste.

When I first tried to use the syringe I was ready to send this back. Have no idea how old it was but the first part coming out of the syringe was very hard. So hard that it would have NOT spread under the water block.After I removed the initial amount that was inside the tip the rest came out but it was rather thick also. Instructions say to use the pea method (put a lump of the material the size of a pea on the cpu). Instructions say to NOT check the distribution by lifting. It states that this may introduce air pockets. The pea method has usually worked well for me. It does take about 24 hours before you will get the best results (same for any other thermal paste).After 24 hours all core temps are staying near the same so it seems that the paste is working fine. Is it better or worse than any other thermal paste. I don't know. I have used Noctura NT-H1, Gelid GC-Extreme, Cool Labs Liquid Pro, Arctic Alumina Thermal Adhesive (like epoxy holds things together), etc. If you go read various testing unless you are into extreme overclocking and worry about .5 degrees then any of the decent thermal compounds will work just fine.The only one I will NOT use again is the Cool Labs Liquid Pro. It is at the very top for performance but I had to release the CPU from the motherboard and use a razor blade to release the CPU from the water block. It was almost like I had epoxied it.