Without thermal paste, your spend on best CPU Cooler and Processor can be at risk, in my case I am running a Ryzen 5 3600 Gaming Rig where I planned to put the best possible cooling solution to get uninterrupted gaming as well gameplay recording. So spending some cash I added Corsair H45 Liquid Cooler, unfortunately, you will not get a good quality thermal paste in the package. But there is one already applied to the heat sink which is not enough at all. A thin layer is good to start, and the temperature is controlled at the beginning because it is a liquid cooler, more reliable than an air cooler.
At the default thermal paste, my CPU temperature was little more than expected around 50degress and spiking to 80degrees on HD gaming. This is because AMD Ryzen 3600 has a bug of temperature spikes, sometimes the temperature from 30 jumps to 60 or 80 degrees instantly. And so it falls down, but this is a little weird and there is already a lot of discussion going on the web. Users with default air coolers are having a little more issue with AMD Ryzen’s high temperature, so I will recommend switching a liquid cooler for long term performance.
Spending on a budget liquid cooler will reduce the risk of CPU overheating but only if there is a good thermal paste used. With the default paste on Corsair H45, my CPU temperature during regular usage was above 40degress and while gaming it keeps rising above 60 the temperature, an instant jump of 10 to 20 degrees in a second was a matter of concern. While playing a game like Fortnite or Borderlands 3 at max settings on a widescreen monitor you won’t keep checking the temperature, instead, you will rely on your cooler to take care of heating.
Considering the issue I thought of trying out Corsair TM30, t offers a premium zinc oxide thermal paste and it promises that it will last for years. To an extent Corsair TM30 fulfills what it offers, I am impressed with the performance here. When I started looking for a decent thermal paste I was confused between Cooler Master Thermal Grease MasterGel Pro and Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Compound. Both are nice products, Cooler Master is cheaper compared to Corsair while Noctua is costly, almost double. But finally picked Corsair TM30 based on its specs and I was not wrong with the choice. After applying the compound my temperature is more controlled than before.
Test Machine:
- AMD Rzyen 3600
- Corsair H45 Liquid Cooler
- Corsair TM30 Thermal Paste
- Gigabyte Aorus Gaming Motherboard
- Nvidia RTX 2070 8GB GDDR6
- Corsair Vengeance 32GB RAM
- Kingston 256GB SSD
- WD 1TB Secondary Hard Drive
- CoolerMaster 750w PSU
- Corsair 175R Cabinet
It is wrong to say there is a drastic change, but the temperature spike is reduced and the graph can stay at 39 degrees or lower depending on my usage. For example, while surfing or watching online videos, during games the temperature rises but remains stable between 55 to 70 degrees. Corsair TM30 manages to overheat well, at first I applied little and saw the temperature of Rzyen 3600 on regular usage was above 70degress, but later I emptied the entire syringe so that the entire processor surface is covered well. There was a massive shift in temperature, where on idle mode I was getting 80degress for no reason, after applying Corsair TM30 it was stable between 30 to 40degress.
A good thermal paste is necessary for heat dissipation and applying it properly on CPU cause a major difference. If you are using Intel or AMD and there is a temperature issue for example on the idle mode the CPU is running over 50degress then your thermal paste is dried up. You can buy Corsair TM30 as a high-quality thermal paste for your system on Liquid or Air Cooler. The quality of a decent thermal paste is determined on the basis of its usage time and operating temperature. Corsair TM30 can probably offer you months of non-stop gaming performance and years on regular usage at an operating temperature above 100degress. But that does not really happen, the 80degress is considered as max safe temperature for any processor.
Verdict:
Without thermal paste your CPU can cross temperature limit causing hardware damages, there are budget CPU thermal paste in the market, but if you are having a high-end system them it is utterly useless to save money on the Thermal Paste. At Rs. 505 ($7.99) Corsair TM30 is a good upgrade for a regular thermal paste that can fade away the problem of putting your CPU at risk due to heating.
An important note, try using a good layer of thermal paste on the processor, if you go with less amount there are chances you might miss a few degrees of lower temperature. Second, if you are using a Liquid Cooler ensure the fan attached to the radiator pulls air from inside and throws it outside the cabinet.
