Thermal paste alternative

elchebib

Hello guys,

I'm a noob when it comes to these stuff but here's my question:
I've disassembled my PS3 (ylod) and the thermal paste present there was practically gone. It was dispersed all over the place with inconsistent spreading and I did notice some oozing out from the edges.

I searched around the net and the best I found was the Arctic Silver 5. Now, considering that at this time of the week getting my hands on Arctic Silver 5 is practically impossible, I went along and searched for thermal paste alternatives. To my surprise, I found 2 easily available choices:
1) Toothpaste: produces very good results but only for a short period of time after the water evaporates.
2) Mix of toothpaste and vaseline at 75:25 ratio: produced good results and outlasted those of the toothpaste alone..

So what do you think guys? Are these good alternatives? Have you ever tried something similar?

P.S.: I do want my PS3 for only a short time to backup my data from it. I don't want to play games on it so the CPU shouldn't get strained and consequently shouldn't heat up that much.

Thanks for the replies :)

Xsever

I would not risk a PS3 with toothpaste/vaseline. Just wait for Monday and get a good thermal paste. Even if you're no going to perform CPU intensive tasks, the CPU can overheat in a matter of seconds if the thermal paste is not functioning well.

Make you sure you clean the area where you are going to apply the thermal paste with alcohol/coton/klinex before apply the new compound.

Arctic Silver 5 is conductive so I recommend Arctic Cooling MX-2 which performs better and is not conductive.

elchebib

Xsever wroteI would not risk a PS3 with toothpaste/vaseline. Just wait for Monday and get a good thermal paste. Even if you're no going to perform CPU intensive tasks, the CPU can overheat in a matter of seconds if the thermal paste is not functioning well.

Make you sure you clean the area where you are going to apply the thermal paste with alcohol/coton/klinex before apply the new compound.

Arctic Silver 5 is conductive so I recommend Arctic Cooling MX-2 which performs better and is not conductive.

Thanks man. Do you know of any place that sells thermal paste in the Hamra area?

J4D

On Monday go to katranji and tell him you want thermal paste. it comes in small syringes.

As Xsever said, DO NOT APPLY TOOTH PASTE NOR VASELINE .

Samer99

Yeah Katranji (in jna7) sells a ceramic based thermal paste which is not conductive, and they are cheaper than Arctic Silver 5.

elchebib

I do know katranji sells thermal paste. I searched around the forum and his name came up. Does anybody in Hamra sell these stuff? I'm asking because Katranji closes at 6 and I finish work at 5-5:30.

yasamoka

If you just want to backup, why don't you remove its hard drive and connect it to a PC via SATA?

chosen2k

@yasamoka because it's encrypted.

And removing the hard disk and placing it in another ps3 will not work. I was in elchebib dilemma but i preferred to send my ps3 to sony instead of removing the warranty seal. (Lost all my data)

elchebib i hope you removed the seal while keeping it intact just in case you want to switch your ps3 at sony.

In any case good luck.

rolf

Lol... I think that cheap white thermal paste they give you with aftermarket CPU coolers is safer then Vaseline or toothpaste! (At least until you get something better) I'm pretty sure toothpaste will make a pretty bad thermal paste, it's water based and will dry into something that looks like clay. That definitely does not sound very heat conductive. And Vaseline will melt. I'm beginning to think whoever gave you this advice was trying to make a joke... but maybe the two together...
Personally I think metal-like epoxy would work, but that's not exactly a thermal paste, it will totally bond the radiator to the chip.
Just get some cheap white thermal grease. Any small computer shop will normally have a bit of thermal paste lying around. Apparently you can also use "silicone grease" which is a type of grease that is highly resistant to heat and friction and is used in bearings.

mmk92

I used the thermal paste from katranji on both my laptop and PS3, very gd results!!

yasamoka

Nah toothpaste + vaseline indeed make a good thermal paste, albeit for a short time...it keeps temperatures under control, at least, and lets you run your system. A PC with a low-end / midrange low power CPU, yeah maybe if you're desperate, but I wouldn't recommend it at all on a PS3 since console hardware is usually already close to the limits of overheating since it uses state of the art technology (back then) and has to cram it into that space with that (crappy) heatsink.

yasamoka

Republic of Gamers store sells some thermaltake enthusiast thermal grease. They come in syringes if I'm not mistaken. here's his facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=215692111791867&refid=0

yasamoka

He's getting some Arctic Silver 5 and (if you're lucky) some Coollaboratory Liquid Metal Ultra (not pro).

yasamoka

Anyways, he's getting MX-4. Check this out. Please post if you want MX-4:

http://www.lebgeeks.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=9640