I came across the Cooler Master Icefusion Thermal Compound; a cheap... tube? jar? can? of paste coming in at 200G (two hundred grams of thermal paste, people!! 200G!!!!). Needless to say, I saw this and thought it would mean not buying paste again for another decade, at least. And I suppose it would work fine for any 'ol build. But I overclock like mad and thermal paste quality can mean a difference of nothing all the way up to 15 degrees. Is there some... rule? to figuring out how good a paste is? I mean other than benchmarks that say that the Arctic Silver 5 or whatever is best, that's a given. My main rig needs as much cooling as it can get, but 200 grams... I could make so many low power projects with that much cheap paste. Is it worth it?
I've always just used what ever was lying around or was cheap.
That past might work alright, the paste they provided with the hyper 212 evo did the job just fine.
Edit: just did a quick search on google, people are saying its a middle of the road paste. about 2-3 degrees of difference at best.
are you going to be doing overclocking?
My personal rig is OCed, always. Rigs for other people, that's up to them. Low power builds like a PFSense computer used for a router? No OC. I ran out of good paste before I got my Be Quite! Shadow Rock... 3? the big one... CPU cooler so I just used what came with it. FX-6300 at 4.5GHz with max temps of 65 degrees when I'm really pushing it. If the Icefusion will work as well as whatever Be Quite! sent me, that's acceptable.
There are benchmarks for how effective various thermal pastes are. However, I would advise against investing in 200g of thermal paste. I bought 25g in the paste, and the tube ended up broken long before I was able to use even a quarter of it. You might be able to take better care of it than I did, I just don't think that you will likely ever use it all. I would advise you to get a more reasonable amount (unless you build pcs for a living or something like that). Getting 10g of better paste will benefit you more than 200g of decent TIM.
EDIT: I really don't think that you understand how little thermal paste you need, even when doing a lot of various projects or replacing thermal paste on everything you can get your hands on, it still won't add up to 200g in all likelihood.
EDIT 2: benchmarks
This tub looks fairly tough, and I keep care of spare parts in storage. I know how little is needed, I've been servicing my own for years now after all. But that's the point, other than demanding builds where an expensive brand is worth it because of OCing (and that's debatable, as a no brand paste has me at 65 degrees max right now), something like this would save money and hassle for years. They do have a 40G version, I've found though. Might be more reasonable as I dont do a build every week. Thanks for the links, I'll check when I'm not on a phone.
I do a lot of tinkering around with aftermarket CPU and GPU cooling projects. I have went through a couple 1.5 gram tubes of Dow Corning TC-5121, Arctic Silver 5, and Thermalright Chill Factor III. I still have half a 4g tube of Arctic Cooling MX-4, and most of a 4g tube of Dow Corning TC-5022. So, in the last year or so, I have went through approximately 10g worth of TIM.
Some higher end thermal compounds have a shelf/storage life of six years, but I think a lot of people recommend you consider replacing your supply after two years. (Because most people don't properly store their extra thermal compounds.) So, uh, all this considered, I would not invest in 200g of thermal compound, especially from Cooler Master. (I do not think they are a bad brand; they have good AIO water cooling solutions. But, however slight the practical difference, other companies do make a superior thermal interface material, and I would rather throw money at them to encourage their good job, than Cooler Master.)