Thermal paste does not matter as much as the YouTubers and forum dwellers would have you believe. My 11900K stays under 70c in CB R15 with a D15 and some MX-4 I had laying around. I saw somewhere that even toothpaste worked (not recommended, obviously).

If this post hasn’t upset everyone yet, I’m sure my “paint & tap” application method will:

 

It does if durability of the paste is your concern. Do you want to have to take apart a loop every year or do you wanna set it and forget it for 5 years? Antifreeze as the coolant and Mastergel Maker paste

 

Hello everyone,

I9 12900k with z690 MSI edge Mobo.
And arctic 360 liquid freezer cooler

What is the best thermal paste to apply?
Kryonaut?
For gaming, some benchmarking and overclocking.

What is the consensus from other 12900k owners?
(Specially because it can run hot)

Liquid Metal will give you the best results but you would do VERY well to have a thermalright or der8auer anti-bend frame FIRST, as you may have very severe contact pressure problems with liquid metal due to the bending issue, making LM even worse than normal paste.

Alternatives are Kingpin Kpx, SYY-157, Kryonaut Extreme ($$), Thermalright TFX ($$) or Zezzio GT-GXS https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803707289646.html , which seems to be a very new paste with no reviews.
Zezzio ZT-GX was to me 100% identical in performance, look and feel to SYY-157, but I know no one who has tried the brand new stuff. If it's better than TFX, that's $77 for 30 grams vs $25 for 6 grams of TFX.

 

Why kryonaut extreme and not the normal kryonaut? What is the difference?

 

I tried a crapload of different kinds of thermal paste when I was over clocking my 10980XE. That chip gets HOT. I found that Kryonaut and Kingpin worked the best with a nudge towards Kingpin as it spreads easier. That being said, they were at most 1-2 degrees apart. What really makes the difference is even pressure when you tighten the block down.

 

Tried liquid metal (without an ILM), on a 12900+U12a combo, works like a charm. Can cool around 280w at 20c ambient, and around 240w at 28c ambient.

 

Thank you. As I said... Stock 12900k. No changes in the CPU. That is for later

 

The contact frame is way more important than the paste. Some pre-applied stuff on AIOs is almost as good as mx-4, unless u need to squeeze every last bit of oc where every degree matters.

 

All thermal paste is within 1-3 Celsius difference. Application doesn't matter as long and it's covered.

 

Its mostly avaiability and choice. As long as you dont use generic white paste which is pretty crap, choose between the one you prefer like viscosity.
Personally i have been using gelid gc extreme for the last 6 years.