After the great success of the PlayStation, Sony released the PlayStation 3 with some significant advancements in hardware and software. This gaming console got a considerable spot in gaming when released, but these days those who like to try older titles might find it hard to play like an average person. The main problem is fifteen-year-old hardware whose thermal paste has not changed might get hot and leads to hardware damage, which is very common in these old consoles and known as the red ring of light or blue light. To get rid of this, we have made a list of some of the best thermal paste for PS3 to change the old one.
A typical computer thermal paste can be used with these consoles, and you might be thinking about what’s right in these thermal paste that I’ve mentioned. We did excellent research and picked up the best ps3 thermal compound that offers value for its price. So don’t be cheap on these pastes and get the right one according to your budget and their availability. So without doing further on this, let’s check out the first option on our list.
Also Check: Best Thermal Paste for PS4
List of Best Thermal Paste For PS3
| Thermal Paste | Weight | Price |
|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Grams | Check Price | |
| 20 Grams | Check Price | |
| 36 Grams | Check Price | |
| 1 Gram | Check Price | |
| 3.9 Grams | Check Price | |
| 3.5 Grams | Check Price |
Arctic Silver 5 AS5-3.5G Thermal Paste
On the top, we got the Arctic Silver 5, also known as AS5, which the company claims are a high-density paste for processors. As the name suggests, this thermal compound is made of pure silver, which is micronized and non-electrically conductive material. This allows us to fill the space between the heat spreader and the processor top material and allows better cooling than any other competitor in the market. The design of this paste contains some micronized paste, which is made up of 99.9% pure silver, and some other ceramic particles which give the best performance and long-lasting durability.
The installation process of this thermal compound is slightly different and more challenging than other ones, and no matter if you have previously worked with some other thermal pastes. However, you will still find it much different. The reason is that it doesn’t contain silicone in it, but it’s a synthetic-based compound that seems like oil. When you apply the paste and fire up the system for the first time, the heat will gradually start thinning out the paste, and the thermal compound only leaves under the heatsink. That’s the thing that makes this thermal paste different from others.
The good thing about this paste is that it is not much expensive and affordable for older machines like PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The company claims that this thermal paste is never going to dry out, and you can easily spend a decade with it, but I would recommend you change it yearly or at least after two years. I’ve been personally using this thermal paste for a year and never faced any heating issue with it that’s why I’ve decided to mention it there.
Specifications
| Model Name | Arctic Silver 5 AS5-3.5G Thermal Paste |
| Average Particle Size | <0.49 micron |
| Extended Temperature Limits | –50°C to >180°C |
| Electrically Conductive | 6.0 W / mK |
| Ease of use | No |
| Package | Syringe |
| Spreader | No |
- It offers excellent value for its price.
- Best for consoles and mid-range builds.
- The price point is excellent.
- Author’s choice in this list.
- Never dry as per company claim.
- Thermal conductivity is not as per our expectations.
- Not very easy to use.
- It doesn’t come with a paste spreader.
Next on our list is the Arctic MX-4, which you might be thinking identical to the above-mentioned thermal paste, but that’s not the case there. But yes, it’s one of the most popular thermal paste in the market, and its availability might be more than the Silver 5. I like this company because they made a solid reputation in the market by producing the best quality thermal pastes, and the benchmarks are much better than the other rivals. This thermal paste is right, and there is no doubt in it, but it’s expensive for the performance it’s offering.
If you are a newbie or non-techie, this thermal paste is the best option because, unlike Silver five, it doesn’t contain any hard stuff. If you accidentally spray too much paste and it spread on the components of the motherboard, you don’t have to worry much about it. But there could be a problem for you because it might look weird, and cleaning a paste is quite tricky. Also, this paste is very soft, and there are chances it may spread over the processor and then goes to the other components.
The performance of this thermal paste is good enough and also the company claims that you don’t have to worry about this paste for eight years or more. So if you apply this paste correctly on your PlayStation 3, you have not to worry about the next few years. The wrong side of this thermal paste is it’s very soft, and there are many chances that you may spray it on the board or while mounting the heat spreader it may go till the edges of the CPU and then to the socket so beware of these things if you never worked with this before.
Specifications
| Model Name | ARCTIC MX-4 – 20 Grams |
| Viscosity | 870 poise |
| Density | 2.50 g/cm³ |
| Volume Resistivity | 3.8 X 10 ^ 13 Ω -cm |
| Ease of use | Yes |
| Package | Syringe |
| Spreader | Yes |
- The company claims eight years of life span.
- Build with a non-conductive metallic material.
- The highest-rated paste on the list.
- The 20g price is a bit high, so go with the 4g once.
Cooler Master High Performance Thermal Paste
Cooler Master is also one of the well-reputed brands in computer cooling solutions and other peripherals. This company has released some of the best computer casing series and some CPU coolers that got hype in the gaming community. So I was looking for the best thermal compounds that offer the best value for consoles and found this one. Honestly, I don’t know the name of this thermal paste as it is labeled as Cooler Master High-Performance Thermal Paste, but the good thing is there is a serial number or code HTK-002-U1 which helps in recognizing it.
The company has not just given us the best in class computer casing and processor coolers, but they also came in the market of the best thermal compounds. This thermal paste is made up of some metallic but non-conductive material, which means if you accidentally spray on the motherboard, nothing terrible will happen. Still, it only looks weird, and you have to clean it. Also, we’ve not seen any best in the class thermal paste with this affordable price point that Cooler Master is offering.
We all know applying the paste for the first time is much harder for newbies, and mostly they say much paste, which spreads all over the processor. But this one comes with a credit card like a spreader and a template which allows the better application of this paste without messing up things. The tests of this paste are not much good like other competitors but still for the price they are offering much, and this paste manages to handle the 9th generation processors at 65C at high loads, which is undoubtedly surprising. The performance of this thermal compound for Consoles like PlayStation 3 and others is also excellent.
Specifications
| Model Name | Cooler Master High-Performance Thermal Paste – (HTK-002-U1) |
| Thermal Conductivity | 0.8 watts/meter- °C |
| Color | White |
| Electrically Conductive | No |
| Ease of use | Yes |
| Package | Syringe |
| Spreader | Yes |
- Build with a non-conductive material.
- The price point is excellent.
- For an easy application, it got templates and a spreader.
- Nothing to mention.
Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut Thermal Paste
When it comes to applying the thermal compound several times or needing it in much quantity, there comes the Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, which comes in a 1g tube. Like all the other thermal paste syringes, this one also has a long needle-like top, which helps to spray the paste in a better way. The application of this thermal paste is about eight times, and you can fully apply the paste. With this quantity, the performance of this thermal paste is much good, and the thermal conductivity is advertised as 73 W/MK by the company.
I’m sure you all don’t know about these units, nor I know, but the main thing is the performance is outstanding, and this paste puts much cooling on the CPU. We’ve seen several silicones based thermal pastes in the market, but I found this one harder to apply than all of the other competitors. Yes, we all know that using the thermal paste with a syringe is much more comfortable, but you may need help from some other plastic stick to spread it. If you think of applying this thermal paste with the pea method, then you are wrong there because it’s not going to work with it.
Along with the excellent performance, the other thing that makes it appealing for users is its price as the 1g syringe is not going to cost you more than 10 dollars. The tests of this thermal paste are going to impress you a lot because with any 9th generation processor you are not going to see more than 60C on high loads with this thermal paste in computers. While with consoles like PlayStation 3, it works even better and offers excellent performance as well. This thermal paste will last up to years, and you don’t have to change it monthly or quarterly.
Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut is the premium thermal solution for hefty chips in either compact or full-sized airy machines. Its conductivity increases as the temperature passes above 60 degrees. Its package seems less but it’s more than enough for 5 to 6 times applications.
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is the hottest known processor of 2019 and 2020. By hottest it means real hot to handle with a stock cooler because the temperature suspends around 80 degrees in stock usage mode. Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut has the tendency to harness the mean temperature readings and jam it back to 65 degrees with an X240 AIO water cooling solution.
Specifications
| Model Name | Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut Thermal Paste 1g |
| Thermal Conductivity | 12.5 W / mK |
| Density | 3.70 g/cm3 |
| Electrically Conductive | No |
| Ease of use | Very Easy |
| Package | Syringe |
| Spreader | Yes |
- It can be used up to eight times.
- Suitable for overclocking machines.
- Very easy to use.
- This product has a paste spreader.
- Best performance for the price.
- Slightly expensive.
Thermaltake TG-7
Thermaltake is also another great choice of thermal paste for PS3. The company got an excellent reputation in the past and is known for making computer cases, power supplies, and some cooling compounds. The good thing with the TG series is they are available in three different models, and you can get the best one according to your budget and availability in your region. But their performance is not much different, and they are much identical to each other. The company claims that thermal paste from this series has a longer lifespan than the standard silicone thermal paste.
The company claims that this thermal paste is made up of diamond powered compound, which is non-conductive and offers much more performance than other materials. When running on full loads, the temperature of the processor sometimes reaches 70C, which is not good but we need it for a console where we are not going to see such high temps. The spreader with this thermal paste allows you to spread it in a better way as most of the time you need some third-party thing to spread the paste over the processor, but with this one, you don’t need that.
I was looking for a specific answer than how long this thermal paste works, and we apply when but unfortunately, I got no specific answer to this. The TG 7 comes in a long syringe, which you will find good if you’ve never applied before. But with the TG 6, you will find it hard to apply as that one comes in packets, and you have to take care of the amount of paste you were applying. So with all these things, we can say that it’s the best thermal paste for PS3 only if you have a low budget and don’t care about performance a lot.
Specifications
| Model Name | Thermaltake TG-7 |
| Weight | 4 g |
| Color | Gray |
| Electrically Conductive | No |
| Ease of use | Yes |
| Package | Syringe |
| Spreader | Yes |
- It is made up of non-conductive material.
- Good for consoles.
- Very easy to use.
- This product has a bundled paste spreader.
- The price is a bit high for performance.
Noctua NT-H1 3.5g
When it comes to the cooling of a gaming rig or console, the first brand that happened in our mind is Noctua because of its wide range of CPU coolers and thermal compounds. I got some other options too for this list but thought that how can I skip Noctua from the list of best thermal paste for PS3? So there comes the NT-H1, which is a high-standard thermal paste, but yes, it’s a bit more expensive than other choices in this list. This thermal paste contains a mixture of some particles that are unique to this company and also a signature of Noctua.
The price of this thermal paste is slightly higher than other competitors but not that much and still affordable and offers excellent performance in liquid metal pastes. The good thing is this metal paste is not electrically conductive, which you know is a plus point of every thermal paste in the market. The one tube of NT-H1 contains almost 1.4ml of thermal paste, which is enough for a couple of applications. The company claims storage of 2 years of their thermal paste means once applied, you don’t have to worry in the future, and that’s what most of the users like about it.
Non-techies found it challenging to apply the thermal paste for the first time, but the NT-H1 is very easy to apply. You might already know about the pea method, which can be used with this paste as it easily spreads over the surface of the processor. This thermal paste is not hard or roughly like some other competitors, which allows us to spread it all over the CPU surface. But there is an unfortunate side of soft and highly spreadable thermal pastes as those folks who are inexperienced and spray a lot of paste might find it hard to remove or clean.
Specifications
| Model Name | Noctua NT-H1 3.5g (3.5g) |
| Volume | 1,4 ml |
| Density | 2,49 g/cm³ |
| Electrically Conductive | No |
| Ease of use | Bit Hard |
| Package | Syringe |
| Spreader | No |
- This product Offers excellent performance for the price.
- This product Comes in a syringe.
- Very dense thermal paste.
- It’s a bit hard to apply.
- This product doesn’t come with a spreader.
Conclusion
When it comes to price to performance and ease while applying the thermal paste, the best option I would recommend you to get is the Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut. There are some other options like Arctic Silver 5 AS5-3.5G or even the Noctua NT-H1 3.5g, but I would not recommend you do this if you have to do this for the first time because these pastes are hard to apply. But with proper knowledge, you can easily use them without any problem. Also, there are some other choices that you can consider for your Playstation 3.
FAQs
Why do we need to change thermal paste in PS3?
Playstation 3 is old hardware and the thermal paste applied on the processor of these consoles becomes dry, which may cause permanent damage to the hardware. We’ve seen this in the past like in Xbox this is known as Red Ring of Death, and in PlayStation 3 it’s something called Blue light. To prevent this issue, we need to change the thermal paste, and any regular thermal paste can be applied to the chip.
How long does a thermal paste last?
The average lifespan of a thermal paste is about three to five years, but there are some thermal pastes like AS5 which the company claims can last for more than ten years which is no doubt amazing. Even some companies claim that their thermal compound lasts forever, but it’s good to change them after a year or two.
Can we use Dry Thermal Paste?
Dry thermal paste is okay as long as you don’t break the seal by taking the CPU cooler out. Once you break the seal, your CPU will start running at high temperatures, and you will see performance loss when running on high loads. Also, if the dry paste is two or more years old, then most users recommend changing the paste.
Is thermal grizzly really okay for the PS3? I thought the PS3 has an aluminum heatsink and that thermal grizzly mentions not to use it on aluminum heatsinks?
I am pretty sure you are talking about conductonaut. You can use Kryonaut if you feel insecure of using liquid metal under that heatsink.
I see. Thank you very much for the clarification. Just bought one myself and excited to use it on my pc and consoles. 🙂