Which thermal compound?

[Olen]

I'm about to buy a tube of thermal compound as I seem to have lost my last one and I was surprised how much prices vary.

What more do I get for paying £10 for 7g of Arctic silver than I get for paying £2 for 25g of unbranded 'heatsink compound'?

What is a good one to use - is it worth paying 18 times more for branded stuff?

Persumably there is something wrong with the very cheap stuff (? maybe ?) but is the very expensive stuff worth it?

Thanks

[Outlaw]

I think just about everyone in here will agree to get the Arictic Silver even though it cost that much more. Yes the "unbranded" will work, but for how long before it starts to break down and not do it's job?

The Arctic Silver is known to outperform many other thermal compounds. If I remember correctly, it is/was the second best thermal compound out there(1st was a liquid silver). The liquid silver was messy though and the performance over the Arcitc Silver wasn't worth it.


Think of it this way:
Would you use staples or screws to hold the ceiling fan you are standing under? The staples might work, but I'm not going to stand under it. :)

Hope that helps


Here (http://www.techwarelabs.com/reviews/cooling/thermal_paste/index_3.shtml) is a link to show Arctic Silver(3) with some other thermal compounds. Because The "Generic" you mentioned doesn't say what type of compound I would compare it to the Silicone temps in the link.

Product:----------Idle Day 1- Load Day 1- Idle Day 2- Load Day 2- Idle Day 3- Load Day 3
Nanotherm Blue II------42C--------46C-------42C--------46C-------41C--------46C
Nanotherm Silver XTC---40C-------45C-------41C--------46C------41.5C------45C
Nanotherm PCM+-------40C--------46C------41.5C-------44.5C------40C-------44C
Arctic Silver 3----------41C---------45C-------41C---------45C-------40.5C------44.5C
Silver Grease-----------45C--------55C-------45C--------54C-------45C--------54C
Shin Etsu G751---------41C--------45C------40.5C------44.5C------39.5C-----43C
Silicone Compound------47C--------60C------47C--------60C--------47C-------60C

Just incase you didn't want to click the link. I know it looks like crap, but it works. :) Red is Arctic Silver(3), Green is Silicone.

[Spawn-Inc]

i would say its better granted i've never used cheap thermal paste but i would go with the AS5. i changed my stock thermal paste/pads on my cpu, gpu, north and south bridge. temperatures dropped a couple of degrees.

[Olen]

How many heatsinks will a tube of AS5 streach to?

[Zephik]

How many heatsinks will a tube of AS5 streach to?

I would say at least three. Since I applied my AS5 three times before getting it right. ^_^

lol

[.Maleficus.]

Arctic Silver, Shin Etsu, and Arctic Cooling MX-1 are all supposed to be good choices. I didn't even hear about Shin Etsu and MX-1 until a few days ago when I ordered my Freezer 7 Pro, and I kept the MX-1 on my heatsink and it's preforming very well.

[Olen]

Cheers folks. I went for MX1 as its non-conductive and almost as good as AS5. Core temperature drop of 6* idling and 8 or so under load, and its still curing.

Shows that it does make a difference.

[Outlaw]

Cool, glad to hear it's working for you.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Arctic Silver 5 Is the way to go. I use it on anything with a heatsink. It is great.

[Olen]

Its also conductive. AS5 + smear on pins = problem. And I've heard about problems with capacitance ?! Anyway with my ineptitude at applying I'll stick with MX1 - it claims to be better than AS3 so it cant be that for behind...

And its expensive.