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Zinc Oxide as a TIM?

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Mandrake4565

Mr. Clean Senior Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2012
Someone suggested to me to use Zinc Oxide, yes the white stuff life guards put on their noses, as TIM. Has anyone ever heard or tried this?
 
LOL. Long ago even toothpaste was tried. Great Dane poop (must be a show winner) was also suggested.

Can't hurt, give it a try. All it can do is put the smell of "BabeWatch TV series" in the air, not a bad thing.:rofl:

Make sure it's SPF 3000 for the best effect I heard. And the blue stuff is the best.:clap:
 
Good stuff Conumdrum, I received the information from one of the "Tech" guys in my office. He said he tried a bunch of high end TIM's and he found that the Zinc Oxide speads thinner and he has had the best results with it. I wonder if he saw my eyes rolling in my head as he was saying it to me. I may just take a ride to the local drug store and see how it does against the mx2 I'm using on my 212+.

Anyhow I asked more out of the humor of it, and yes I hear the blue stuff works best. ;)
 
Work better than high end TIM? That's questionable. It should work well enough that it won't cause your CPU to overheat though, so no harm trying it. :D
 
i'm actually going to test it and see. Though my results will not be 100% accurate due to many variables, but it will be interesting to see. I actually have AC5,MX2 and Pohbya He Grease I can test it against as well as a CM 212+,Thermalright Ultra Ext and a Prolimatech Megahalems I can use. Now finding the time will be the issue.
 
Zinc oxide is used in some TIMs, for example, Zalman thermal grease ZM-TG2 the effective ingredient is zinc oxide. Zinc oxide has a thermal conductivity of 1.2 w/mk, and that is what is listed spec for Zalman thermal grease ZM-TG2. Compare that to aluminum oxide based 2x thermal cond., or some of the more modern TIMS that have 4-5x higher conductivity and lower contact resistance.

So Zinc Oxide is a mediocre performing thermal interface material.

If using sunscreen for source of zinc oxide however, it wont be formulated for its intended use, wont resist pump out between block and cpu, and though probably perform better than toothpaste at first, will likely degrade quickly over time.
 
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