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Best Thermal Compound?

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Godzilla

Member
Joined
May 31, 2003
Location
UK
What is the best thermal compound out there today?

At the moment i'm using Arctic Silver 5.
 
Best and resonably priced? MX2/3/4. There are other higher priced ones out there but its just not worth it.
 
Yea, unless your pushing the limits and need every bit of C, it doesn't matter a lot.

I still have a big tube of MX2. I like it because it speads easy and is good. Not the best.

Enough for me.
 
I'm the same, I have a decent sized tube of MX-2 that I use, as well as a couple tubes of AS5/AS3 from old builds.
 
Just bought some MX-2, much better the AS5 I had, easier to speed. Would have gotten MX-4, but Microcenter was out of stock.
 
+1for mx2 i used to use as5 all the time till i switched to mx2 its so much easier to work with and cleans up easier.
 
I use GC Electronics Type 44 Non-Contaminating Heat Sink Compound, easy to spread, I use a round tooth pick to aply nice even coat.
It has 46% better heat transfer than silicone.
 
I've been using Ceramique for years since it's non-conductive, fairly easy to spread (compared to AS5 at least), and I can buy it at Radioshack.

Thought about trying out some diamond-based stuff the other day, but I figure .25% of 1C isn't really enough to bother with.
 
I've been using Ceramique for years since it's non-conductive, fairly easy to spread (compared to AS5 at least), and I can buy it at Radioshack.

Thought about trying out some diamond-based stuff the other day, but I figure .25% of 1C isn't really enough to bother with.

That is about my point, the gain from thermal compound depreciates exponentially with price and application technique.

From what I have seen on other threads, application technique and 'clamping' pressure play the biggest role. With a good application technique and sufficient clamping pressure you can make even toothpaste provide results within a range comparable to the best TIM available.

When it comes to specific uses such as extreme cooling or longevity there may be certain preferences though.
 
I've used most TIMs and the best by far has been Liquid Metal Pro. It comes in a hypodermic syringe and is extremely easy to spread with a brush, but you must ensure that the contact surfaces are extremely flat as a coat of LMP is only a few microns thick, much thinner than your standard silicone paste. It is hard to get off though.

Like everybody else I've been using MX-2... the tube seems to last forever lol.
 
I have only tried a few types of thermal paste/compound myself.

Pastes ranked on a scale of 1-10.
OCZ Freeze (1) Totally sucked air, could not get the stuff to spread out and temps were no better than the stock white gunk that I was replacing because it was all dried out.
OEM paste (4-5) Not bad, not great.
Arctic Silver 5 (7-8) It works well, but I don't like the curing time, and the fact that it is a bit messy and difficult to clean up.
Arctic Cooling MX-2 (8-9) Seems to work quite well, and with no curing time. Would get a 10, but I don't know for certain that it is the best out there, as I haven't used very many kinds.
 
I've been using Ceramique for years since it's non-conductive, fairly easy to spread (compared to AS5 at least), and I can buy it at Radioshack.

Thought about trying out some diamond-based stuff the other day, but I figure .25% of 1C isn't really enough to bother with.

I'll ditto this :thup:
 
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