Thermal paste

Razorbacx · Post by **Razorbacx** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 9:47 pm

Interesting subject. I never gave any thought to this myself. When my mobo and video card died I reapplied some AS5 just because never thinking that this is something that I should do as part of a maintenance step.

Thanks for the info! Any other simple maintenance must do's?

Pengwin · Post by **Pengwin** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 11:25 pm

I like Arctic Cooling MX5 for long term, short term i'll toss anything on there.

setscrew · Post by **setscrew** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 3:45 pm

What paste would yield good conductivity for a long term (apply once every two to three years) application?

I gave a friend of mine an older system (P4 3.0E with XP90 in well ventilated case) of mine for Christmas last year and the temperatures are creeping up. It used to idle at 42 in Dec. 06 and now it is idling at 49.

I used AS 5 initially, but it probably is broken down by now. What paste would you recommend as I do not want to reapply his computer every year.

TIA

largon · Post by **largon** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 3:25 am

I've found AS Ceramique to be quite impractical to use because it's quite viscose/thick, a noname liquidy silicon paste works better for me...

btw, mercury-free thermometers contain a small amount of gallium-tin-indium -alloy. It bet it would be a great TIM...

Schwarz · Post by **Schwarz** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 8:45 am

Artic Ceramic is usualy used in water cooled systems.
Its for low temperatures.
If you don't do water cooling or any OC you should just leave the stock thermal pad that comes with the stock HS.
AS5 is good but it does lose a little of its conductivity after 6 months 1 year.
Is that enough to make you change it.
Not really.
Though you should still check your temps everyonce in a while AS5 can last long.
Something that doesn't need to be changed often are usualy thermal pads.
But performance wise pads aren't that great.