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Thread ID: 131685 2013-05-04 02:13:00 Thermal paste advice needed ChazTheGeek (16619) Press F1
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1339582 2013-05-04 02:13:00 Can anybody recommend a thermal paste type and brand. It'll be used for CPU's and a few Xbox 360's with RROD.
Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks guys. :)

I've heard Arctic Silver is pretty good.
ChazTheGeek (16619)
1339583 2013-05-04 02:14:00 I use Arctic Silver, never needed anything else. DeSade (984)
1339584 2013-05-04 02:54:00 Just go with Arctic Silver. It's a well known brand with a good reputation Myth (110)
1339585 2013-05-04 03:06:00 I'll see where I can get it cheapest.
Any place where I can get wholesale price?
ChazTheGeek (16619)
1339586 2013-05-04 03:29:00 In Christchurch you might try Dove, but you will need a trade account. DeSade (984)
1339587 2013-05-04 03:59:00 According to Doves web site, they don't list Arctic Silver.

What they do have is: "Digitus Silicone Heatsink Compound Paste 2.0g" Dealer price = Errrrrrr Under $5
wainuitech (129)
1339588 2013-05-05 06:46:00 ktech has it for like $10. icow (15313)
1339589 2013-05-05 07:40:00 How about this: www.trademe.co.nz ChazTheGeek (16619)
1339590 2013-05-05 09:53:00 Much more important than the type of thermal paste/grease used is the flatness of the CPU and heat sink. If they were lapped to optical flatness like gauge blocks, then they could be 'wrung' together and no paste would be required. Paste would just give a separation to the parts many times greater than the superfine asperities of the optical flat surfaces.

Since the conducted heat is proportional to the inverse of the gap between the surfaces, then the smallest gap is looked for, which is why the best flatness is required.

Some pastes are a bit thick and this is why it can sometimes takes a few days for the temperatures to minimise, it's just the physics of the time it takes for the paste film to be squeezed to a minimum so that the metal surfaces come into contact at their asperities.

The thermal conductivity of the paste is not of great concern if the surfaces are flat.

The compound you reference is said to have microfine carbon particles, but their web page doesn't say how fine.

Edit: I expect this stuff would be as good as any other.
Terry Porritt (14)
1339591 2013-05-05 16:11:00 On the one hand a quality thermal paste like arctic silver will give the best results. On the other hand any thermal paste applied properly will do the job with very little difference. I had a cheap tube of "unick" white thermal paste I got from dick smiths for use with amplifier transistors before I started building PCs around the time 486s were released that I've been using ever since , switching to arctic silver made < 2 degrees difference at full load. dugimodo (138)
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