Thermo pad vs thermal paste?

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Silicon grease itself is actually transparent and is used as the transport medium for most thermal pastes out there. Without it, your silver/carbon/graphite/copper/whatever paste would be an unusable lump of dust.

What makes it white in "poor" pastes is the aluminum or zinc oxide particles that do the bulk of the actual heat transfer.

Aluminum oxide is actually capable of pretty good thermal performance but its hardness makes it difficult to grind it to small enough particle size to get there so manufacturers usually skip the extra grinding and refining for their low-cost aluminum-based pastes. Every now and then though, you do see thermal paste roundups where...
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Onus

Onus

Titan
Jan 27, 2006
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Use paste. Pads can be a mess to remove, if ever necessary. For a locked processor, you don't need to worry about finding the absolutely best paste in the world; an old standby like AS-5 would be my choice. The only ones that aren't that great are the white silicon grease. Any silver-based (gray) paste will be fine.

Edit: Oh, and yes, most HSF's come with paste.
 
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InvalidError

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
May 18, 2007
23,815
5,265
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Silicon grease itself is actually transparent and is used as the transport medium for most thermal pastes out there. Without it, your silver/carbon/graphite/copper/whatever paste would be an unusable lump of dust.

What makes it white in "poor" pastes is the aluminum or zinc oxide particles that do the bulk of the actual heat transfer.

Aluminum oxide is actually capable of pretty good thermal performance but its hardness makes it difficult to grind it to small enough particle size to get there so manufacturers usually skip the extra grinding and refining for their low-cost aluminum-based pastes. Every now and then though, you do see thermal paste roundups where higher-quality "white goo" manages to give fancy pastes a run for their money.
 
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