- Jan 5, 2015
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What is Thermal Compound?
- Thread starter Newtoeveryting
- Start date
You absolutely need thermal compound, also known as thermal paste or thermal grease. It serves as a connection between the processor and heatsink (or whatever you use to cool your processor.)
It is used on many other things, but in PCs it's to ensure heat transfers away from the processor and to the cooling device.
And just why do you need it? Heat is supposed to spread to the heatsink which is often times being cooled by a fan. Because the metal surfaces of the processor (or lid) and the contact point on the cooling device are not perfectly flat which will prevent heat from transferring to the cooling device as it should. However, when you add pressure to the thermal compound between these two items, it (should) make near-perfect contact with both of them.
^Here you can see the contact area I've mentioned. And how the fan cools the heatsink.
This isn't the best stuff around, but this is what I use-
Arctic Cooling MX-4^
Note: If you're building your own PC then the heatsink that is included with your processor (if there is one- but more than likely there is) should have the thermal paste already applied, simply peel a plastic film (if it's there) and mount it to your motherboard and processor.
Here's a video you should check out if you are building your own- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qczGR4KMnY -(The "as fast as possible" in the title refers to how fast the uploader explains the process, DO NOT attempt this "as fast as possible" lol.)
It is used on many other things, but in PCs it's to ensure heat transfers away from the processor and to the cooling device.
And just why do you need it? Heat is supposed to spread to the heatsink which is often times being cooled by a fan. Because the metal surfaces of the processor (or lid) and the contact point on the cooling device are not perfectly flat which will prevent heat from transferring to the cooling device as it should. However, when you add pressure to the thermal compound between these two items, it (should) make near-perfect contact with both of them.
^Here you can see the contact area I've mentioned. And how the fan cools the heatsink.
This isn't the best stuff around, but this is what I use-
Arctic Cooling MX-4^
Note: If you're building your own PC then the heatsink that is included with your processor (if there is one- but more than likely there is) should have the thermal paste already applied, simply peel a plastic film (if it's there) and mount it to your motherboard and processor.
Here's a video you should check out if you are building your own- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qczGR4KMnY -(The "as fast as possible" in the title refers to how fast the uploader explains the process, DO NOT attempt this "as fast as possible" lol.)
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