Thermal Grease

[Rusti]

Which is the best Thermal Grease? I have a syringe of Arctic Silver 5 and with my Zalman 9700, I got a container of their Zalman Thermal Grease. I've heard good things about both. Just wondering if any of you have any opinions.

 

[plankmeister]

Read this and you'll learn that there's not really so much of a difference. A couple of degrees at most. AS5 is very common, however, because it is good stuff.

 

[Guest]

That is a little dated site, its got AS3 on it.

 

[plankmeister]

Ah, and obviously using AS5 would shave 20 degrees C off your temps! Please forgive me for posting such drivel.

 

[audiovoodoo]

Is fancy thermal goop as good as the manufacturers would like you to believe, and as various Junior Overclockers do believe? Nope.

Is it, therefore, a complete waste of money? Absolutely not.

I assume that this was the point you were really tring to make. However as the OP has stated that he already has the thermal compounds and was looking for advice as to which one was the better to use.

If you want to tell him it makes no difference then fair enough. Linking to a review of AS3 is really about as much use as a fart in a space suit though.

 

[audiovoodoo]

You are not the only one to ask this question.. Have a look at this NVnews forum thread. Here the conclusion is very little difference.

The best I could find on a quick hunt was this PC Modding Malaysia link which tested ZM-STG1 v AS5

The conclusion from that review:

So my thoughts are little difference but leaning towards AS5.

 

[Rusti]

Thanks alot, that is exactly what I wanted to hear.

 

[bydesign]

I would say that test is most likely flawed. The idle temp would be affect as well.

The Zalman is much easier to apply and the compound is marginally better for thermal transfer. If both surface are flat go with the Zalman if not use AS5.

http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/zalmanthermalgrease/index2.php

 

[plankmeister]

If you want to tell him it makes no difference then fair enough.

Ermmm....

...you'll learn that there's not really so much of a difference.

That's what I did.

 

[rwaritsdario]

It really depends though, on GPUs is better because of the surfaces its against. But when you lap the HSF to a very fine grit you will find that the runnier the paste the better, in this case the Zalman nail polish would do better.
Since the OP has both pastes I dont see whats the problem in testing them both 8)

 

[plankmeister]

Heh heh! Could do half and half... AS5 over the one core, The Zalman stuff over the other... See which core is coolest!

EDIT: That is.... if it's a dual core processor....

EDIT2: And yes I was joking

 

[insightdriver]

no thermal compound difference make a 3 or 4 deg C difference. There are too many variable involved to trust data like that. To truly be scientific about it, a measured layer (to manufacturer's specifications) would have to be applied (not something you can do by hand). The pressure and planarity of the heatsink would have to be regulated and measured (to eliminate differences that occur with minor mounting variations due to tolerances). Then a true caloric measurement of heat put out by the test surface would have to be compared by the true heat at both sides of the interface. This would require instrumentation that can adequately measure it.

In the real world, when you use a software tool that reads out the hardware that is on a motherboard you are not getting precise or even necessarily accurate information. Don't be misled by data, like the NVnews link pointed out. You would be amazed if you had ten identical computers, and saw what the variation was in temperature readouts on each one of them while running the same benchmark. There is around a ten percent difference between them all.

 

[rwaritsdario]

LOL, nice one.

@Everyone:
DaClan has tested many different pastes in the most realistic, current era, conditions we could think of. We will post the results as soon as theyre completed, in about a week.