Vote for the Best Thermal Compound 2007
Please vote again, made changes to the lineup...

Arctic Silver 5 is conductive, but as long as you are careful in applying it, it shouldn't matter. As far as which one to use, you'd probably be ok with either. You could try them both out for yourself and measure the temps you get and go with whatever works best in your particular case.

Personally, I use AS5, but I'm thinking of switching over to AS Ceramique when my AS5 runs out.

Graph overload!

Shin Etsu is the best, but between those two... I seriously doubt you would see any difference. If it makes you happy, flip a coin to decide the winner.

lol.. I'll try that..
I might just go with the Zalman, because it comes with the brush and less risky compund

i used the zalman. which came with my 9700NT. n im happy with it.

I used both AS5 and Zelman. I noticed a 1-3 degree drop with the Zelman over AS5. Q6600 with Zelman STG1 with Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme at stock processor clock, speed step turned off and all other thermal throttling or anything turned off. Idles at 34-35 degrees C.

AS5 will be better over time. You will not notice a drop in temps immediately while applying AS5. It takes about a week for the AS5 to start working. AS5 has 99.9% pure nano silver (Partical size ~90-110nm).

My temps with STG1 have not gotten worse.

Shadow703793:

My AS5 best was in the high 30s, with all thermal and speed step like things turned on. I ran AS5 for four months.

Since these products are roughly the same, as someone else wrote, flip a coin and use whichever comes up. If you go to buy some paste in the future, buy the Shin Etsu for best performance. Beyond that, don't get a headache over trying to decide between the AS5 or the Zalman compound.

Exactly how much AS5 did you apply? If you apply even a little too much you wont notice the improvement.

I went with the x-23 and I am happy

It’s pretty simple. You place an enough AS5 so it is about the size of a gain of rice and then spread it with a credit card.

AS5 is great, so is STG1. Like another poster said, flip a coin and go with that. My results may be different then yours or the same, who knows. It also depends greatly on your setup.

I am not trying to attack you shadow703793, I am just sharing my experience.

Ive actually found on there site is says nothing about spreading...
http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/ap [...] l_wcap.pdf

I did read a review not long ago that results are actually better without spreading the compound... but conveniently i cant seem to find it LOL

artice silver takes 3-14 days to seat and remains more pliable for a long build

the mx2 is nice stuff but it gets brittle fast

Could be that Im getting lower temps because I also lapped the Heat sink too

This might be the article Chookman was referring to - it shows that the 'dollop' or 'line' method of applying the pastes is better then spreading:

http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=g [...] rticID=635

Also shows Tuniq TX-2 as just slightly better then AS-5 (but I use AS-5 myself and have always been happy).

Thats the one thanks dude dunno how you found it... then again i didnt look to hard hehe

Is Tuniq TX-2 a relatively new product. It has only three reviews at Newegg, all suggesting it is better than AS5.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835154003

You should rely on newegg reviews too much, it could be biased.

I also read multiple reviews, eventually reaching the conclusion that Tuniq TX-2 was the best. I started a thread here on it, only to find strong opposition. Many people appears to believe the AS5 is the best out there, and I thought so too.

However now I think that Shin-Etsu is the best. I believe many people won't let up on it, and I kinda get what they're saying. Maybe the longevity of AS5 beats the rest?