Best thermal paste for processors 2010

[D2rn3rs]

Hello,
I wanted to know what is the best thermal paste on the market best to be used with an intel i7 processor extreme edition

 

[staggadee]

I'd go with Arctic Silver 5 all the way.

 

[tecmo34]

^+1... AS5 is my recommendation too

Here is a great review on TIM by Benchmarkreviews.com , which gives you an idea on performance... http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=150&Itemid=62

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Ok, I'm gonna nix the AS5 recommendation because of the curing time. According to the AS web site, it takes 200 hours to cure.....I don't wanna wait 200 hours to start see if I got a good TIM seat and can get the OC's I want......more on that later ....

pick a TIM from the top few here:

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=138&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=3
http://www.hwreviewlabs.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64%3Amega-44-thermal-paste-round-up&catid=32%3Around-ups&Itemid=47&limitstart=3
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coolers/display/thermal-interface-roundup_10.html#sect1

BTW, the benchmarkreviews roundup above and below this line is the 2010 version.....the 2009 version from tecmo's post is also good reading.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=138&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=5

After this article was first published, there was an immediate backlash from some of the manufacturers listed in this review. The primary argument was the lack of cure time. Here is the Arctic Silver 5 recommended cure time instruction from the manufacturers web site:

Due to the unique shape and sizes of the particles in Arctic Silver 5's conductive matrix, it will take a up to 200 hours and several thermal cycles to achieve maximum particle to particle thermal conduction and for the heatsink to CPU interface to reach maximum conductivity. (This period will be longer in a system without a fan on the heatsink or with a low speed fan on the heatsink.) On systems measuring actual internal core temperatures via the CPU's internal diode, the measured temperature will often drop 2C to 5C over this "break-in" period. This break-in will occur during the normal use of the computer as long as the computer is turned off from time to time and the interface is allowed to cool to room temperature. Once the break-in is complete, the computer can be left on if desired.

So by my estimation of this statement it would take almost a year of normal use to properly cure the AC5 compound, or almost nine days of continuous power cycles to meet their recommendation. Benchmark Reviews feels that this is a characteristically unreasonable requirement for any TIM product, and we do not support it. We want products that perform without the burden of sacrifice on our time, especially with some many competing products offering performance without this extra requirement.

I generally recommend the IC Diamond 7 Karat product of, if that's not readily available, OCZ Freeze.

 

[Shadow703793]

^Agreed. +1 for the IC Diamond.

 

[tecmo34]

If I vote for AS5 again, does that break the tie?

 

[D2rn3rs]

Thanks to you all.

Actually I was hesitating at first to purchase a good thermal paste. I finally made a big mistake in purchasing the vio thermal paste, then I recently made a purchase for the Noctua, artic silver 5 and ic diamond thermal paste to be able to compare in between them, I've got enough for lifetime lol and hope it will not expire as Im intending to keep them. Is there a specific temperature to keep a thermal paste in its packaging if its not opened yet? or will it go bad if not opened and kept for a long time?