Thermal compound necessary?

[Guest]

Is thermal compound a must for CPU cooling?

 

[Guest]

no

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[Guest]

It's the intelligent thing to do, especially with a high heat processor like an athlon, but you can get away without it. Even the cheapest thermal interface is better than nothing. I know I've seen small packets ment for only a few applications for ~$2, why not get some?

 

[mousepotato]

Good lord. It costs 5 bucks.

 

[Guest]

There is an, idi widi bit of a problem with Arctic Silver II

amm it kinda conducts electricity (being 99.9% silver and all) have you actually read their disclaimer and advice?

"Arctic Silver II should be keep away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. The compound is slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridged two close-proximity electrical paths"

I would use it myself but it's like more expensive then Gold (15 bux AUS for 3grams).

That and if you dont know what you are doing and accidently get it on some cercuitry then POOF and your motherboard is dead... i have seen it happend, not pretty.

I just use the white stuff: Unick Silicone Heat Transfure Compound. Cheap and effective. AND you can smear it all over your transistors and have no warries like me i stuck on a small heatsink and fan on the back of my GeForce 256. Directly on the cirtuitry. Lowered the temprature by 10deg

About thermal Paste, not only dose it fill in the air pockets in the metal grain between CPU and heatsink, it at the same time increases the contact surface area. Anouther reason why it's good is it slightly protects your cpu from the direct contact with the metal... by filling in the gaps, this getting rid of the sharp micro edges. It's nice

These days all heatsinks come with glued on thermal paste unless they are like some custom made stuff? But i recommend ripping the blue tack looking stuff off and putting on some proper compund.

Thats my 5 cents on the matter. Hope it helps

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