Thread: Nominate your favorite thermal paste

I am going to be writing an article about thermal paste and need an informal vote in which you all use.
Just post what thermal paste you use, why and on which heat sinks if it makes a difference.

Thanks in advance

Arctic Silver all the way. Always have. No particular reason, just that I've always been told it's the best.

x3

KY makes a pretty good one, but I think it's a lot of personal preference......oh wait, that's not what you meant at all. :P

I use Arctic Silver as well. I'm sure there are feasible competitors for it out there now, but there wasn't always...In 05 my shop did quite a bit of testing with 5-6 different thermal pastes to see what worked better. We had 4 pc's setup in a few different sized cases(slims, micro atc, mid tower and full) with the exact same hardware inside...put the different thermal pastes on each processor, put it under 100% load for an hour and record temps(and then rinse and repeat) Arctic Silver consistently had the lowest temps.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk 2

The difference between many thermal pastes is negligible. A few degrees here and there which won't make a real world difference in how well a computer runs. If two degrees is the difference between a PC functioning or not, thermal paste is the least of your worries.

I use MX-4 btw.

Check out this comparison and you'll see that the difference is minor.

Thermal Compound Roundup - January 2012 | Hardware Secrets

Artic silver.

Not to mention it doesnt solidify like most other pastes.... So you can go and redo a heatsink later down the road, without worry of damaging the components when removing the heatsink.

Second, i like the way it spreads... good viscosity, like a thicker butter, much easier to get an even spread than that generic shit that comes with most cpu's.

Finally, has excellent shielf life, I bought a giant tube of it 8 or so years ago... Still using it, works great...

Tablet-

The only knock I have against Arctic Silver is that it takes several months to reach the sweet spot. Temperatures typically run a little hotter when you first apply it and then it eventually breaks in and you see a drop of a degree or two (sometimes more). That being said... I'm currently using the thermal paste that came applied to my H100i. In a year or so I'll remove it and replace it with something else. I'll replace it with some Antec Formula 5 which is what I have on-hand now. Ran out of Arctic Silver.

Arctic Silver. As was mentioned, it is only a few degrees. But just like when you are tuning a car, every little bit helps. A few degrees of doing it right in a few places makes a difference. Plus it's easier to remove than others I have used.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk