Grease / Thermal Interface Material? Recommendations?

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venm11

2[H]4U
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Oct 6, 2004
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Allright, this is probably an RTFM question, but---- what recommendations do you guys have as far as interface material? Heatsink Grease? The stock phase-change pads?

And what ever happened to that liquid metal stuff that was supposed to be so incredible?

I ask because.... I haven't built a computer in about 4 years and the last time I scraped the pad off my stock intel cooler and used grease... performance was completely unchanged. And it was gooier. (goo-ey-er?).
 
I highly recommend Zalman STG-1 http://www.svc.com/zm-stg1.html using this with an AC freezer 64pro gave me a 3c drop idle and 4c load vs the Ceramique that I was using. Also, it brushes on like nail polish so for the first time ever...I didn't make a mess. :cool:
 
oh that liquid metal. u need a brush and it is so hard to put. it is being reviewed at anadtech and x-bit labs. $14 and only dropped a couple of degrees compared to as5.
 
I agree with the above poster who recommended the Zalman manly-nail polish stuff. It dropped my temps (from a CURED AS5 installation) by 2'c.

Stay away from the Liquid Metal. It's dangerous to aluminum, possibly toxic (there's no MSDS Sheet yet for it, breaks many international and national laws) and hasn't been on the market long enough to determine how it will last up in a few months to years (like Ceramique and AS5 has). Hell, we don't even OFFICIALLY know what's in it yet (although those educated on the subject can make a good guess, IE Gallium Indium alloy or something).
 
Arcygenical said:
I agree with the above poster who recommended the Zalman manly-nail polish stuff. It dropped my temps (from a CURED AS5 installation) by 2'c.

Stay away from the Liquid Metal. It's dangerous to aluminum, possibly toxic (there's no MSDS Sheet yet for it, breaks many international and national laws) and hasn't been on the market long enough to determine how it will last up in a few months to years (like Ceramique and AS5 has). Hell, we don't even OFFICIALLY know what's in it yet (although those educated on the subject can make a good guess, IE Gallium Indium alloy or something).
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I'm using this as well and love it! I just oredered 2 more bottles today. I love the application and temp drops over AS5.
 
Jesus! 2 bottles lol... I've remounted my HSF like 8 times and i'm only halfway done my first bottle :D.
 
OCZ +5 i think it is called is good as well as the AS5 and AS-Cer for cold aps. Liquid metal is very difficult to take the HSF off. Pulled my 2.8 p4 out of the socket and took a razor blade to remove it.
I guess you get a good contact with it, only use it if you are not takeing it back apart any time soon. And does take 3 or 4 days of 80% + cpu usuage to make it seat right.
I run Rosetta@Home for 6 days straight and it dropped 1 deg a day.
 
I always just ran the generic crap that came with the heatsinks, till one day I got some Arctic Silver 5. It dropped my temps by 9C, on my AMD Athlon 64 4000+. I recommend it.

Oh and on that liquid metal stuff. (Not sure if someone didn't already say this.) IT EATS ALUMINUM AND THE REACTION INCREASE IF YOU USE WATER TO TRY TO STOP IT. Consider yourself very warned.
 
Rocky Mountain High said:
AMD seems to prefer thermal pads over thermal grease:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/white_papers_and_tech_docs/26951.pdf
AMD also seems to have its own list of suggested thermal interface materials and vendors:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/con...Assets/Thermal_Material_vendor_list_ENG-S.pdf
I've got the Akasa ShinEtsu pads on AMD's list from Sidewinder Computers. I've no idea how effective they are compared to other materials.
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The date on that document is from July 14, 2003. It maybe a little out dated. :p
 
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