Thermal Paste Options

M

MISMCSA

2[H]4U
Joined
Sep 6, 2001
Messages
2,186
I was doing a little seraching on thermal paste, checking both online, and at MicroCenter. There are several options made by a lot of big name vendors. Is AS 5 still considered to be best? Is that becuase of marketing, or is it really better than all the other options availble?
 
As far as I can tell AS 5 hasn't been top dog for a while but that doesn't mean its bad. I think the newer highend stuff is Arctic Cooling MX-3. Microcenter had it for $20 a tube.
 
Shin-Etsu is good stuff, indeed.

I have been using Arctic Cooling MX-2 for awhile with good results and its quite cheap for the small tube. I hear MX-3 is even better (MX-4 is incoming as well).

If you want the best, there's Indigo Xtreme.
 
last big thermal compound comparison review I saw, as5 was still in the top 5 along along with some of the shin-etsu (most of which was all within the top 10), arctic cooling's mx-2 was also within the top 5 (mx-3 hadn't been tested in that particular review, but in another it was rated slightly above mx-2). there were a lot of other compounds I didn't really recognize, but if you had any doubts about as5 you can throw them out the window, because it's still one of the compounds that is sticking near the top of the pack.

edit: myself, I've been using arctic cooling mx-2/3 and am pretty pleased with it's performance.
 
There's so little difference between thermal pastes that it really doesn't make a difference. You might see a 5C difference at most, but realistically that doesn't change a thing. Just get something tried and true like MX-2 or AS5 and don't worry too much about it.
 
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