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Which thermal compound is right?

A

Atragon

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 31, 2004
Messages
338
I'm going to be swapping the heatsinks on my vid card and my CPU fairly soon, and I'm wondering which thermal compound I should get. I'm looking at either AS5, or Ceramique...since those are what my local stores carry.

Now, I think I remember reading that Ceramique is the way to go for video cards since it's non-conductive, while AS5 is the way to go for CPUs since it's thermal resistance is lower. Am I right, or would ceramique work for my CPU too?

Specs:
XP2100+ (Palomino core @1.85, 13X142)
ThermalTake SilentBoost (due to be replaced with a CNPS7000A-Cu)
Gigabyte GA-7VRXP Rev1.1
1024MB PC2700, Samsung chips
MSI GF4 Ti4600 (replacing stock HSF with ZM80C-HP)
And the rest is all boring peripheral stuff... :)
 
Ceramique will also work on your CPU. I like it because I can just use it on everything, without having to worry about it having a capacitive effect...
 
Is there enough of a performance difference between AS5 and Ceramique to justify getting a tube of each, or just get a single tube of Ceramique?
 
nah, ceramique is so close into performance to AS5, and AS5 is a pain to apply, i'd go with ceramique all around.
 
I think I read that AS3 is more conductive. Having seen no real differance I'll go with ceramique
 
Well...my local computer store didn't have any Ceramique in stock, so I'm stuck with a dilema...do I use the Zalman thermal grease? do I risk it with Arctic Silver? or do I order some Ceramique online?

Edit: NOTE, the video card this is going on is a GF4 Ti4600.

Edit 2: *bump*
 
Originally posted by diredesire
AS5 is a pain to apply.
Click to expand...


well yeh, if youre a moron. seriously, if you cant be bothered to take more than 3 seconds to put on your thermal compound, you dont deserve to use a computer.


any AS is NOT A RISK! DONT think that because it MIGHT be slightly capacitive that its somehow a RISK. Unless you do something STUPID like smear it on the traces YOU WILL BE FINE, and even then, theres nothing that says it could do anything, PERIOD.
 
Originally posted by kronchev
well yeh, if youre a moron. seriously, if you cant be bothered to take more than 3 seconds to put on your thermal compound, you dont deserve to use a computer.


any AS is NOT A RISK! DONT think that because it MIGHT be slightly capacitive that its somehow a RISK. Unless you do something STUPID like smear it on the traces YOU WILL BE FINE, and even then, theres nothing that says it could do anything, PERIOD.
Click to expand...

maybe i should rephrase: AS5 is a pain to apply PROPERLY.

Dab 'n squish is fine and all, and not especially difficult, but you then rely on the pressure of the heatsink to thin out the application. P4 heat spreaders are commonly concave, and would hold the thermal paste in the middle of the chip, making a thicker, and therefore less efficient contact.

Thus, people will try to spread it... and when you spread it (dab 'n squish is recommended, for AS5 mind you), it's a pain to get even, consistent and thin. That stuff is thick like ceramique.

For an AMD i probably wouldn't even worry about it.

... and i dont see why being a moron would make it any more painful to apply ;D
 
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