whats the name brand of a good thermal grease?

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My personal favorite is Arctic Silver too
As for cleaning - I think it's important to do regardless of whether or not you're going to use the same compound that was on before. I've always used clean, lint-free cloths (hankies, actually LOL) and pure alcohol. Dab it in alcohol a bit, gently rubble the surface clean, repeat 2-3 times (until you see no more residue on the cloth after wiping)...then blot it dry and you're in business!

 

Artic Silver 5 too.
I have a desktop computer with a Noctua cpu cooler installed. Since the box that I bought include Noctua NT-H thermal compound I put then. I think it's nice as well.

 

started using Zalman stg-01 about three years ago, before i always used AS5, but STG-01 is much easier to apply, it's done with a little brush, think of it like the brush you would find in a bottle of nail-polish
works very fast, very straightforward and does an excellent job of transferring heat to the heatsink

 

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I've tried many different thermal compounds and alot of different ways appling it.

I use 100% isopropyl alcohol to completely remove the old TC.If you don't remove the old TC there's no advantage to appling new TC.

The purpose of the TC is to make the chip and heatsink have as much contact as possible so that heat is transfered from the chip to heatsink by making maximum contact.

Some enthusiasts lap the chips and heatsinks as flat and polished as they can possibly make them so the metal to metal contact is at a maximum.

The only place left where contact is not made is in the metal's pores.This is where the thermal compound comes in to play.

The TC replaces the air that's in the pores of the metal surfaces.Air has poor heat transfer properties.

Many people's mistake is using too much thermal compound.Very little is needed if your surfaces are clean,flat and shiny.

Toolmarks in heatsinks are bad.They house large amounts of air and when filled with TC make less than desirable contact with the chip.

I was using a small dot of TC on chips and heatsinks and spreading it with a straight edge tool like a credit card or razor blade.This works very well but I now do it differently with about the same results or very slightly better.

I now cover my finger with plastic wrap and spread a very small amount of TC over the surfaces with pressure from my finger.

My personal favotite TC is Tuniq-TX3.I used Artic Silver 5 for years but TX3 does a better job for me.

I also find TX-3 to be slightly better than the much praised IC Diamond 7ct and 24ct.IMO the new TX-4 is not as good as TX-2 and TX-3

Naturally your mileage may vary.

 

i particularly like to use silicone based thermal pastes. every time i've used this in place of artic silver, temps have been considerably lower. roughly 10 degrees lower very consistently, actually.

 

You jest for sure with your claim of 10 degrees.

There's a spread of about 5 degees between the best tested and the worst tested but you get 10 degrees better than one of the best,Artic Silver 5.

It's a miricle!

 

no jest. just one example, i was running at a range of 70-77C using some artic silver, changed to some straight silicone based and i'm running 55-60C. this is using the same heatsink and fan too.

and regardless what you say, i wouldn't post something that i knew to be a lie. makes no sense to me to do such a thing...

 

imho you installed your heatsink the wrong way prior to using the silicone-based TIM, there is NO silicone based TIM that outperforms AS5, however i found that Noctua's NT-H1 does outperform AS5 by a few degrees C (bought a NH-D14, first installed with AS5, after a good burn-in i switched to NT-H1, temps dropped from 24C AS5 Idle to about 20,21C NT-H1 Idle.
haven't really tried the load differences, but i think it is safe to say, NT-H1 outperforms AS5 regardless, plus that NT-H1 does not have any curing time)

 

there is no wrong way to install my heatsink and fan (unless it's not screwed down tightly, which doesn't happen), so sorry you're wrong. i can turn it this way or that, yada yada, it works all the same. so again, i don't agree with you at all. you can talk about silicone not being a good thermal paste, but i've seen it with my own eyes that it works better than artic silver.

 

thanks for clearing that up buddy, i must admit that i havent tested nt-h1 on another hsf just the D14 one..

 

In all (100s) the notebooks and desktops I have examined over the years I don't believe I've seen a unit with too little TC applied.

It's just about always much too much applied.

New notebooks with factory applied TC are the worst offenders.

Now,after removing the old TC with 100% Isopropyl alcohol, I simply smear a small amount of any paste with a finger covered with plastic wrap over the entire chip and heat sink contact surfaces and then squeegee the excess off with a razor blade or credit card on both the chip and heatsink.

Results are within 5 degrees C for the TCs I've used.

Maximum metal to metal contact between chip and heatsink and no air in the metal's pores.heat pipe gaps or toolmarks in the heatsink are what you should strive for.

Naturally,your milage may vary.

 

Thats also been my experance. An interesting tale. I have a machine woth an older 4870 X2 in it. Its always been a hot running card, often going into the 90's but never giveing me any real problems. Just recently however it got REALLY noisy! I thought maybe it was finally done for so I pulled it and took it apart. All the noise was is the screws had come loose on the fan and it was rubbing on the case. Easy fix! And while I was in there I cleaned off the dies, way to much TC for sure, and applied AS5. What a differance! One, its runs so much cooler the fan doesn;t need to get to "scream" speeds any more. After several hours of Crysis 2 the GPU dies are only getting into the high 60's. Should've done this a long time ago.

What I think most people don't understand is that the thermal compuond is only ment to take up the microscoptic voids and valleys, improving the physical contact between the two surfaces. Its not ment to be "painted" on. A thin layer. If I drag my finger nail across the surface of a HS and can feel any imperfections I'll lap it first.

 

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