Best Thermal Paste?

Now, before everyone bombards me with "Arctic Silver 5," be aware that I know. I'm worried, however, about the 200 hour curing time (not really worried about the capacity, though), because I'm going to be applying it to my Triple. So I've been thinking about Arctic Ceramique or IC Diamond 7, which are a bit harder to apply but cost about the same and don't require much (if any) curing when applied.

Never built a system, so I cannot help you out here.

I've heard good things from ICD7.

Said By Aron Schatz

I've heard good things from ICD7.

I was going to say, the IC diamond 7 is great, however it is some thick stuff. They have a recommended application tutorial on their web site. Another good product is the Arctic Silver 5, or is it 6 now. None the less they have been around for years and is still rated at some of the best thermal paste.

Personally, I have been using the IC Diamond 7 now for well over a year.

Arctic Cooling MX-2 and Tuniq TX-2 or TX-3 are also very good options. Not too hard to spread on the CPU. I've used both and have gotten better temps with these than AS5 (even after the 200 hour cure time). Also, when i used AS ceramique, i didn't really find it too hard to spread

IC Diamond 7 is what I use.

I've also used the older Arctic Cooling MX-1 with good results.

Meh. I chickened out and went with AS5.

Said By Tornado

Meh. I chickened out and went with AS5.

LOL, well nothing wrong with that man! AS5 is always good stuff and will serve you well man.

It seems to have cooled down the Triple way better than the crap Sony put it in did (which was poorly applied and was all dry and cracked). I'm power-cycling it as I type this, seeing if I can get it cured.

Oh yea, stock OEM video cards, CPU's in both desktops, and laptops is just crap! I am surprised that any of the main manufactures such as Intel, AMD/ATI, Nvidia, and Via even warranty their product when put in a proprietary system to be honest. Many people do not realize how much difference a quality thermal paste will make vs. the crap that OEM's install and use.

Of course there are some exceptions to this rule, as many of the companies that manufacture enthusiast parts use quality paste on their product to help in the cooling of CPU's, GPU's and chipsets. All the enthusiast manufactures want to be the best, and try to use quality thermal paste to help in this quest.

Of course you must realize that when a manufacture tells the end user that it has a "200 hour curing time," this does not mean that it is crap before that, it merely means that the 200 hours is the optimum time for best results. Many times thermal paste will start to "bake" out after this point, and one may want to change the thermal paste about once every 4 to 6 months depending on what a person does with his or her system.

Said By stinger608

Of course you must realize that when a manufacture tells the end user that it has a "200 hour curing time," this does not mean that it is crap before that, it merely means that the 200 hours is the optimum time for best results.

Oh, I understand that. I've been fiddling with it for a few hours, and it already runs way cooler than I can ever remember it running. I was playing Super Street Fighter IV for nearly 30 minutes before the fans even turned on, whereas before they would kick on about 10-15 minutes when the system was just idling.

Said By stinger608

Many times thermal paste will start to "bake" out after this point, and one may want to change the thermal paste about once every 4 to 6 months depending on what a person does with his or her system.

Well, I'd rather not do it that often. But now that I know the methodology to do it, it shouldn't be that much of a problem if I end up needing to replace it in the future.

You will eventually need to replace it. I replaced the thermal paste on my 360 almost a year ago. I recently pulled it open to check it and it looks like it will need to be changed out. This was with AS5 and my 360 sees a fair amount of use

OCZ Freeze is bomb diggity but you'll have to get it while you can since they are pulling out of all markets except memory, power supplies, flash drives and SSD's. I'm using Coolink's TIM myself. Non-conductive, no burn in time and it has been tested to beat AS5 by a couple of degrees. AS5 will certainly do the job and will almost always beat the generic stuff that gets slapped on your gear by the manufacturer.