The Best Thermal Heatsink Compound....

[PCGuRu2K]

We all know how important it is to use some type of thermal interface material between the mating surfaces of a heatsink and the processor to which it is mounted. The best contact would be metal to metal but for our purposes the surfaces always have minor irregularities that allow small air spaces to be created between the two surfaces and air is a very poor conductor of thermal energy. As far as thermal interface materials go we do have a few choices under two primary groups and they are thermal interface pads and compounds (AKA pastes and greases). For this article we will not discuss the pads which are most convenient but in most all cases fall short in thermal transfer performance as compared to most compounds.
http://www.unlimitedhardware.com/product_reviews_articles/thermal.htm

------------------
Good Artist Copy, Great Artist Steal!

[sdye78]

Hmmm.... my 1.25$ tube of thermal grease from radio shack works perfectly lol.

[Terry]

I use silver thermal grease...expensive ...but worth it. My Celeron 366 [lapped] with a GlobalWin FDP32
would boot into Windows at 605 but froze in some games. I got the silver grease, wiped off the Radio Shack stuff with alcohol real good and put on a real thin layer of the silver grease. Runnin great for 3 weeks now at 605.

[Big Lar]

I,ve tried many/ including the silver, radio shack gives me the lowest temps

[Rainbow Six]

Hmm. I shall share with you my experience. Retail celeron 366s, stock hsinks with the thermal pad. Radio shack thermal compound. I added some without removing the pad. Decent. Next week, remove pad and use a small bit of compound. Temp shoots up. Crap. Add lots of compound. Stabalizes, but the best was still pad+compound.