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Shellhead · Wed Feb 20, 2002 3:37 pm

OK, it's been a couple of years since I upgraded, so forgive me if this is a stupid question: does thermal paste make a difference in cooling the CPU these days? Btw, I'm upgrading to an Athlon XP1800+.

Thank!

ANApex · Wed Feb 20, 2002 3:44 pm

It's better then nothing.
It's better then thermal tape.
It's better then a thermal pad.

(just my opinion of course)

dolemitecomputers · Wed Feb 20, 2002 3:59 pm

I agree. I would recommend Arctic Silver 3.
The wonder paste that does wonders.

Vrock · Wed Feb 20, 2002 4:19 pm

Go to Radioshack, spend $1.50 on the white goo, and use it. It works just as well as the expensive silver/aluminum/ceramic stuff out there. There has yet to be a 3rd party review done where any of the expensive "designer" goos significantly outperform the white goo. The designer goos aren't gonna get you that extra 100mhz overclock.

The one exception in my opinion is Artic Silver Epoxy, which is a very useful product for permanent attaching of heatsinks and the like.

dolemitecomputers · Wed Feb 20, 2002 5:16 pm

This is a review of Arctic Silver 2 but does compare to a generic brand:
http://www.exhardware.com/reviews.php?Id=24

Vrock · Wed Feb 20, 2002 7:31 pm

That review is another stellar example of the crap hardware sites that are out there. Their testing methodology is totally flawed. I assume, since they have not indicated otherwise, that they are using the in socket thermistor to measure temps. You might as well put your finger on the heatsink and say "this one feels warmer". In socket themistors measure the temperture of the air inside the socket, or at the most the back of the CPU. They do NOT measure the CORE temp of the CPU. They are notoriously inaccurate/misleading because of this. Outside factors such as the type of fan and placement of things like capacitors on the motherboard further skew such results as taken with the in socket thermistor.

There are two ways to tell the temp of the CPU. One is to rig a thermocouple to actually touch the core of the CPU and take readings from that. The other is to use the Athlon XP's (or other supported CPU) internal thermistor. Until I see a goo review done using either of these methods that shows a SIGNIFICANT difference in temp (1-2 degrees C is NOT significant) I won't believe that these designer goos do anything other cost more money.

dolemitecomputers · Wed Feb 20, 2002 7:48 pm

Right. I can't speak on behalf of all hardware review sites so I don't know why some do not use a setup like you mentioned. That was just one review I found off the bat.

J5 · Wed Feb 20, 2002 10:32 pm

Yeah, thermal paste is better than pad or tape.

Lao Tze · Sat Feb 23, 2002 1:59 am

I have seen a couple shoot-outs of thermal pastes, the differences between the really expensive stuff and the "radio-shack white goo" is negligable.

Sat Feb 23, 2002 2:17 am

I have to agree with Lao. My choice of thermal paste is pretty much whatever is available where I am buying the heatsink. But then I'm not going for that extra 50Mhz in overclock just to claim some record. More important than the paste is the quality of contact between the HSF and processor. The paste is really only supposed to fill minute holes.

simo647 · Thu Mar 07, 2002 8:20 pm

In ran my xp1800 with the thermal paste that came with it and then with Nanotherm and the temps droped to a consistent 40C from around 42C.
May not be the core temp, but I'm always up to try new things on my sys, and the $5 it cost me isn't making me lose sleep.

Toyotamr2_86NA · Thu Mar 07, 2002 8:34 pm

My heatsink from Intel has a thermal pad on it. SO i didnt use ANY thermal poop at all. And its running fine.....stays at 40C at idle and under heavy loads goes up to 45C (SOMETIMES) depending on how hot it is in my room. And this is while having it overclocked 400 MHz above stock speed.

the1businessman · Sun Apr 07, 2002 11:28 am

artic 3 is good it drops 30-45f off not bad for $8 better than putting a whole bunch of fans

tekmachine · Sun Apr 07, 2002 3:02 pm

I have yet to see any concrete evidence expensive thermal paste is better than the stock thermal material that comes with every Joe User heatsink out there. Personally, I'd sooner throw my money out the window than buy something like Arctic Silver. In fact, I think both are one and the same, but I'd have more fun seeing my money fly out the window. :-)

the1businessman · Sun Apr 07, 2002 3:23 pm

cheaper ones are said to crack or whatever, so artic last long and higher temps :lol:

Sun Apr 07, 2002 4:55 pm

http://www.dansdata.com/goop.htm

Paste is better than tape or pads because it is thinner. You want just enough goop to fill in the irregulaties between the surface of the heatsink and the top of the CPU. If you can see a performance difference between the generic white goop and the expensive overclockers' stuff, you're almost certainly putting it on too thick.

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