thermal paste/pad?

[soup lightning]

whats this for? do you have to have the paste. was looking at a heatsink for my cpu and a lot of reviews said had something about arctic silver 5. do i have to have this? how much is it?

 

[FadingTheory]

Thermal paste basically is used to fill the cracks between a chip (CPU, RAM module, etc) and the heat sinks. Because no surface can truely be flat (our manufactoing process simply cant do it without skyrocketing the price), we use a pad or paste (Paste is better) to fill in the gaps for better heat transfers. Otherwise, air fills in these gaps, which insulates the CPU and builds up heat. This is bad.

Artic Silver 5 is the best avilable thermal gel.

 

[soup lightning]

so just a drop of it on top of the cpu and im set? how much is it?

 

[FadingTheory]

If you get a retail CPU, it will have a pad on the heat sink, so you CAN just drop it on.

If you get oem, then you'll need to get some artic silver 5. bout 4-6 dollars a tube.

In that case, someone else will have to tell you how to put the thermal grease on. I'm not so good at it.

 

[Powerslave]

You apply a dot the size of a grain of rice.

Then you put the heatsink on and over time it will even out.

 

[003]

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions_big2.htm

 

[jolancer]

how do u know he's using for a p4, or a A64?

use this AS5 instruction link instead and pic witch core your using it for...
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

its about $13 shipped, about $6 if you get it shipped with something else.

 

[soup lightning]

those links make it sound complicated. basically just put a small drop on cpu and put the heatsink in?

 

[GameGURU]

how do u know he's using for a p4, or a A64?

use this AS5 instruction link instead and pic witch core your using it for...
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

its about $13 shipped, about $6 if you get it shipped with something else.

I didnt think it mattered...

 

[Jonc731]

I am still a little confused about applying thermal paste. Is it the same whem applying it to a Duron (exposed core), or a Pentium 4(unexposed core) Do i just put a drop about the size of a grain of rice on the core of a Duron, and in the middle of the surface on a pentium 4 .

(I can't recall the name of that metal cover???)