Arctic Silver vs Radio Shack thermal paste

Post by **ccb056** » April 30th, 2004, 1:37 am

Let me first start off by saying that when I first built my system, I was not using any thermal paste. I was running an Athlon 1.33GHz CPU on a Thermaltake Volcano 6Cu+ and I was getting temperatures of around 60 degrees (centigrade) at idle. After reading many online forums and trying to overclock a little, I realized that my cooling solution was at best, sub par. I decided to bite the bullet and buy some thermal compound. I went to the local radio shack and decided to buy that white stuff that comes in a tube. I went home and applied a thick layer of the stuff. That was a bad move. The temperatures were higher with a thick glob of thermal paste than with no thermal paste. I then redid the thermal paste, added a thin layer this time, and the temperatures were much better.

After about a year or so, I upgraded processors from an Athlon 1.33GHz to an Athlon XP 2100+. Needless to say, the old heatsink just wouldn't cut it. I decided to buy a Thermalright Heatsink and some Arctic Silver 3. That was possibly the BEST decision I have made with PC cooling ever. With the new combination, my computer had a faster and much cooler CPU.

Remember, when applying any thermal grease, always use very thin layers.

Tebow2000 · Post by **Tebow2000** » April 30th, 2004, 1:41 am

Yes, and you need the thermal paste to conduct heat between the CPU and the heatsink

Smartweb · Post by **Smartweb** » April 30th, 2004, 1:44 am

Huh. I get 40C from my P4 2.4C wiht the retail heatsink with no paste, etc.

Tebow2000 · Post by **Tebow2000** » April 30th, 2004, 1:45 am

Put paste on man.. That isnt good that you dont have thermal paste on

Smartweb · Post by **Smartweb** » April 30th, 2004, 1:46 am

40C isn't bad either.

Tebow2000 · Post by **Tebow2000** » April 30th, 2004, 1:48 am

It isnt, but it would be alot safer with thermal paste because something might go wrong, and your CPU will fry

Smartweb · Post by **Smartweb** » April 30th, 2004, 1:49 am

Intel CPU's do not fry. They shut down until they are cool enough to run again. Plus, I have warranty.

Aggressor Prime · Post by **Aggressor Prime** » April 30th, 2004, 1:50 am

40C is terrible for non-OCed, well cooled house, no clustering, passive (not %100), and Intel CPU.

My CPU is OCed 25% in a poorly insulated house in a room of 4-5 active computers all at %100 usage. 3/5 of those CPUs are Athlon XPs. Plus I have a heavy duty Video Card pumping out heat. And I am only 56C.

When I had my PC in my room with all the other conditions active, it was 35C.

Smartweb · Post by **Smartweb** » April 30th, 2004, 1:51 am

Why are you assuming that I have a well cooled house?

Tebow2000 · Post by **Tebow2000** » April 30th, 2004, 1:51 am

I am in a nicly cooled house, 73-73 with an Overclocked P4 2.4C to 2.8C and my CPU is running at 36c

Aggressor Prime · Post by **Aggressor Prime** » April 30th, 2004, 3:16 am

Because I have been in your house.

It is like truly 90F in this room.

Your house is like 70F.

Edit: Opps, sorry.

Tebow2000 · Post by **Tebow2000** » April 30th, 2004, 3:35 am

Do you mean farenheit

Smartweb · Post by **Smartweb** » April 30th, 2004, 8:57 pm

My thermostat says 82.

Aggressor Prime · Post by **Aggressor Prime** » May 1st, 2004, 12:20 am

It is still less than 90F.

Smartweb · Post by **Smartweb** » May 1st, 2004, 12:21 am

I've been to your house. It is 78, or sometimes 79.

Aggressor Prime · Post by **Aggressor Prime** » May 1st, 2004, 12:33 am

That is the temperature of the house, not the computer room.

CCB056 in the computer room says, "It is 90F in here."

Tebow2000 · Post by **Tebow2000** » May 1st, 2004, 12:55 am

How do you live like that?

Sumpin_Wong · Post by **Sumpin_Wong** » May 1st, 2004, 2:42 am

I've never used anything but Artic Silver. The guy who built my first comp (as I watched) told me it was the best, I researched it and agreed.. So I stuck with it.

Artic Silver 5 is by far the most superior thermal compund on the market today, hands down.

I recently switched from Artic Silver 3 and my temps dropped an additonal 4*c

I have friends who use the stock "thermal pad" that comes on an AMD heatsink.. and I always get to hear about how they "need" to switch over to a water cooling system. If they too switched to Artic Silver 5, they could save a couple hundred dollars

Tebow2000 · Post by **Tebow2000** » May 1st, 2004, 2:45 am

Artic Silver 5 isnt the solution maybe for their issues

Aggressor Prime · Post by **Aggressor Prime** » May 1st, 2004, 3:03 am

What do you mean from that.
4C is amazing from Artic Silver 3 to Artic Silver 5

I think that the best combination of heatsink, fan, and thermal compound are these:
Deep Impact (DP-102)
Dual 80mm Aluminum Fans
And of course, Artic Silver 5

It costs only $93 (w/o shipping) and makes a great Birthday or Christmas gift.

Smartweb · Post by **Smartweb** » May 1st, 2004, 3:05 am

Yeah, I'll give someone thermal paste for their birthday. lol

Aggressor Prime · Post by **Aggressor Prime** » May 1st, 2004, 3:06 am

Can you give it to me?
I only have Artic Silver 3.
I like 30C!

Tebow2000 · Post by **Tebow2000** » May 1st, 2004, 4:09 am

I need some too!

Sumpin_Wong · Post by **Sumpin_Wong** » May 8th, 2004, 8:31 am

Only one thing concerns me about the Deep Impact.. the size of it. I'd truely hate to order the darn thing and then find out I have clearance issues with my Asus A7N8X-E, and have to RMA it back to Newegg

I've been using the Swiftech and I think I'll stand by it's performance. Paired with a 92mm Tornado to it (on a fan controller) and it's almost unbeatable, as far as conventional HS/fan combos are concerned.

CraxyMitch · Post by **CraxyMitch** » June 30th, 2004, 7:28 pm

I have used Radio Shack Thermal Paste since I first started building computers, and it has always shown superior performance. I've even researched it (due to the nagging little voice that says cheapness doesn't always pay) and I have always found that side-by-side testing of high-performance and overclocking always shows Radio Shack's *now discontinued* Thermal Paste to be superior to almost all other pastes, and when compared to, say, the overprice Arctic Paste, it's a great bang for your buck if you don't want your buck to go bang.

Later on I might post the latest article I have found on the issue. The point is that once upon a time you could save a lot of money and time by running down to Radio Shack... now, they've affilated and taken a pay-off (my opinion) and forced us to go outside of well-budgeted spending for simple cooling.

My Two Cents... later I'll make it a Nickel.

Sumpin_Wong · Post by **Sumpin_Wong** » June 30th, 2004, 8:52 pm

Well, to each his own.. I guess. I know you won't find any Radio Shack shizz inside my case.

It's Artic Silver 3 or 5 for me.. and NOTHING else!

Tebow2000 · Post by **Tebow2000** » June 30th, 2004, 10:08 pm

I use the thermal paste that spire makes..lol

Post by **ccb056** » June 30th, 2004, 11:15 pm

The radio shack stuff can be better if you use a very thick layer of AS3 or AS5. You always want to use THIN layers.

monte84 · Post by **monte84** » July 1st, 2004, 7:07 am

Right, the paste, ceramique, is just meant to fill in any gaps that would be between heatsink and die/heatspreader. Since the heat spreader/heatsink probably arent perfectly smooth. If applied properly, AS should be better, since Silver is a better conductor and it is made with some silver in it :\

Sumpin_Wong · Post by **Sumpin_Wong** » July 1st, 2004, 9:27 am

monte84 wrote: If applied properly, AS should be better, since Silver is a better conductor and it is made with some silver in it :\

Contains 99.9% pure silver:
Arctic Silver 5 uses three unique shapes and sizes of pure silver particles to maximize particle-to-particle contact area and thermal transfer.

That's just a wee bit more than some

Conclusion
Arctic Silver 5 is by far the best thermal compound on the market, at least here in Norway. We don't believe we exaggerate if we say that Arctic Silver 5 will be the thermal compound most overclockers will use in the time to come - unless there should come some other stuff that proves to be better on the market, of course.

Arctic Silver 5 receives two awards: "Recommended" and "Editor's Choice" for superior performance.

Quotes taken from http://www.overklokking.no/annet/arctic ... index.html... and Monte, of course.

A comparison of thermal compunds can he found Here

ComputerBB

Arctic Silver vs Radio Shack thermal paste

Arctic Silver vs Radio Shack thermal paste

Confused