Arctic Silver III no longer the champ - Tech Support Forums

uethello · February 22nd, 2003, 08:49 AM

I just bought a CPU and was looking around for an interface material. Usually I'd head right for the AS III, but I saw this:

Thermagic

and some reviews:

tweaktown
monster hardware

thronka · February 22nd, 2003, 09:35 AM

Any thermal interface material is good as long as it was good during manufacturing. Check AMDs website for the stuff you need. Half the time you need only a $.50 item from your local computer store. Remember, Retail CPUs and the heatsink AND thermal interface material of high quality. In my eyes, I see no reason to use a thirdparty thermal interface material.

mechanymagazine · February 22nd, 2003, 09:46 AM

Any thermal paste might be good, and itll do its job, but not as good as ASIII or this stuff uethelo is talking about.

PresterJohn · February 22nd, 2003, 09:51 AM

a lot would depend on whether you wanted to OC the chip and how high...

thekingofpain · February 22nd, 2003, 12:50 PM

I read Tweaktowns review and a ½° celcius aint gonna make me ditch my AS III and run out and buy some, plus the fact that they recommend NOT using it on aluminum heatsinks dont sit so well with me as not everyone has gone to copper yet...

EndobioticChaos · February 22nd, 2003, 01:16 PM

Bah. That's one review. And even in their review, the best results only dropped temps 1 degree. In one of the tests, the TherMagic had higher temps. Face it, the "thermal compound battle" really isn't that significant at all. Even the very best stuff won't drop temps more than a few degrees over the very worst stuff.

Unless your temps are already much much too high, those 2-5 degrees of difference won't matter in the least. And if your temps are that high, you need to be investing your money in a better heat sink or fan, not "better thermal compound."

uethello · February 23rd, 2003, 10:29 AM

I posted this for people who want the best interface material. Thermagic is, to all appearances, the new "best"

Quote:

That's one review

No, it's not one review, it's two. Here's some more:

o/c Intelligence Agency
nvmax
cluboverclocker
MonkeyReview

Also, 2-5 degrees makes alot of difference when you're overclocking.

griobhta · February 23rd, 2003, 10:38 AM

I would have to say that if it is no real problem running your chip at <60C that the benifits of a very good compound over a merely good compound is not all that critical. As far as I can make it out the better the compound the quiter i can let my machine run.

g