Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound

Advantages: Great thermal conductor
Disadvantages: Expensive, hard to spread

...Arctic Silver 5 (AS5) is one of the most recommended TIM (thermal interface materials) by enthusiasts. Its made using actual silver, which is pretty cool, and it does look pretty cool when it comes out of the tube. Applying the TIM The ideal way to put TIM on the CPU is to put on a small amount, say the size of a small grain of rice, and rub it in. The excess is cleaned off and then an even smaller amount put on and left - when the Heatsink is put on, it is meant to be 'wiggled', meaning the TIM gets spread evenly. However, AS5 is very thick which means it is hard to spread, and most of the TIM ends up in a very thick layer in the middle while there is little on the edges, which is not good, as the IHS on the CPU (the metal thing) means that the heat is meant to be transferred evenly, not just in the centre! Results When the TIM... Read review

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Advantages: Very cool, easy to install
Disadvantages: copper on the cpu side far from mirror ( needs a polish )

...Test system: processor - AMD Athlon FX62 (2 x 2800 MHz / 125W TDP) motherboard - ASUS M2N32 DeLuxe Wireles Edition (passive cooling system with HeatPipe) Cooler is very easy to install just one lever. More experienced users will probably remove thermal compound and polish the surface of the cooler ( it is far from being a mirror ) and then apply high quality thermal compound. This will give You another 1-2 C less and faster cooling down after stress. all tests were done using Zalman STG 1 ( high quality thermal compound ) Temperature readings after 60 minutes in idle: Akasa AK-876 37 Arctic Cooling 64PRO 38 Scythe Katana II 39 Temperature readings after 60 minutes in 100% load: Akasa AK-876 56 Arctic Cooling 64PRO 58 Scythe Katana II 61 Temperature readings... Read review

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Advantages: Non-conducting, easily applicable, very good cooling
Disadvantages: tube is rather small, for approx 10 applications

...When buying a CPU or Graphics card, most manufacturers have already installed or included a heatsink + thermal conducting paste or pad with the product. This thermal conducting paste is usually made of silicone, either grey or white and has the effect of filling the gaps between the heatsink and the chip, to improve heat transfer from one surface to the other. So you are wondering why companies like Akasa produce heatsink paste when something is already included. The answer is that the Akasa product (TC 5022 Pro) performs significantly better than the standard one and holds its ground against other pastes (like Arctic Silver). The paste comes in a small tube and is pretty expensive. The compound is made of silicone, but has the benefit that it is easily applied on surfaces, as well as performing very good, even when not applying too... Read review

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