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Thermal Grease for processor cooling

Hi,

I had removed the heatsink from the processor a few days ago to clearup the heatsink fan and the dust accumulated in that area. I had read at some places that once the pad assemble is dismantled, a new one should be used or thermal grease is recommended.

I bought a packet of Antec thermal grease yesterday to replace the almost three year old pad between the processor and the heat sink. I applied it on the processor+heatsink assembly and the machine is up now. However, my system logs do not show any difference between the temperatures with the thermal pad and now with the grease.

So there were a few doubts about the thermal grease which I used. The consistency of the grease is similar to a 10% cream. But in the images on the internet describing the process I had seen the grease to have a consistency similar to that of a toothpaste. Is what I bought the right thermal grease? It cost me $5 for a gram of it. Or would I be better off using a thermal pad instead?

Thanks, /KS

Reply to
BW
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Reply to
David C. Partridge

Actually, thermal grease tends to work better than termal pads. The pads are used for consistency of application and to reduce the mess. You're probably just as good off or better now than with the thermal pad. (I work for one of those "major" computer companies, FWIW and use both).

b.

Reply to
<barry

Grease usually works better than a thermal pad because it usually forms a thinner layer, but some thermal grease is so viscous that it's hard to make it thin out, and you have to swirl the heatsink around while pressing down or even warm the heatsink with a hair dryer (the heatsink, not the CPU). Radio Shack "transistor heatsink grease" or dielectric grease sold at auto parts stores (used for waterproofing spark plug connections and cooling ignition modules) is perfectly adequate.

Don't obsess about CPU temperature as long as it's cool enough, usually

70C or less for a modern CPU with a maximum temperature rating of 85-90C. 50C is very cool for silicon and there's no benefit in going lower.
Reply to
do_not_spam_me

That's not unusual, the quality of thermal pads has increased in leaps and bounds over recent years, and most are as good if not even better than the cheaper thermal grease. Don't get over fussed with the temperatures too, the difference between the best and the worst thermal grease/pads will only be a few degrees if they are applied correctly.

Reply to
Anna Daptor

A pad prevents metal to metal contact, very important. Machined and polished flat surfaces with little grease, is best. If the surfaces are not flat and polished, a pad may be better.

greg

Reply to
GregS

Huh? I don't think so.

Machined and polished

polished,

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Reply to
CJT

Exactly. Unfortunately very few commercial heatsinks are anything close to flat and some even have very visible ridges on their base. In those cases a thin layer of thermal compound can actually be worse as there's an even smaller contact area between device and heatsink.

Reply to
Anna Daptor

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