Thermal heat sink compound?

Question

Hello all tech heads. I normally replace all thermal compound on all heatsinks every 6 months including cleaning all fans and dust etc. Im just wondering what is everyone else's practices on this

cheers

Mark

Answer 1

Kudos, dude! Your meticulousness is something to be congratulated. Not everyone, even the tech heads, do this regularly, I think. You are taking very good care of your system and it will do the PC a world of good. :-)

Answer 2

I agree, the low cost white thermal grease does seem to "dry out" - try using the better "Silver" thermal compound.

http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=77063

It will cool better and it doesn't dry out or change thermal characteristics after getting hot like the cheap white compound. You will get better cooling, won't have to replace it, and you won't risk damaging anything not having to remove your heatsink every 6 months.

And remember, the thiner you can apply it the better it will work. You WANT it pressed out along the edges - thermal compound is only to transport heat from the chip to the heatsink where they are not actually touching. A thick layer is NOT ideal. The ideal situation is that there is direct physical contact between the CPU and the heatsink over most of the area and compound fills the small gaps where there isn't direct contact.

There are good heat sink compound instructions on the Antec web site.

http://www.antec.com/specs/instruction4.html

Good Luck

Answer 3

yes i agree. good job. I have an xbox original that lately has been freezing/crashing after being played on for some time which i found out is due to overheating. i put additional fan and increased the speed of the built in one but still problem remains. i decided to remove the heatsinks of the processor and graphic chips and i saw the the thermal compounds are gone and squeezed around the perimeter of the chip. i replaced the compound on both chips and presto, no more problem.

Answer 4

This is a totally useless operation, the less components are disturbed the better. Heat sink compound lasts the life of the machine normally. Cleaning out dust can be a good idea, although I have machines that have been running for many years without doing so with no trouble.

Answer 5

it is alway a solid prepare to scrub the two the CPU and HSF surfaces and then reapply thermal paste any time which you do away with the warmth sink. the reason being that in case you have been to place it returned onto the CPU, there may be air trapped between the two surfaces, reducing the warmth conductivity between the middle and the warmth sink. of direction, if it is an previous computing gadget or something, feh, purely make constructive that it would not get grimy.