Best Thermal Paste?

I need to buy some new Thermal Paste after breaking my old Thermal Seal, AS5 used to be the best but that was a while ago, Whats the best option now?.

 

From my understanding AS5 is still the best. I've never head different.

 

Arctic Silver 5 most definitely

 

I'd have to agree that the consensus still seems to be that AS5 is still the best.

 

<AOL>ME TOO! ME TOO!</AOL>

Seriously though, AS5 is the best although the difference in temperatures between one paste and another is rarely more than a degree or two.

 

AS5 is undoubtedly one of the best and easily obtainable. It's rarer, but there's also a Japanese brand called Shin Etsu that seems to be just as good as AS5.

 

I've used Shin Etsu and would advice to stick with AS5. Shin Estu can be a real pain to apply. Performance wise they seemed to be about the same.

There is also artic cremaque which suppose to be really god too. No harm in shorting anything with this.

 

You won't short anything with AS5 either. It only becomes conductive under extreme pressures.

The difference between pastes is, as said above, only one or two degrees C +/-. The real difference is proper application and seating of the heatsink. If anybody notices 5-10C differences after applying AS5 to replace older paste, it's because they did a better job of application/installation than the last guy.

 

I hate AS5. It's a pain in the rear to apply (I'm really anal and obsess over whether I have JUST the right amount). I prefer Ceramique, by the same company. It's easy to apply AND clean (if you don't clean AS5 off correctly/completely from the area surrounding the die you could potentially fry your CPU). Ceramique lets me sleep at night. =P

 

Zalman ZM-STG1 is also very good. In reviews it performce the same as AS5 but the brush makes it easier to use and apply.

 

That's the paste I use as well. Temps between the two products are in the 1-2 deg range.

 

Ceramique is actually supposedly better than AS5 however they are so close the margin of error is greater than the temp difference.

Now the BEST in terms of temps is LiquidMetal though it is corrosive so I would advice people to avoid it. The second best is Shin-Etsu X23 which is some sick stuff. It is significantly better than AS5 though it is harder to apply but worth the while. The third best is Shin-Etsu G751. Arctic Silver MX1 is a rebrand of that stuff. It is not as good as the X23 but much better than the AS5 as well.