Thermal compound question.

I have always enjoyed cooling compound threads as they are informative and helpful. My OC days are long past, yet my primary enemy is still heat, as I have always believed that reliability is inversely proportional to temperature.

My latest experience is using the stock cooler on an i5. I have never been comfortable hanging a pound worth of copper and aluminium off my motherboard, so the stock solution looked pretty good. The standard thermal pad on the Intel cooler is Shin Etsu, a phase change material. I tried it and the temps sucked at the high 40's to low 50's. Having heard miraculous things about Gelid Extreme, I decided to give it a try. It shaved a minimum of 5 degrees off the Shin Etsu temps! I was amazed. So, anyone wanting to try a new paste, I highly recommend Gelid Extreme as a product that delivers the goods.

Al Fairclough said:

I have always enjoyed cooling compound threads as they are informative and helpful. My OC days are long past, yet my primary enemy is still heat, as I have always believed that reliability is inversely proportional to temperature.

My latest experience is using the stock cooler on an i5. I have never been comfortable hanging a pound worth of copper and aluminium off my motherboard, so the stock solution looked pretty good. The standard thermal pad on the Intel cooler is Shin Etsu, a phase change material. I tried it and the temps sucked at the high 40's to low 50's. Having heard miraculous things about Gelid Extreme, I decided to give it a try. It shaved a minimum of 5 degrees off the Shin Etsu temps! I was amazed. So, anyone wanting to try a new paste, I highly recommend Gelid Extreme as a product that delivers the goods.

The thing that I wonder about this, is that regardless of brand name, I do not believe that a stock pad is equal to a good thermal paste. Therefore, I would not consider a comparison of Shin Etsu and Gelid Extreme in this fashion to be good. It is like comparing apples to oranges.

I have never OCed my CPU, so I agree that a couple of degrees is not all that important for the average user. What I do consider more important is electrical conductivity, and the ease of application and removal, plus how well it will stand up over time...Of course, a few degrees cooler thrown in doesn't hurt.