Hi i'm celine,this is the first time i post msg here, hope that u all can help me, hehe.... Actually i got question about thermal paste, can anybody tell me what are the factors that may affect the performance of the paste? Coz i try to conduct experiment on that, thanks a lot, hope that anyone else can help me, plzzz.....

factors that may affect a performance of TIM

1) bubbles trapped in TIM after seating HSF
2) TIM sux, or is poorly engineered
3) composition of TIM is of a poor conductor, or particles are too big to fit gaps between HSF and IHS




*
HSF = Heat sink and/or fan
TIM = Thermal Interface material
IHS = Integrated Heatspreader

i just reapplied my TIM from Arctic Silver 5 to the newly bought Tuniq Tx-2, well.... the results is 1C lower compared to the old TIM.. or hardly any big difference..

How about you guys? any comments from Tuniq TX-2 users?

haiz...no difference at all using tuniq TX-2 lol....maybe my room temp..?

i think there's too much hype on all these thermal paste... AS5 , MX-1 , TX-2... all these are good TIM, so, the improvements between them might not be significant...

i tried out 2 methods of applying TX-2
1st : rice grain droplets...
2nd : spreading + ultra tiny speck in the middle..

both also produces no difference...

one thing many people have the wrong understanding of thermal pastes.

they change thermal paste and expect a lot of temperature drop but fact is that how well the difference is shown depends greatly on the heatsink too.

see, if it's using stock heatsink or small heatsink. the heat dissipation is so bad that changing from stock TIM to those higher-range ones would not result in much difference.

the TIMs interface between the source of the heat and the heat dissipation mechanism (HSF).

so look at heat as passengers. TIMs as the train that moves them. HSF? how big is the exit at the train station la. so if the station gate is small, the people (heat) is still stuck so temperature won't show much difference.

hmm most of time the result just won't be too visible ..like wow 5C !!!

no ... probably 1~2c ....

for me the most important is how easily it could be applied and removed ...

5c is not impossible.

the thing is when it comes to cooling, it's not just the paste. if the casing airflow isn't good and heatsink isn't good in dissipation then the good paste isn't going to be helpful.

yup, tx2 is much more easier to removed than AS5.

must understand lor AS5 is different material, can conduct electricity some more. needs quite a period of "running in" before reach optimal performance.

anyway i have AS5, i have AC-MX2. I prefer AC-MX2.

no surprise to see you prefer AC-MX2.... based on your article on your website, there's 1C degree lower compared to AS5.

For my case, the newly applied TX-2 now showing a strong 1C or 1.5C decrease as compared to AS5... so, i assume that TX-2 almost same as MX-2 in terms of performance...

not just that la.

cos that one is just a limited small GC on copper sink also you can see 1 deg C difference. what more better heatsinks.

let's not forget that it's has other features that make it better than AS5, such as the lack of electric conductivity.

agreed.. if the HSF can dissipate much more heat thn the temp will be lowered. think of a fridge tht is how it work by channeling more heat outside to make inside cooler. TIM btw act as thermal conductivity bridge between Proc n HSF. For me TIM is as important as a HSF ( my 2cent )

but no matter how TIM still playing role in cooling.

yeah.. agree with u bro..

just one super noob Q here...
how often are gonna change or re-applied d thermal paste in a year??

i never reapply these thermal paste before...
well it just got harden and i wash it off...
results in 2'C drop in temperature with stock heatsink and no TIM

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Added on February 13, 2008, 10:34 amwell my processor is really HOT !!!

This post has been edited by general_odin: Feb 13 2008, 10:34 AM

and u r using E8400 rite??
y so hot??

the proc got problem in reading the temp

what kind of problem... i used to use as5 as-mx1 and now tuniq2...

seem tuniq2 help to reduce temp alote by 5deg.... wif noctua U12F

just bought ACF7PRO and the mfg edy applied a thermal paste at the bottom of it...
is it ok to use it or need to reapply another thermal paste??

walaaweii.. that pre-applied paste is already MX-1 unless u got another better thermal paste, then just use it la
i also used ACF64PRO before, and i never replace the paste (coz i never take out the hsf also)

sometimes tightening the HSF too strong can cause issues on the temp, do try good monitoring softwares. On the question of how many applications, on my part, i change every 500 hours of usage. Coz i run my pc server like...