How's the TIM on Intel HSF's these days? Comparable to AS5 yet? (in non-OCing system)

[MichaelD]

It's been probably 10 years since I used a stock Intel HSF on any of my builds. AS5 is still the champ TIM material but I'm wondering if the stock stuff on a new Intel HSF is comparable?

I'm building a new file server/domain controller for home and will be using a Xeon E3-1230V2 (65w part). No overclocking at all. Of course, the stock HSF will "work just fine" and that's what I'm intending on using.

But I'm wondering if there is any benefit for this application in scraping off the stock TIM and using AS5? For a non-OCing system that will run 24/7 I'm not sure 2-3C will make any diff.

Thanks.

[blastingcap]

The "champ" is probably something like Indigo Xtreme, followed closely by the elite TIMs like Gelid GC Extreme, Prolimatech PK-1, etc. MX-2 is a notch below but still very good and very cheap. AS5 is actually slightly worse than MX-2 (albeit still good), but it costs more than MX-2.

The stock HSF will indeed "work just fine" for file server duties... especially if the file server spends the vast majority of its time idling, like most home file servers. Intel TIM is not the best but it gets the job done, and for your specific case I don't know why you'd bother with anything different. I mean it's a mostly-idle file server....

[MichaelD]

Why bother? Because I can, of course. Isn't that our mantra?

But seriously, I had no idea all those other TIMs even existed. The market sure has grown since 6-ish years ago when I purchased my current tube of AS5! Thanks for the informative reply, blastingcap. Very helpful.

[Zap]

Originally Posted by MichaelD

But I'm wondering if there is any benefit for this application in scraping off the stock TIM and using AS5?

Not much. Don't bother. Stock Intel TIM has gone a long way since the days of rubber pads and gum-like substances.

Originally Posted by MichaelD

But seriously, I had no idea all those other TIMs even existed. The market sure has grown since 6-ish years ago when I purchased my current tube of AS5!

In other news, technology changes over time.

[MichaelD]

LOL! And Zap comes in with the color commentary! I think I still have a PIII HSF with the pink gum on it somewhere.

Yeah, I sorta lost touch with all the latest and greatest until about a year ago, especially in the consumer desktop space.