Has anybody tried copper gasket sealer material on their cpu?

[MadRat]

Its cheap, forms a solid, and conduct heat better than more conventional materials. But, does it work well?

 

[Wolfman35]

Yes. I used CopperCoat for years and it is a decent thermal solution but not any better than the stock thermal pads or Radio Shack grease and not as good as artic silver. It IS however very conductive!!! Also not entirely permanant. Wanna know what works better? JB Weld. Just be SURE you never want to remove that Heatsink again. We used JB Weld on chipset sinks forever (10 years).

 

[DaddyG]

Seems like Thermaltake are now using Graphite pads instead of the Phase Change stuff. Yet another point to discuss.

 

[dkozloski]

I used CopperCoat for years to assemble engines in an aircraft engine overhaul shop, not because of any heat transfer property but because it made the engines easier to disassemble the next time they were overhauled. The stuff never seemed to set up hard but was always a little bit gummy even years later. The copper content varied dramatically from can to can and the size of the particles varied from dust to sizable grains. I was always of the opinion that any claims of a heat transfer property were about as credible as astrology, incredible gas-saving carburetors, or miracle oil additives, all with a lot of testimonial letters which seem to be written by the same people.

 

[mschell]

The problem with Copper Kote is the ratio of copper to the vehicle which is basically just glue. Spray Copper Kote gets more copper on the surface as more of the carrier evaporates especially if you give it multiple coats. I've used it to stick larger heatsinks on Asus GeForce cards, the chip temps dropped quite a bit according to the Smart Doctor monitoring utility so it must have worked. I'd just use Artic silver for CPU's though as masking and spraying is such a hassle to save a buck.
Copper gasket sealers were developed initially for coating diesel engine head gaskets(made mostly of copper), the super high compression ratio on diesels really heats the cylinder heads, some of this heat needs to be transferred to the engine block through the head gasket. Some engine manufactures specify it while others don't, just requiring a meticulously clean mating surfaces so the jury is out on whether copper is necessary in engine applications.

I'd say use it if you just stepped on you're only tube of RS goop, the stores are close and you want to get your new system running.