How good is RadioShack thermal grease?

[ThreeDollarBill]

Thinking of lapping my stock Intel heatsink.
But will have to take off the stock Intel paste (Lithium grease?) in the process.
Is RadioShack heatsink grease a good enough substitute?
(I know I should get something like Arctic Silver but it's kinda pricey considering I'll only use it once or twice...)

Thanks.

 

[PlunX]

Even though Arctic Silver is considerably better, I still use the Radio Shack stuff.. My temperatures are fine.

 

[holdencommodore]

My temps are fine with the RS grease.
MSI PC Alert says that the case is 27C and the CPU is 29C.
If AS was freely avilible in my country though, I would get it.

 

[Spoooon]

On my Athlon Classic, I first used Radio Shack paste. Then I switched to Arctic Silver and saw a dramatic change in temperature. I thought the money spent was well worth it.

edit: I ended up using my syringe of small contact formula on my video card, cpu, chipset cooler, and my brother's thunderbird. Good stuff!

 

[Rockhammer]

It beats peanut butter by a slight margin. The Arctic Silver stuff is decent, but I've always gotten lower temps with the Chemtronics silver compound.

 

[BuckMaster]

Im using Radio Shack Grease and dont have a problem with it.

 

[thermite88]

The Radio Shack thermal paste works fine for a period of time, but will dry out faster than industrial grade thermal paste.

If you have the Intel CPU which is fairly low in waste heat, the Radio Shack stuff will last a reasonably period of time. If you have the high heating AMD CPU, you may find the Radio Shack stuff drys out pretty quick.

The Intel retail heat sink uses the Dow Corning 340 thermal paste. It is one of the best on the market.

 

[lenjack]

I've had hot CPU's using RS paste for years without drying out.

 

[jd in IL]

Archer/Radio Shack silicone zinc oxide does fine for most. It does dry out but most of us swap HSF and reapply so often that we never notice. Leave in on for a year or so and it will turn to powder. Another choice that can be found at most auto stores is the poor mans Artic Silver, Permatex anti-zeize compound. Works good, lasts long time. 🙂