Radio Shack thermal compound - crap or not?

[XMan]

Reason I ask is that it's all I've got and all I've been able to get access to.

Am I better off using this or nothing at all on a T-bird with a FOP-38?

 

[bacillus]

does the hsf have a thermal pad or interface material? if you're not going to o/clock then that should be adequate. if there's no pad, then you must use some thermal paste of some discription. Radio Shack thermal compound is not the best but will suffice if it's all you have!

 

[Mikewarrior2]

Yes, its crap, but it is better than nothing.


Mike

 

[Big Lar]

< been using the RS thermal goop for about 2 years now, no complaints here from me, or my cpu which is always below -5c....

 

[Mday]

yes, it's crap and it is better than nothing =)

actually, if you do use crap, i don't know if it'd perform better than the RS shti.

 

[smp]

Big Lar? -5c eh?

 

[vfrjim]

It's OK if thats all thats available, used it before.

Jim

 

[Spoooon]

Damn, I read a review where a guy was testing peanut butter, margerine, and maybe mayo on heatsinks. The peanut butter(smooth, not crunchy) performed surprisingly well.

 

[atomicbomberman]

it's ok, not super bad, but then most people who say RS sux ass is because they are spoiled by Artic Silver

 

[Mikewarrior2]

No, it sucks because it dry's out under T-bird/Duron heat/clip situations.


mike

 

[The Reaper]

I too have had the RS dry out on an old P233. I like the stuff that comes with the Alpha heatsinks the best. YES I use the Alpha stuff over my Artic Silver, because I get better results.

 

[Mikewarrior2]

Reaper,

ON a socket-a test platform, or on diode tests?


Mike

 

[The Reaper]

Hey Mike. It was on a cII 633 @ 980 so it was a internal diode. I tried the Artic Silver 7 or 8 times and always came out with the same results. I tried all different ways of applications and never got the results everyone else was reporting. I always got 3-4 deg F better with the Alpha stuff. I am using the Artic Silver now on my new Tbird 1GHz @ 1.2GHz+ and a Abit KT7A-R with the stoket-a thermister and MBM 5.04. The temp at full load is ~113 deg F. Of coarse I don't believe itcause this thing is pumping out some serious heat. BTW both cpus are using pep66 H/F.

 

[Mikewarrior2]

hmm... what mb with the celeron2? Not all mb's read internal diode, such as older bx boards or early be6-IIs and most via boards.


Mike

 

[The Reaper]

It's a Abit BX6-R2. I did the mod to read the internal diode. Works pretty well. Still going after 2 years.

 

[Mikewarrior2]

Ah, cool... Just odd that the AS did not outperform the Alpha grease..



Mike

 

[Viperoni]

I've had the alpha grease and it is quite good stuff.
The RS grease was actually very good to me, didnt dry out after about 4 months of use in my server (366's @ 550 @ 2.2v)