Thermal Pad or Standard Cooling Paste?

[Nimbus1951]

If you were to choose between
1) A thermal pad on the cooler
or
2) Remove the thermal pad and apply standard cooling paste

What if the better of the two?

If "2" - how thick a layer of coling paste should be apllied?

Regards,
Nimbus

 

[snidy]

Arctic silver 3 will work best.
Just a thin layer, about the thickness of poster paper

 

[FPSguy]

Arctic Silver definitely is better, but removing the thermal pad can be a real pain. If you are not overclocking I would just leave the thermal pad. If you are overclocking I would consider getting a better heatsink and using Arctic Silver 3.

As for thickness, according to the Arctic Silver instructions:

The flatter the mating surfaces, the thinner the layer that is required. Stock processors and/or heatsinks with normal surface irregularities will require a layer 0.003" to 0.005 thick as shown below to fill the resultant gaps. (Equal to the thickness of about 1 sheet of standard weight paper.) Properly lapped heatsinks with mirror finishes will only require a translucent haze.

 

[BigJ]

Ehh it really isn't a pain to remove the thermal pad at all. First use a Credit Card to remove the base of the thermal pad, a little alcohol to get some more of it off, and then something like Goof Off to remove everything. Takes about 2 minutes.

 

[pillage2001]

Definitely cooling paste. Artic Silver to be precise.

 

[FPSguy]

Ehh it really isn't a pain to remove the thermal pad at all. First use a Credit Card to remove the base of the thermal pad, a little alcohol to get some more of it off, and then something like Goof Off to remove everything. Takes about 2 minutes.

Maybe I will have to try the Goof Off next time. I was not able to get it off satisfactorily with scraping, alchohol, and acetone.

 

[bgeh]

arctic silver 3

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: FPSguy

Ehh it really isn't a pain to remove the thermal pad at all. First use a Credit Card to remove the base of the thermal pad, a little alcohol to get some more of it off, and then something like Goof Off to remove everything. Takes about 2 minutes.

Maybe I will have to try the Goof Off next time. I was not able to get it off satisfactorily with scraping, alchohol, and acetone.

Dude, Goof Off removes everything man! I always use it on processors too to remove those last specs of AS3 or the sticky glue from the sticks companys put on 'em. It works great.

 

[Nimbus1951]

But I've found out I can't even get Arctic Silver... not here in Denmark that is.....
I do have some "standard" paste but I con't know how good that is.

Regards,
Nimbus

 

[Vigilante1]

Have had no problem removing heatsink pads using the following steps:
1. Heat the pad with a hair dryer.
2. When material has softened, remove all that you can by rolling the material off the metal base.
3. Mineral Spirits work great to remove any residue.
4. Complete clean-up by using alcohol.

 

[Jeff7181]

Well, they say you're not supposed to heat it because you melt the wax that's in it, then you can never get all the wax off... but I say... why not scrape off as much as you can, then hold a flame to it? Wax burns right? So holding a flame to it will burn off anything left behind... melted or not. Bad idea?????