Which thermal paste is right for me?

[hurtstotalktoyou]

Hey, all. I'm having problems with my E6300 temps. I thought I'd invest a few dollars in some thermal paste to help alleviate the problem. I have three questions:

1. Is it worth the $10 or so it would cost? I use a stock cooler which I'm pretty sure already had some thermal paste smeared on. So does it matter?
2. Is Arctic Silver the best option for me? That's what I hear everyone talk about, so I assume that's what I should get (if I get anything).
3. Which tube is right for me? Newegg has a bunch of tubes. I don't know the difference, other than their capacities.

Thanks all!

 

[CurseTheSky]

Arctic Silver 5 comes in one flavor... just a few different sizes. A small tube for $5.99 will be plenty for a few different builds.

You would notice some difference in temperatures by removing the old thermal material (usually cheap) and applying AS5 - most likely a 2-5C drop, depending on other situations. However, it will not make leap and bound differences when used on a stock cooler. If you're planning on overclocking a bunch, just invest in a better cooler and get the AS5 to go with it.

There are other good thermal pastes around (Arctic Cooling MX-1 for example), but you can't go wrong with AS5.

 

[Conky]

The Arctic Silver stuff is good and I've used a ton of it over the years but recently I have started using the Arctic Cooling MX-1 goop with excellent results.

It's non-conductive and non-capacitive... this means you could smear it all over your computer and it won't short stuff out like that AS stuff. Plus, I think the AC stuff just works better. That's my 2 cents anyway.

 

[wraslor]

check out reviews on the zalman stg1 good stuff!