Zalman 7000A-Cu paste or Arctic Silver 5?

[bigpgo]

I ordered a Zalman 7000 A-Cu, which comes with some thermal paste. I also have amd64 3200+ 90nm, which I plan to OC to 2.5 Ghz. Should I bother getting Arctic Silver 5, or will it not make a lot of difference?

 

[stelleg151]

Bump, I would like to know as well.

 

[AristoV300]

I would recommend getting AS5. You have to be careful with the stuff they package sometimes, I have had it burn before, or cement onto the cpu with the HS. It turned from white to brown... Also thermal grease/paste needs to reapply after time, unlike AS5.

 

[BW86]

I would suggest getting the as5.

 

[beatle]

Go ahead and pick up some AS5. It'll be nice to have if/when you go nuts replacing the grease on your video card, chipset, etc. 🙂

 

[PwAg]

I have AMD64 3000+ 90nm running prime stable 24hr cycle at 2.5ghz using Zalman 7000A-CU and AC5. I wouldn't recommend anything else. Just make sure you use the "slightly larger than a grain of rice" amount while applying.

 

[racolvin]

Definately AS5. I changed to AS5 and got probably another 5C drop in temps, which in my case (using an Intel chip) is a good thing 😉

R

 

[Operandi]

If you not overlocking AS5 is a wate of money, there are all kinds of benchmarks that show this.

 

[LilHen]

Spring for the AS5.

 

[TJones2]

AS is a myth, just use the stuff that came with the hsf.

 

[Davegod]

Some places say that AS5 is better only on rough based heatsinks, and stick with supplied silicon paste if the base is to a mirror shine.

Impossible to know though, since an impressive about of absolute BS comes with the topic of thermal paste, and even when testing yourself there's so much scope for inaccuracy.

 

[TJones2]

I tried AS on two identical systems, one had AS the other had the Vantec goo that came with the Vantec Aeroflow. The one with the Vantec goo gave lower temperatures, but about 3c. Cleaned the goo off, put the AS on the one that had the Vantec stuff, and visa-versa. Same result. I think there's a huge bandwagon effect with stuff like this (Monster cables comes to mind as another example, and lots of Antec stuff), it doesn't really matter how they perform, its how people preceive how they perform that really matters.

 

[Thermalrock]

you applied it wrong. definitely doesnt perform worse if you apply it right. i had the same problem till i read the instructions and used less.

 

[TJones2]

That's what everyone says....not so. I applied and reapplied a few times over, same results every time. And yes, I did follow their instructions on their website. And why is it that the Vantec stuff always outperformed the AS?

 

[Davegod]

IMO the crucial factor in the quality of thermal paste is not what the resulting temp is (unless it's a big difference), it's how long the paste remains being effective. Really poor stuff can dry out, go powdery and ineffective relatively quickly - but still nto for a year by which time most people have long forgotten about checking temps. I gather this is the reason why both AMD and Intel reccomend thermal pads over paste even to system builders (presumably their main reason for pads on the retail product is customers are less likely to screw it up), to them even 5c higher temps are better than 5% more returns or unhappy customers.

Of course this probably matters less to tech forum people who probably get a new CPU, or at least reinstall the heatsink within 2 years anyway, and probably use at least moderate quality goop.