Thermal pads or compound?

I have to replace the thermal compound on my AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (and
don't ask why).
Given that I have never had to manually apply a new thermal layer myself
- should I go for pads or compound. Overclockers stock both. Pads seem
easier to use, and given that I am not in the habit of doing this more
than I need to, or looking to overclock this system, they seem a better
choice.
Any comments?
Cheers,
M.

 

The message <400c3f93$0$9395$>

Thermal paste is the best option, providing it is applied sparingly. In
the case of the AMD cpus, you literally only need a very tiny blob. If
you aren't confident that a very tiny blob will do the job, just try it
then remove the heatsink to verify that practically all of the paste got
squeezed out to the edges of the cpu's heat spreader.

Once you've proved just how tiny an amount is actually needed, you can
clean the parts and repeat the assembly process again.

If both heatsink and cpu heat spreader were perfectly flat, you'd not
need any such thermal paste. The thermal paste / compund is simply there
to fill in all the microvoids with something that has a better thermal
conductivity than air.

If you do a "Paratity" (local 'in-joke' reference) and use *liberal*
amounts of heatsink paste (or a pad), you will compromise the heatsink's
performance.

HTH

 

Pads are easier to apply and you're less likely to get it wrong if
you're not accustomed to applying paste. They're also less inclined
to harden with age so it's likely the heat sink will be easier to
remove if/when you have need to do so in the future.

A good paste, well applied, can give marginally better thermal
performance but if temperatures are so close to tolerances that the
odd degree C is that critical you should be looking at a more drastic
course of action that applying thermal paste! I use paste mostly
because a) I always have and b) I've got enough Arctic Silver to last
me a lifetime! ;-)



--

 

Another reason for using pads is that paste invalidates AMD's warranty
on the CPU.

Cheers,

Guy

** I may not be perfect, but I'm
** English, and that's the next best thing!