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Thermal Paste Shootout


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i'm a few pages in, and i gotta say the author is getting on my nerves with his holier than thou attitude, when it seems to me that he might not be as smart as he thinks he is.

 

A thixotropic fluid is a fluid which takes a finite amount of time to attain equilibrium viscosity when introduced to a step change in shear rate. In layman's terms a thixotropic material is thin and manageable when static and undisturbed, and thickens as the material is manipulated or spread.

well when it comes to stuff like this i'm a layman, but hold on, this doesn't seem right...

 

from wikipedia:

 

A thixotropic fluid is a fluid which takes a finite time to attain equilibrium viscosity when introduced to a step change in shear rate.

ahh ok i see what's going on here...

 

A thixotropic fluid displays a decrease in viscosity over time at a constant shear rate.

wait, is it just me, or does that completely contradict what the author gave as his definition in "layman's terms"? sounds like this guy is trying to explain something he doesn't understand himself.

 

Most answers from both the professional reviewer industry as well as enthusiast community claim that you should use a single drop "about the size of a pea". Well, we tried that advice, and it turns out that maybe the community isn't as keen as they thought.

last i checked the predominant advice was to use a single drop "about the size of a grain of rice".

 

Thermalright is probably the biggest offender in the category of poor factory surface finishes, which is ironic if you consider the loyal fan-base who adore their products without question.

surely people like thermalright coolers because they often offer best in class performance?

 

i'll keep reading, but i'm going to take this guy a lot less seriously.

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I'm still not fully convinced that paying what I consider a small fortune for a miniscule amount of "special" heat sink compound is worth it at the end of the day. I use Radio Spares heat sink compound that comes in a 20ml tube for

Edited by paulktreg

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surely people like thermalright coolers because they often offer best in class performance?

 

i'll keep reading, but i'm going to take this guy a lot less seriously.

 

 

I liked my TRUE, but it took 3 attempts to actually get one that was even close to flat. The 2nd was worse than the first one they shipped me. I also think this is why NewEgg doesn't carry them as much anymore... They had too many RMA's. The 3rd one I got was close enough and I didn't want to have to sit and wait for yet another cooler, so I lapped mine.

 

http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=81238

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So ideally the less fluid between metals, the better heat will transfer between them. Even less conductive than fluid is air, which then also means that you want even less of this between surfaces than fluid.

Metals might be able to absorb a lot more heat, but we want to dissipate that heat not store it

I'm pretty damn sure water will conduct more than metal will and not just heat either. This is why we don't submerge electronics in just plain water

Edited by CowKing

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I have to agree about thermaltake having the worst finish, I had 2 or 3 of them that when just set on the cpu to see how they looked and felt I thought they where going to fall over if I turned it loose. Had to spend about 3 hours lapping to get them flat. I quit buying them after that.

Edited by road-runner

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Metals might be able to absorb a lot more heat, but we want to dissipate that heat not store it

I'm pretty damn sure water will conduct more than metal will and not just heat either. This is why we don't submerge electronics in just plain water

 

i remember reading a review when a reviewer replaced the TIM with water, and he got abt 5degress lower temps

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i remember reading a review when a reviewer replaced the TIM with water, and he got abt 5degress lower temps

 

I would not doubt that until the water dried up, hell they will work without paste, hell they will work without any heatsink at all for awhile...

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