Thermal Paste

mastrom101

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Jun 12, 2010
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I need thermal paste for my i5-2500k. I will not be overclocking as it is meant to be a family computer and last atleast 5 years. However, i am running the computer in performance mode in the UEFI BIOS, which will increase temperatures. I am using the stock cooler.

I have never applied thermal paste yet, so i will need several tries i think to get the CPU Fan in properly.

These are the two pastes i am looking at:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=16826&CatId=503

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=480215&CatId=503

The second is cheaper, and can be used four times. I was leaning towards this, but i really don't know much about paste.

Any advice? Will the latter be noticeably worse than the first, and will this make a difference?

Finally, the reason im getting thermal paste is because i had to reapply my CPU fan. This was after weeks of use. However, if i make a mistake in installing the CPU fan, and i remove it within a minute or so, will i still need to reapply thermal paste?

If you know of any guides on how to apply the paste, feel free to link them, that would help me a lot.

Thanks!

 



you can actually use zinc? like the white paste stuff?

@amuffin Troll?
 

Zinc oxide powder suspended in silicone-based grease to form a paste does exist. I have a tube of the stuff from GC Chemical and it works reasonably well.

Graphite paste (might be sold in car shops as high-temperature "anti-squeal" grease for brake shoes) should work fairly well. That stuff is electrically conductive though, so beware of spills.