What do I mix a powdered heatsink compound with?

[Fanguy]

I bought a new heatsink and fan on Ebay and when it arrived , there was a tiny packet of heatsink compound powder ('Stars' brand ) that came with it, but it doesn't say what to mix with it. Any ideas??
MB

 

[alvine]

I have never heard of powdered thermal compound...it should come in a paste form. thermal paste helps with transferring heat between the cpu and your heatsink

 

[willard]

I've never heard of mixing your own thermal compound before. Sounds like paste of the lowest possible quality to me. Ditch it and buy a tube of the good stuff. Arctic Silver is a few dollars for a tube, and has great performance. You could pay a bit more and get nonconductive paste as well, which will save your board if you accidentally get some on it.

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

I've never heard of mixing your own thermal compound before. Sounds like paste of the lowest possible quality to me. Ditch it and buy a tube of the good stuff. Arctic Silver is a few dollars for a tube, and has great performance. You could pay a bit more and get nonconductive paste as well, which will save your board if you accidentally get some on it.

+1 The powdered stuff can't be very high quality, unless it's diamond dust, which I VERY highly doubt.

 

[geekapproved]

Get some TX2 or TX4, AS5 takes up to 100 hrs to cure.