I recently found this story over on Overclockers, Bogus TIM paste I'm rather surprised nobody else has already mentioned it (or at least it doesn't appear so) It appears that there are two lots of TIM paste that were being marketed under false pretenses.

OCZ Ultra II Premium Silver Compound, and CompUSA Silver Thermal Grease. Both claim an extremely high content of microfine silver as the main thermal transfer chemistry. One of Overclockers authors, 'Silversinksam' got suspicious of the two compounds, in part because they 'looked to perfect' and tested them for silver content, and found NO SILVER!

He then sent samples of each, to a professional lab for analysis. The official lab report is part of the article, it concluded that neither compoound contained significant amounts of silver, and that both appeared to be made from the same formulation in the same plant, probably in different lots.

The reaction of the two companies has been most interesting. OCZ immediately did their own tests to confirm the initial reports, and has now switched suppliers (to Arctic Silver) claims to have been defrauded by the original supplier (whom they are pusuing legal action against), and has started a recall of the original formula with a generous set of terms, and freebies to compensate for the problem. They very convincingly appear to be caught in a bad situation, and trying to make the most graceful recovery possible.

CompUSA has done NOTHING as of this date...

Guess who I think deseverves kudos for trying to do the right thing, and who goes into the 'Dubious marketing hall of shame'?

Gooserider

Thanks for the good info, Gooserider. I did notice that silver stuff at CompUSA and wondered if it had similar properties to AS.

Well HS, if it was made as labeled, it probably would be a reasonably close equivalent, however I doubt that the falsely advertised stuff is as good. Although I should note that AFAIK there was no actual performance testing done on the bad paste, so just how poor a performer it is could be debated. The compound as described by the testing lab sounded like it might be roughly comparable to the old classic 'white goop' which other tests have shown to be a poor performer compared to the top shelf products but not terrible in an absolute sense.

I consider it highly unlikely, but it would be ironic if the bogus stuff did turn out to still be a top performer.

Gooserider

CRAP! I just used a thing of the compusa stuff on my P4 2.0

Thanks a lot for the heads up tho! Now to track down a tube of the real stuff....

I have a 60MM fan on a pure copper heatsink at 1600 RPMs - almost silent.

25C Case
27 C Idle
49-50 C Load
Stuff doesn't seem that bad actually...

Take a look at this review. Maybe that "bogus" stuff is not so bogus after all, even without silver. Seems like cheap Radio Shack white grease is as good as the expensive stuff.

The DIY copper-based stuff I brewed up probably is as good as it gets. I suspect the most important part of the operation involves attaching the heatsink to the CPU with sufficient pressure, and with both surfaces being absolutely flat. I feel better now.

Seeing what you do with Nissan parts, I've got to ask: did you start with this?

Heh...Very similar stuff. I've got a big can of the compound....seems to work just fine. (Free sample)

LOL - that's great, BF!

A lot of times, TIMs need a few days to settle down, so that overclocker review doesnt seem that accurate.

~EO