Having used up the freebie tubes that came with the Zalman and Arctic Cooling replacement coolers, I now need to fork out cash for new ones . What are the good ones? I've heard of the Arctic Silver 5 but I'm concerned with its electrical conductivity and also the seemingly more difficult way of applying it.
Cheers!
Thermal compound
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
Personally I wouldn't worry about the conductivity of AS5 (unless you plan on using it in odd applications near circuitry), but Ceramique is supposed to be easier to use and nearly as effective without being conductive at all. Either way, when applying it to CPU/GPU surfaces you aren't supposed to use a whole lot.
honestly, it really doesn't matter what you use. See this. The one reason to get a name brand is to make sure you don't get some compound that will evaporate out from under your CPU. I've used Ceramique happily, there's no reason you shouldn't unless there's something cheaper available.