Garcian Smith said:
Stock thermal goop comes pre-applied on your CPU and/or heatsink and should be fine so long as you're not planning to overclock. If you're planning a mild-moderate CPU OC and don't want to drop $30+ on an aftermarket cooler, however, then I usually recommend investing a five-spot in some Arctic Silver AA-1.75G. The stuff keeps my Athlon II X3 435 at a nice cool 20C idle/36C load with stock cooling (I have yet to find the time to OC it, sadly.) Application, by the way, is easy: First, use some isopropyl alcohol and a paper towel or Q-tip to remove the stock compound. Then place a small, BB-sized amount of compound on your CPU. (With thermal compound, less is more, and overdoing it can actually make your CPU run hotter.) Finally, spread it around in a thin, even layer with an applicator; if your compound doesn't include an applicator, then another Q-tip will work fine. |
A great use for your old gift cards.
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