What's a good thermal paste for my Athlon XP 2400+ ? It's oh-so-hot ,around 60 - 70 degrees (celcius or farenheit?) and I need to get a hottest one so that it'll cool down. Will applying a better paste significantly reduces the temperature to around 50? Or should I need to get the whole better heatsink and the paste as well?
Using some high-quality thermal paste like ArcticSilver 5 is essential, but you should not expect it to do wonders. ^^ In combination with a week HS it's worth nothing.
YEp, artic silver is by far the most famous one. Artic silver sill help but it will probably only cool it down like 3-4 degrees. You need a good hsf and also make sure that your case is properly cooled.
Are you using the stock heatsink + fan? Is it free of dust and case air is flowing properly? What is ambient (room) temperature?
Actually, if you really wanted to lower the temperature, you should get a better cooler. Yes, arctic silver 5 is better, but do not expect miracles maybe around 2~3c decrease only.
I am using Arctic Silver along with Thermaltake Venus12, and it works really well. I reckon' AS along with XP-90.
Venus line is really cheap too. Newegg.com! And if you buy arctic cooling's heatsink/fans they always come with some sort of thermal compound(paste).
Arctic Silver Ceramiqe is what i use. It's about as efficient as AS5 (various comparative tests show either one to be better) but cheaper, easier to apply and isn't electrically conductive. /Olle
a normal load temperature should not be that high for 2400+. Do you overclock your rig? under normal condition, your stock heatsink is enough to do the job. And also dust accumulate on the heatsink will also contribute to the increase in the tempreture. And hell with the thermal paste, get a better heatsink if you really need to.
paste? I highly recommend Arctic Ceramique...with good cause. The differance betwixt the Ceramique and Silver temperature is almost nothing. But if you get a little sloppy and put too much Silver on the cpu, it WILL short the cpu out. Ceramique is non-conductive and getting too much on the cpu...so it oozes out onto the side will have no adverse effects. Just my opinion...tnv
Using too much paste wont help either.Experts recommend a small amount in the centre,then press together while turning the two faces so it spreads evenly.
I've got my 3800+ Venice core running at a reported 30 degrees idle with arctic freezer cooling and arctic silver paste... great combination, never seen the CPU temp higher than 37 on load, quite incredible, especially since its overclocked by 200Mhz... (FSB at 250 with the multiplier dropped)
Buy Arctic cooling freezer series heatsink. Not only it'll help cool down u're processor, u'll get arctic silver (3g) with it free..
