thermal paste

[megawhompertoo]

Re: thermal paste

The retail stuff is always adequate. The best way to remove it is to use either 100% isopropyl alcohol or 95% ethanol (if you have access to chemicals). Isopropyl alcohol works best (absolutely no residue left over, ever), but cheap whiskey and over the counter rubbing alcohol work in a pinch so long as you use a lint free cloth and some distilled H2O afterwards to get the impurities off the surfaces, and let it dry thoroughly.

[LuckySeven]

Re: thermal paste

Retail stuff is never very good. I had a 1950 Pro which had Arctic Cooler Accelero X2 and after removing pre-applied and putting some Zalman stuff there temps dropped 20C on load to less than 45C. Very nice cooler but original fitting and paste was rather poor.

And from experience Intel paste is always too thick and stiff. You can't get a good contact so it's recommended to clean it and use something else.