about thermal paste...

[araaraara]

Do I really need to use some Arctic Silver 2? Can't I just use some other white paste? I saw a 3 gram tube of AC2 going for $25! I used some stuff my dad borrowed from a friend on my winchip. It was pretty thick and in my opinion, it worked well. I unplugged my heatsink fan and the heatsink became warm, indicating that heat was getting to it. I may get some AC2 when I start overclocking, but for a stock 750mhz duron, do I really need it? And is it ok to use the stuff on the bottom of my volcanoII?

[Bsdboy]

The white stuff is fine,not as good as AS but it works ok.

Bsdboy

[This message has been edited by Bsdboy (edited 06-10-2001).]

[Szech]

$25?!? That's a rip off. I know 2cooltek and plycon sell it for much less.

Anyway, the white thermal grease is fine. Obviously not as good as Arctic Silver, but good enough for the job.

The Phase changing material on the bottom of your Volcano II works well enough (only a few degrees F higher than Arctic Silver, in my experience), but don't ever remove your heatsink if you use it. Once it is on there, and it undergoes the phase change, it is like gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe. If you remove your heatsink, and put it back on, the material will not match up, and there will be huge air gaps that will make your temps shoot up. I removed my friend's stock heatsink when I connected his L1 bridges, and I spent a good hour cleaning that crud off the processor. It is not fun. But if you don't plan on ever removing your heatsink (i.e. you're giving the computer to someone who couldn't open the case if their wedding ring fell inside), it's fine.

[Dputiger]

A tube of AS2 shouldn't cost you more than 9 or 10 bucks. As to the difference, my temps dropped 4 degrees C when I switched--and I was using a discrete thermal probe at the time, not just hardware monitoring.

[wildbuffalo]

Found ASII for 7.98+3.55(SH)= 11.53

http://cpusforless.safeshopper.com/7/89.htm?119]http://cpusforless.safeshopper.com/7/89.htm?119

Also check out links in this thread over at Anandtech: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=37&threadid=463436

Wild

Edit: added link to Anandtech forum.

[This message has been edited by wildbuffalo (edited 06-11-2001).]

[araaraara]

Are those US prices? Remember, I live in Canada.

[wildbuffalo]

Yep! those are US dollars. Try www.3dfxcool.com (http://www.3dfxcool.com) , they ship AS-II by regular US mail for $1.50 and 50 cents extra for outside. Convert the currency to canadian and decide.

Wild