Thermal Compound suggestions

[cloughDavid]

I have just ugraded to a Q6600 and and i am using a Arctic Freezer Pro 7 HSF.

Any suggestions on what thermal compound is best to use and what i should be using to clean the old paste of with?

[kalniel]

Vegemite did quite well in tests I think.

Otherwise any thermal goup will be fine. Use acetone or isopropanol based cleaners, eg nail varnish remover to get rid of any old stuff.

[cloughDavid]

My temps are maxing out at around 61c, would using something like Artic Freeze lower it much more than the standard stuff.

[aidanjt]

Around here, people generally stick with the usual Arctic Silver 5, and MX-1/2.

[Noxvayl]

My temps are maxing out at around 61c, would using something like Artic Freeze lower it much more than the standard stuff.

Yes an after market heatsink will bring down the temps. Depending on which one you buy it could be more than 15C difference. Good choices would be; Thermalright Ultra 120, Scyth ninja Plus, Asus Arctic Square or the Zalman CNPS-9700. Personally I chose the Thermalright one and it is an awesome cooler.

I have just ugraded to a Q6600 and and i am using a Arctic Freezer Pro 7 HSF.

Any suggestions on what thermal compound is best to use and what i should be using to clean the old paste of with?

I use the Arctic MX-2 paste which is what Arctic themselves use on there heatsinks. Works much better than others I've tried, even gives 2-3C difference just by replacing the factories thermal compound with MX-2

For cleaning you need an alcohol based agent so that it evaporates and leaves the surface without any residue. Turpentine or thinners should do but the best thing would be to find some Ambersil IPA(Isopropyl Alcohol).

[kalniel]

My temps are maxing out at around 61c, would using something like Artic Freeze lower it much more than the standard stuff.

With the same HSF? Not at all, as long as the standard stuff was also applied correctly.

[grand_witch]

I used Arctic Silver 5. I even tried there recommended method of aplication, applying a line across the center. Seems to be wokring fine for me and not as messy as spreading.

[h0mes]

i use mx2 paste + tuniq tower 120 and get idle temps of about 25C on a q6600 oc to 3.6ghz 42 underload

[Bugbait]

i use mx2 paste + tuniq tower 120 and get idle temps of about 25C on a q6600 oc to 3.6ghz 42 underload

I'm always a little sceptical when I see quotes like this. Are those winter or summer temperatures? Are you in an air conditioned room with a low ambient temperature? Are your load temperatures taken from a full Orthos load (all 4 cores)? Are they measured with the latest CoreTemp or the BIOS? What voltage is our CPU running?

The problem with "low" temperature reports is that some inexperienced people will take them to heart and think something is wrong when their temperatures are much higher. An idle of 25C and load of 42C are very low for a Q6600 @3.6Ghz.

[Taz]

Another vote for Arctic Silver 5 (applied using the method suggested by AS themselves).

As for cleaning thermal paste off a heatsink or CPU, I use Asaka TIM cleaner (available from Scan for a few quid and will last years).