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Thread: Thermal Compounds vs Thermal Pads

  1. #1
    Sprouts are not food Attila the Bun's Avatar
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    Thermal Compounds vs Thermal Pads

    Is there a difference other than price?

    If there is I'm guessing it's the conductive qualities.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Mithrandir's Avatar
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    Re: Thermal Compounds vs Thermal Pads

    Depends on what you're using them for?
    Cavalier-X: Biostar TP45-HP ¦ E4600@3.1ghz - Xigmatek Red Scorpion (OCZ Freeze) ¦ OCZ ReaperX 2x2gb (792mhz @ 4-4-4--12) ¦ Xigmatek NRP-MC651 ¦
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    xfx 9600gt Alphadog edition (780/1950/1000) ¦ X-fi Gamer ¦ Gigabyte Poseiden ¦

  3. #3
    Sprouts are not food Attila the Bun's Avatar
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    Re: Thermal Compounds vs Thermal Pads

    Quote Originally Posted by Mithrandir View Post
    Depends on what you're using them for?
    Good point...In this case I was thinking in terms of cpu to non-stock cooler (blimey almost sounds like I know what I'm talking about...bet I don't know though)

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    Senior Member watercooled's Avatar
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    Re: Thermal Compounds vs Thermal Pads

    Thermal pads generally last longer than paste but don't offer the same performance.

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    DILLIGAF GoNz0's Avatar
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    Re: Thermal Compounds vs Thermal Pads

    invest in a tube of decent paste, it will last for years.

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    Grumpy and VERY old :( g8ina's Avatar
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    Re: Thermal Compounds vs Thermal Pads

    +1 paste
    Cheers, David



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    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    Re: Thermal Compounds vs Thermal Pads

    Quote Originally Posted by Attila the Bun View Post
    Is there a difference other than price?

    If there is I'm guessing it's the conductive qualities.
    Convenience vs minor performance difference. Pads are still fine for most purposes and the lack of misapplication might be beneficial.

  8. #8
    Sprouts are not food Attila the Bun's Avatar
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    Re: Thermal Compounds vs Thermal Pads

    Thanks for the advice folks - what would be a "tube of decent paste".

  9. #9
    Grumpy and VERY old :( g8ina's Avatar
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    Re: Thermal Compounds vs Thermal Pads

    Cheers, David



  10. #10
    ALT0153™ Rob_B's Avatar
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    Re: Thermal Compounds vs Thermal Pads

    I read that double-sided tape works ok in place of thermal tape (for RAMsinks etc not a CPU/GPU) any thoughts?

  11. #11
    Sprouts are not food Attila the Bun's Avatar
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    Re: Thermal Compounds vs Thermal Pads

    Many thanks g8ina

  12. #12
    Grumpy and VERY old :( g8ina's Avatar
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    Re: Thermal Compounds vs Thermal Pads

    AFAIK, *ordinary* double sided tape has no thermal tranfer property whatsoever, so NO !!
    Cheers, David



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    Senior Member Pob255's Avatar
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    Re: Thermal Compounds vs Thermal Pads

    Also the normal glue on double sided tape loses it's sticky ability when it gets hot, so your heatsinks will fall off

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    ALT0153™ Rob_B's Avatar
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    Re: Thermal Compounds vs Thermal Pads

    Well I did it on my 7900GS and it worked fine for ages

    Heat WILL transfer, the material isn't thick enough to stop that so the sinks did get warm, I wouldn't use it on anything that got more than a little warm though!

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    DILLIGAF GoNz0's Avatar
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    Re: Thermal Compounds vs Thermal Pads

    you wait until it drops off and shorts something out rob.

  16. #16
    Senior Member Pob255's Avatar
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    Re: Thermal Compounds vs Thermal Pads

    Well you're lucky, I've seen issues with normal tape and heat before

    Should also mention that thermal tape and thermal pads are two very different things.

    Thermal pads are thick and usally used on smaller less robust chips where you have a single heat sink covering multiple chips, such as memory or MOFET VRM's, esp on stock graphic card coolers.
    The thick pads here do not hold the heatsink on and the thick layer soft material they are made from insures pressure and contact to be spread evenly over multiple chips from a single heatsink.
    You do not want to use a Thermal Pad on a high heat output item like a GPU or CPU.

    There's also liquid metal pad's but they are a different thing again.

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