We're not saying it's not good stuff. We are saying that it ain't a fixall solution.
It's obvious that AS5 or any other product is not responsible for ~20°C reduction.
I happen to have several products (pads and compound) in the house and they don't vary enough to tout one over the other and some of the "silver" knock offs of AS products do a poor job when compared to Radio Shack stuff or a pad.
AS5 and other products from Arctic Silver are often recommended only because its all the rage; not just because it's good stuff. In the case of Arctic Silver, the blind leading the blind is not a bad thing...they make good products.
It's also important to know that many of us here are avid overclockers and do not have the problems of many who want more out of their machines. We understand the importance of a total cooling solution and thermal paste is a very small part of the picture.
As an example, lazyman runs about a dozen overclocked rigs including Celerons, Prescotts, AMD XP's and A64's...who knows what else. He also designs and manufactures cooling solutions and goes to extensive ends to make sure his products work.
As another example, jam reinforced my belief that proper heatsink installation is paramount...not the compound that just sits there and does it's job.
If you use AS5; that's fine.
If you have cooling problems, it's time to do some research, it's time to keep a log of your efforts, it's time to insure good case airflow, and it's damn sure not time to just throw money at the problem.
HotShot,
I'm not flamin' ya here. Just presenting my side of the argument. AS5 is good stuff and even "choke" water cooling is dandy but only if properly done.
I'd like to get a cooling page up on my website but I've been hoping lazyman or jam or johnoh, or you would do it first. If I have to do it, I'm gonna need a lot of input from the Computing.Net crowd. At least, I pretty much get the cream of the crop of practical overclocking. I've found the advice here is solid. I've found it's also practical.
I'd certainly visit overclocking sites to learn and see the best of the best but, we all enjoy great advice here that applies to the real world. Since most of us need to use our machines in the real world, I believe the advice here is pertinent.
A very long string of links to websites who give good info should follow this protracted response but, I'll leave it for later.
Best regards all, sorry to go on for so long.
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