When my power supply blew I thought I would take the chance to re-seat my heatsink as well.
I installed it several years ago using an older type of arctic silver and I noticed temps were running much too high. I assume the older stuff hardened and then the heatsink was nudged and wasn't making a good connection anymore.
Re-seating it with this compound lowered temps significantly and it seems to be high quality stuff. Arctic Silver Matrix Thixotropic Premium Thermal Compound-2.5G (MTX-2.5G)
Recently I rebuilt my mother's computer and I had some artic silver 5 left over. I decided to use the rest of it on my ol' 60gb PS3. I opened it up, cleaned the old stuff off, applied some thermal paste, and put it back together. I heard in various forums that the heat sink doesn't sit well on the processors and more than the usual amount was needed. I tried that and didn't like how soon the fan would kick in. I opened it back up, removed some so that it would be the amount you'd normally put on a cpu, and put it back together. Much worse; so bad I wouldn't even play it for fear I was going to see flames.
Bought a tube of this stuff, went to apply it and it wouldn't even come out of the tube. After squeezing til my hands were red, a bunch of it shot out. It looked like gum and it wouldn't spread. I know people are on both sides of the fence about spreading it, but what I did was apply the heat sink and removed it to see it's spread. Then I actually attempted to spread it and it kept peeling off the processor. I had to push it down and form it out like gum.
Surprisingly the fan takes longer to speed up than with the original artic silver. I figured this was a better choice becaause it looked similar to what Sony used. However, I'm wondering if it's supposed to not be adhesive (literally peeled it off my finger) or if mine was dried out.
I noticed that the consistency was not good. One portion was nice and soft, and others were hard. Was almost scared to use it. Not sure is it gets old or temperature can affect it?
Probably will not recommend or buy again
I'll try to be fair. This is good stuff. It's really thick and just seems to do a wonderful job transferring heat! Xbox fans quit spinning up so high. Really good product. Wish I could buy again.
Here's where I don't like it one little bit. It doesn't come out of the tube! I poked the hole in the end, and tried to press it out. Harder and harder I pushed until... Flooof!!! it all came out at once. Maybe I did something wrong, but I've used a few different thermal pastes before and none of them were this hard to use. This one would have been my favorite because of the thickness, but it simply cannot be due to the fact you can't get it out.
this matrix thermal paste works better than the artic silver paste. the artic silver is just to thin but the matrix is thicker and it doesnt burn off the chip as fast as aritc silver. i use it to repair xbox 360's and i havent had any come back saying it doesnt work anymore. so this is the best thermal paste ive seen.
I'd go with a different tip if I was designing this personally. But when you're getting this as part of a free shipping deal, this is a great little tube of thermal compound for a current job or few or just to have as a personal backup when you only sometimes work on computers.
After applying this to my BFG Geforce 9800 GT, it ran about 17 degrees cooler! (BIG difference)
I was having trouble with my card overheating, and I though it might have been my Power Supply, as the minimum suggest PSU for the 9800 GT is 400 Watts. I was using a 350 Watt. After replacing my PSU the card still ran hot (about 105 degrees Fahrenheit!)
I took the cooling case of the card and I thought it may be the thermal grease, so I bought this and applied it. The card now runs at about 88 Fahrenheit in FurMark. Still not GREAT but a good improvement from 105! The geforce 9800 GT is known for overheating due to its single slot form factor.
Contacted this seller on a bad tube of this stuff (IT CAME OUT THE WRONG END) even after shoving a tack in the front BEFORE the first use. No custermer service at this place. PCI Micro, I hope they make this right. I will say this is no reflection on amazon or artic silver (bad products happen) Its the sellers responsability to back what they sell with good customer service (a dying trate). - Thermal Compound - Playstation 3'
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