Advances have been made in many fields of computer technology from displays to video cards and hard drive capacities to thermal pastes. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that no self-respecting enthusiast would ever be caught using generic white paste to help cool their expensive computer equipment. Thermal interface material or TIM is something that anyone with a bit of patience and a few dollars can use to help lower the temperatures of their computer's CPU, video card and even their Northbridge. Back in the day it was perfectly acceptable to use the included white paste that came with heatsinks as the heat output of PC's was much lower than it is today. With ever increasing energy requirements it quickly became apparent that this generic goop just wasn't going to cut it anymore.
Company after company began developing the next best thing since sliced bread to help aid in heat transfer. With so many different options available from silver particles to diamond dust it is easy to become overwhelmed in a sea of paste. So let us do the work for you. Come with me as I put some of today's most popular TIMs along with the timeless classics to the test against the white goo to see just how much of a difference it can really make.
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