Fans & Thermal Paste Help...

Arthalen

Arthalen

Arthalen

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Joined
20 Apr 2006
Posts
2,037
Location
Leeds, UK
Ok, some opinions and advice would be helpful...

1) I Need some new paste - I've always stuck by Artic Silver 5 in the past but is there anything better these days?? Thermal paste reviews are hard to come by it seems.

Not looking to pay megabucks (and that liquid metal pro stuff is well off the menu), but not adverse to spending a little time applying it properly for best results (hence the old AS5 choice).

Its to be used for pretty much everything - CPU/HSF, NB & SB new mountings, GPU HS remount and even on my new RAID Card lol.

2) Fans! I'm after some new fans for my case.

Requirements are nice looking, decent airflow but quiet, and also in 120mm and 80mm versions. They'll be used both as case fans and I'll be mounting a couple on my 80mm spacing NB, SB and RAID Card heatsinks.

I really like the look of the Enermax Clusters (White LEDs look good) and have always liked the Sharkoon Silent Eagle fans, again any comments or others I should be thinking of?

Case wise, they'll be going into my Lian Li A70B thats going to get a side window modded into it.
 
Arctic Silver 5 is still good but I now use mostly Arctic Cooling MX3. However providing paste is correctly applied I don't think there's a lot to choose between any the good quality ones. MX-3 has very low electrical conductivity which is a bonus just in case it goes further than expected!

As for fans it depends on PWM versus standard and I usually prefer to get fluid bearing fans so they stay quiet for years to come (although good quality sleeve fans can last quite well). I personally like Scythe fans, but the Akasa Apache fan is a real gem (120mm only). OC doesn't stock 80mm Scythe but Skarkoon and Fractal Design are also good.
 
Well, I've picked up some AS5 again today, still seems to compete as a leader but as said, 1c isnt that much of a difference :D

What can I say, but that I like working with the stuff? :D

As for fans, I'm in a right quandry over using either Sharkoon Silent Eagle 1000 series or the Enermax Cluster fans. Both look the part (with the Enermax looking better imho), and both come in decent 80mm and 120mm versions.

I'll be strapping 3 80mm versions onto some NB style chipset coolers (1 NB, 1 SB and 1 for my RAID Card), while the 120mm fans will be used as Case Fans and for the CPU cooler.

I have 4x molex to 3 pin 7v adaptors to use for the case fans as well...

At the moment, I'm leaning towards the enermax fans.... hmmmmmmmmmmm....
 
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