*UPDATE*
We'll it seems as though the parts I ordered for my case are out of stock for now, so whilst I wait for them I thought I might buy some high quality TIM and see if it makes a difference to my CPU's temps.
I have a corsair A50 cooling my CPU at the moment, and I'm using the TIM that was supplied with it. So I purchased some Artic Cooling MX-4 compound and decided it might be interesting to run some tests and see how much of a difference I get with the high end stuff.
So first off I tested the generic Corsair compound under idle and full load conditions using Prime95 and RealTemp. I recorded the max temps of each core then took a mean average of these four temps and repeated the process five times, in order to get some consistency.
Then after I had finished testing the Corsair TIM I removed my A50 and removed the thermal compound, then I applied a grain of rice sized blob of MX-4 to my 2500K and reattached my CPU cooler. I then repeated my temp measurements as before. Below are some pictures for your guys followed by some tasty graphs!
Rig Specifications:
Intel Core i5 2500K - 4.5Ghz
8GB Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 1600Mhz
ASRock P67 Extreme 4 GEN3
MSI GTX 560Ti Twin Frozr II 1GB - Core Clock 950Mhz
BitFenix Shinobi (Windowed)
Corsair A50
2x 120mm BitFenix Spectre Intake Fans
3x 120mm BitFenix Spectre Exhaust Fans
The Results Are In!
So as you can see from the graphs above the Artic Cooling MX-4 does indeed make a difference! It's not quite the 3-4 Celsius difference I was hoping for but it is definitely helping my CPU run cooler. For me the most interesting results are in the third graph, comparing the temperature difference of the five runs. It clearly shows that the MX-4 compound is keeping the CPU temps a lot closer together and reduces the heat difference between the four cores.
Well I think that wraps that one up for now, this is certainly not the most scientific experiment ever carried out but I tried to make it fair for both compounds and I think my results reflect that. Maybe I will run another group of tests in a few months and see if the heat dissipation properties of the TIM increase or decrease over time.
So I hope you found this marginally interesting and educational
feel free to leave any comments and questions! 
We'll it seems as though the parts I ordered for my case are out of stock for now, so whilst I wait for them I thought I might buy some high quality TIM and see if it makes a difference to my CPU's temps.
I have a corsair A50 cooling my CPU at the moment, and I'm using the TIM that was supplied with it. So I purchased some Artic Cooling MX-4 compound and decided it might be interesting to run some tests and see how much of a difference I get with the high end stuff.
So first off I tested the generic Corsair compound under idle and full load conditions using Prime95 and RealTemp. I recorded the max temps of each core then took a mean average of these four temps and repeated the process five times, in order to get some consistency.
Then after I had finished testing the Corsair TIM I removed my A50 and removed the thermal compound, then I applied a grain of rice sized blob of MX-4 to my 2500K and reattached my CPU cooler. I then repeated my temp measurements as before. Below are some pictures for your guys followed by some tasty graphs!
Rig Specifications:
Intel Core i5 2500K - 4.5Ghz
8GB Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 1600Mhz
ASRock P67 Extreme 4 GEN3
MSI GTX 560Ti Twin Frozr II 1GB - Core Clock 950Mhz
BitFenix Shinobi (Windowed)
Corsair A50
2x 120mm BitFenix Spectre Intake Fans
3x 120mm BitFenix Spectre Exhaust Fans
The Results Are In!
So as you can see from the graphs above the Artic Cooling MX-4 does indeed make a difference! It's not quite the 3-4 Celsius difference I was hoping for but it is definitely helping my CPU run cooler. For me the most interesting results are in the third graph, comparing the temperature difference of the five runs. It clearly shows that the MX-4 compound is keeping the CPU temps a lot closer together and reduces the heat difference between the four cores.
Well I think that wraps that one up for now, this is certainly not the most scientific experiment ever carried out but I tried to make it fair for both compounds and I think my results reflect that. Maybe I will run another group of tests in a few months and see if the heat dissipation properties of the TIM increase or decrease over time.
So I hope you found this marginally interesting and educational
feel free to leave any comments and questions! 