ECN Forum Forums Technical Discussion Re: Computers and the Internet computer making moaning noises??

Try finding the stuff though, with Bestbuy and Circuit City putting every CompUSA and mom&pop computer store out of business. I've been looking for the stuff for three weeks because I realized the heatsink in my G3 Powermac had fallen off...

I finally ordered some online via www.newegg.com

Ian A.

Sorry I didn't see noderaser's post above,
must be going blind as well as deaf.

Ian, don't you have a radio shack nearby. They have heat sink compound but it will be a tiny tube.
I bet any decent sized electric supply house carries it too if they deal with industrial customers. You need that compound on the SSRs you see in solid state controllers.
There are plenty of places online to buy the big tubes and any real electronics store should have it. Usually a medium sized city can only support one of these since nobody fixes anything anymore.

Not sure if that's the exact same stuff, but it would probably work. The stuff I recommend is called "Arctic Silver", which uses synthetic silver to conduct heat between the CPU and heatsync. You don't need a big tube, a BB sized drop is more than enough to cover the CPU. You generally want to clean and reapply the compound whenever you remove the heatsync, as doing this will introduce air bubbles that will insulate and cause heat buildup.

Yep, I have about three that I know of around here. None of them carry anything like that.

Ian A.

Try an auto parts store. Heatsink compound is used with ignition modules, such as Ford's infamous TFI-IV modules. These are mounted on a heatsink. You might have better luck at an auto parts store like NAPA or Carquest.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...ease&kw=grease&parentPage=search

Ian,
As unhappy as I am of what Radio Shack has become over the years, most should still carry this. I think you can enter your zip and check avail. Allied, Mouser, Digi-Key, Newark(inone), MCM(inone) are all online sources. Of course you have to decide if you need thermal joint compound or a thermal bonding compound.
Joe

You might also look at your other fans as I have had a few moan from time to time until I replace them...

Also, another name for the "heat sink" compound is Thermal Conductivity Grease.

It's only purpose is to insure an air tight bond between the CPU and heat sink.

You can find thermal conductivity grease at any electronics store.

I made a visit to a local Micro Center last week. They had several varieties of thermal grease. It looked like they had quite a few fan and heat sinks available also. I was there because they have 2GB flash drives for $15.99
Joe

One Word of warning:
If you have an AMD CPU (just look in your System Setting) be extremly careful while replacing your Cooler. Failure in setting the cooler not 100% upright or applying too much pressure to the clamps while mounting the whole thing to the cpu Socket will result in cracking the "DIE", the heart of your CPU.


And be sure, to apply thermal grease only on the DIE, not everywhere else on the CPU.

Good Luck

Herrmann