LB wrote:

Has anyone used Arctic Silver instead

THE-RFI-EMI-GUY wrote:

unless the mating surfaces were
unusually rough.

Not so much rough, LARGE. Look at an Athlon processor and you can see
the mating surface is about a square inch, and it's supposed to have 23
POUNDS of force applied to it. This is of course the reason that
alignment is so critical.

This surface is so large that you can't even begin to approach 23
pounds per square inch. Some manufacturers are giving up on screwing
them down because you need to almost strip the threads out of aluminum
to get the force. It could also warp the device, and in some cases the
heatsink ! These things range from approx. 8-20 square inches. Multiply
that by 23 and see what you get.

To the OP: If you are trying to do the optimum job there are bigger
fish to fry than what brand of goop you use, on these larger mating
surfaces it MUST be applied in a bead running directly between the
mounting holes, DO NOT spread it out, that causes air pockets. If the
Arctic is lower in viscosity then it might be a real good alternative,
and the lower the better, but you better watch one thing, does it
become glue after awhile ? The optimum repair does not screw up a
subsequent repair. I've had to use a hammer to release the chips from
the heatsink, and if this stuff makes a better bond it might be worse.
I think I'll stick with the white stuff for this application.

I don't mean processors, I mean those big STK chips. It's not quite
apples and oranges, it's more like pears and kiwi.

JURB