Ok, so I finally got around to changing the TIM on my x4 9750. This is something that I never actually had seen before, probably because I always used Arctic Silver (something or other original, 2, 3, now 5) TIM, so had nothing to compare to.
When I initially installed the MassCool 7WA001, the tube of Arctic Silver 5, I had, didn't look quite right, so I used the... well... non-descript (grey toothpaste consistancy) TIM material that came with the cooler. I figured I replace it when I could get a new tube of AS5. With this TIM, I had been getting max temps of 42C under load running prime95, and a degree or two less with Super Pi. This is at the 4 cores. Idle temps in the low 30's.
I figure "Cool".. this CPU runs producing very little heat. When I get some good quality TIM, temps should be no problem with this CPU, right?
I have done no overclocking yet due to Video crash problems, that have been reciently fixed by a new NVidia driver release. So these are stock temps.
Anyway, about a week ago, I finally picked up a new tube of Arctic Silver5, removed the cooler, cleaned the MassCool stuff, applied the AS5, and ran some tests... Temp up to 45C under load at the 4 cores... 3C higher than the (I assume) cheap TIM... Therm temp (at the heatsink) still 2C less than the cores... normal..., and same differential I had with the MassCool stuff. These readings come from using HWMonitor, that I have used for quite some time.
Anyway, thinking I did a bad job applying the TIM, I remove the cooler... TIM looks good; clean the CPU and Heatsink, reapply, run some more tests... same exact results.
Now I know AS says 200hrs and a few hot/cold cycles to reduce temps 2-5C, which after almost a week of running I'm not seeing any change, but even if that happens, I only will be back to the same temps I had with the stuff that came with the cooler. The temps are still good, but I would have expected a little more from AS5, a product I have sworn by.
Just wanted to get the collective opinion of this group.
