food for thought. just from my years of experience and being not afraid of having to mcguyver things, i can say that what iv experienced in the last year I used to use (arctic silver as a default) for ages, its good stuff as a default cant go wrong its just messy. but I found my self in a pinch a while back arctic silver tube was DRY.i looked around and and i gotta say so far i like what iv found.
for the last 12 months on my old amd phenom 2 1045t system as thermal compound i have been using and have absolutely amazing results with. Good ole Dielectric terminal grease. the stuff thats clear comes with various automotive wiring kits. is dielectric clear and retains its Vaseline consistency. the environment is north american so my ambient temperatures are never a problem and the cpu rarely ever peaks above 50c even under 100% cinibench abuse. all under a now ancient but Tried and True design "Antec Ac64 Freezer pro tower heatsink. 90mm fan. in a equally old antec two hundered gamer with the tie fighter grill. all air cooled. i have yet to see "dielectric terminal grease dry up or liquefy under the modest temperatures 12 months We are not over clocking the cpu above its 2.7-3.2ghz 3 core turbo boost. iv seen arctic silver dry up and solidify the heat sink to the cpu more times then iv seen this dielectric..as iv never seen it solidify yet. we are breaching 12 months now as this is my daily driver system still.
"clear dielectric terminal grease gets a Don't worry about it rating from me. it'll be fine. just don't go trying to burn it off with reckless overclocking"
as a side note in the Absolute worse case scenario i noticed that "Plasticine" was once tested for its thermal conductive property's. while not good for the long run it will play nicely as a temporary solution being reapplied monthly, as to ensure all of its oils do not leach out as dry out. a monthly check up and replacement is easy and not messy as each time it was still malleable and just balled up and applied a fresh ball "avoid colored Plasticine and black black seems to be more oily then "white" and grey seemed to best. colored ones you may get some stain on the cpu hs.
"i Would NOT use this Dielectric terminal grease or Plasticine on a gpu. as gpus hit way higher tempratures and i feel yeah it may liquify the grease. but a cpu with its heat spreader a-ok. .. i have also used it to re lubricate fan's as well to extend their life and not computer related anything like heaters/bathroom exhaust fans with what the industry calls a "C-Frame motor" apply this grease to the fans bearing liberally and extend its life time 10 fold.
