Thermal pastes and heatsinks

[Chrisname]

Hi! I haven't been on in quite a long time.

Anyway, I can't decide which thermal paste to use. I've read through quite a few different things and I'm probably going to get Arctic Silver. However; I've heard you can put non-metal based paste on RAM; but I'd like to be safe. Could someone verify that you can (or can't) put paste on a DIMM and whether it has to be non-metal? If you can, and if there's any point at all (as I say I'd like to be safe... if I do overclock it I want to make sure the RAM is making proper contact with the heatsink)

By the way, I realize that thermal paste is just to make more/better contact with the heatsink. The RAM I'm getting comes with heatsinks, and I'm probably going to get some. Which brings me on to my next question:

I think (I'm pretty sure) that the Corsair Dominator RAM I'm probably getting comes with a heatsink for each DIMM. But I'm not sure how "good" the heatsinks are. Does anyone know?

And finally; I've read a review of and am probably getting an OCZ Vendetta 2. It seems to be pretty good. Does anyone have any experience with it?

This is the system I plan to build:
AMD Athlon x2 6000+; 3GHz with 2MB L2 cache.
Not that much cache but the idea is to get as much power as I can with £400.
XFX GeForce 9600GT
I've heard from several sources that XFX aren't so good, and from some that they
are good. :l
Some WD HD, 320GB
Some OCZ thing, 500W
2GB Corsair Dominator, 1066MHz
Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3
OCZ Vendetta 2 CPU Heatsink.

Total price: ~ £336 (~ $553)

I'm not sure why but I keep getting the feeling I've forgotten something. I already have a CD/DVDD-ROM drive and a case, but I think there's something else I've left out. Anyway, thanks.

[chad_sebring]

DO NOt I repeat DO NOT pull the spreaders on your Dominators. Corsair has glued the IC's to the heatspreaders in most instances, which results in sometimes pulling IC's off the PCB when removing them.

Also AS5 is the standard, there are many pastes on the market that can do better, and if I remember corectly AS5 claims to be non-conductive.

OCZ V2 is basically a Xig 1283...should do well for ya, and at a better pricepoint than the Xig.

Hope this helps!

[Chrisname]

Thanks!

I won't try to get the hs off.

[Lsdmeasap]

I use TX-2 myself and find it to be very good and non conductive. Have not used it on ram though, so not sure about all that.

Chad is right, best to leave those heatspreaders alone on that ram