is TIM necessary

[9956]

ok before i start, i just wanna say that this is just a thought, i know everyone here and who does serious OCing uses some sort of grease, so that is prob the way to go. but what about if you use a REALLY well lapped HSF, such as the zalman 7000 copper and then lap the heatspreader on your p4 to a properly mirror finish, does the thermal grease just slow down the transfer of heat. and also, a while bak i saw a chart of the best conductive materials and i saw diamond was on the top, has anyone ever actually made some sort of carbon based HSF?

answers would be appreciated, please dont rage:flames:

james

[Andy]

Although you may lap the heatsink and heat spreader to mirror finishes, there will still be minute imperfections that would be filled with air(i'm sure you already know about how inefficient air is as a thermal conductor) if you didn't use a TIM. So, basically, if you want the best possible temperatures (who wouldn't!?) use a TIM.

To my knowledge, noone has commercially made carbon based heatsinks.

[amd_man2005]

TIM is a must, as even though the HSF was perfectly lapped, and the Heatspreader, there is still gonna be some spots in it here and there and, metal to metal doesn't transfer heat very well AFAIK, and the TIM transfers the heat between the two

[minibubba]

like it has already been said, you need a TIM no matter how well you've lapped your HSF and whether you OC or not. :)

[Divine_Madcat]

Course, you also dont want to be like my friend, who applied artic silver to his HSF, only to later realise he left the Intel TIM on as well. :)

[syx]

For your chemical question, yes Diamond is the best heat conductor and the best electric insuator (or the opposite), Diamonds are formed by carbon atoms but they dont have the same properties, different cristalline structure and links, so yes a diamond HS would be great... but imagine price!
Also Carbon is not so heat conductive and is very fragile.

Hope this hlps to satisfy your curiosity!:thumb:

[Mista K6]

I think carbon in the computer industry is only going to be used for replacing silcon in chips (tons of benefits, like extremely faster, etc). The problem is, its specific heat capacity changes with the operating temperatures, so it is too variable to be a safe solution for a cooling application.