I've recently got some Arctic Silver. The stock thermal grease that's already on the stock heatsink is there and I've whiped it away. Is there anything more I can do to clean the heatsink and cpu. So far I've just whiped them clean. Is there some sort of cleaning liquid I can use before I put on the Arctic Silver? Or should I just go on and just put the Arctic Silver?

rubbing alcohol on a good clean rag should do ya just fine

Careful with the rag, you do not want any fuzzies(for lack of a better word) getting in the pins.

Just so you know everyone... regular "thermal gunk" performs at exactly the same rate as Artic Silver... MaximumPC did a study on it... so don't waste ur money on Arctic silver because they have figured out that as long as SOMETHING is there in the right quantities, (could be tomato paste though i wouldnt recconmend that beacause of the mess) the job will be done just as well...

I doubt whether any electronic engineers or PHD's on Thermodynamics works for Maximum PC.

You try the tomato paste ... my cpu costs too much ... I suppose everone has a right to an opinion.

Thanks everyone. I guess I'll ask my mom to get some rubing alcohol. So a nice clean rag and rubing alcohol should do and don't get lint on the cpu pins ok.

I'd like to see the article.... Doesn't seem scientific.... different elements have different thermal properties. That's just chemistry. Now in this case, the amount might be negligible.

I read the same article. Even though there might be a small difference in conductivity between different thermal pastes, but difference is so small that it's not even measureable.

The CPU temps are the same for all brands of pastes.

well.... would someone share the article link?

I've read up on thermal pastes a bit here and there. From what I have read the variance in heat temps is very small between the different thermal pastes out there. I went with Arctic Silver because it was rated amoung these articles as one of the best. And I have used it on almost all of my builds. And I have seen the difference between using stock paste and artic silver on a few of those builds. Artic Silver is simply a better product.

Better it may be, no doubt, but the diff is still probably negligable. Meaning a few degrees "maybe" under load.

Metal against metal is what you need to transfer heat, nothing more. But a tiny drop of thermal compound squeezes its way between the metals and fills in any miniscule "bumps and cracks" between the metals, thus creating the smoothest possible connection between the metals. It isn't supposed to be like cream in an oreo, but a filler between where the metal doesn't exactly clamp tight on the opposite metal.
Which is why you do NOT want to see compound squeezing out all the sides when you clamp the heatsink down, it means you used way to much.

Anyway, I'm going to try to find some benchmarks one of these days.