This is the first part of a multi-series of reviews designed to help computer users of all skill levels understand certain functionalities, and to maximize their potential towards building, repairing and/or upgrading their PC. This particular section concerns the thermal conductive properties of some of the most popularly used thermal compounds on the market today, and a few of the lesser known ones as well.

This review has literally taken several months to honestly test within a controlled environment (for reasons explained shortly), and yes - certain pieces of hardware were dutifully sacrificed in the process*.

This review was meant to be totally comprehensive in scope, so because of a hardware failure after 3.5 months of testing, the entire process had to be completely redone from scratch, in order to preserve its complete unbiased integrity. Please note that no one is or has ever been paid anything for this review - this is a completely honest, unbiased showdown - and simply the rock bottom line.

In order to start this properly, it must be pointed out that there is a common misconception that applying thermal compound is an optional component. This is simply not true. While technically, yes a CPU could transfer its heat to the heatsink and fan combination (hereafter called an HSF) in a bare "metal to metal" fashion, this is certainly NOT considered optimal and can easily result in electrical failure or thermal overload rather quickly - especially if the HSF is not lapped or fitted properly. Applying thermal compound is considered an essential step towards building a PC, and should never be ignored or excluded. A good analogous question would be; Would you run your automobile without oil? We would hope not.