Hiya, I think it's about time I reapplied my thermal paste, but I'm having trouble deciding which to use. I have two in mind, article silver 5 and arctic cooling mx-2, I've heard that the mx-2 does not need any time to cure whereas as5 can take 200+ hours, but will it cool as well as the as5. I should probably tell you, my CPU is a core i7 860 and the cooler is a noctua nh-u12p. Oh yes and also to get my old stuff off should I use 70% or 99.9% isopropyl, I've heard that 99.9 is too corrosive, is this true?
Get the AS5...I have never had any issues with running AS5 just minutes after applying it. Apply it thin, but evenly...you want it just thick enough that you cannot read any of the text off of the CPU. It does not really matter if it never cures; it is thick enough that it is never going to run out anyway.