Arctic Silver

PC components produce a lot of waste heat, and without a sufficient cooling will overheat, shutting down or damaging your system. It’s critical therefore to choose an appropriate cooler.

The last thing to bear in mind when choosing a CPU, GPU or SSD cooler is Thermal Interface Material (TIM). This is a thin layer of paste that you spread out between the top of the component and the bottom of the heatsink or waterblock. TIM helps conduct heat out of the CPU by smoothing out imperfections in the surface on either side and is essential for good cooling.

Many coolers come with TIM pre-applied or packaged in a small syringe for you to apply, but it's worth checking before ordering. You can check for the presence of TIM on the product page of the cooler on the Scan website and clicking on the Specifications tab.