What kind of thermal compound can I use on a Linear Regulator?

Hi I just recently purchased Sega Genesis console from 1989 which is pretty much a computer itself. It has a motherboard and whatnot, you know the deal. Well since it was used I took it apart to clean the motherboard and all of it's components. There was a heatsink on the motherboard attached to these little black chip looking things that screw right onto the heatsink. The little black chips have what seems to be copper backings. Similar to the picture below from google of these four black chips screwed onto an aluminum block.

http://thestampinator.com/images/stampinator-proto-power-sm.jpg

After some research it appears that these things are called "Linear Regulators"???? :confused

Well the below pics are actual pics of my console and display how they are attached to the heatsink:

http://www-unix.ecs.umass.edu/~dhowland/mod/images/videochip.jpg

http://www-unix.ecs.umass.edu/~dhowland/mod/images/videosolder.jpg

http://www-unix.ecs.umass.edu/~dhowland/mod/images/power.jpg

Now these so called Linear Regulators on my console had some white thermal compound looking stuff between it and the aluminum heatsink. I'm pretty sure it was thermal compound. What I wanted to know was if anyone could give me a some advice as to what kind of thermal compound I should reapply to them again because as I mentioned before I THOROUGHLY cleaned the console and wiped the paste off the regulators while doing so with isopropyl alcohol and a clean cloth.

So well the only available compounds I have is arctic silver 5, some white compound that came with an old pentium 3 heatsink I bought years ago, and some white compound that came with a gpu heatink I bought recently. Please let me know what I should use... I'm trying to avoid a fire here, as well as any damage to my system!


Thanks

 

Those are MOSFET's, mobo CPU voltage regulators. I was told that on my eVGA board I should use a non-electrically conductive thermal goop. I'm just getting into this, sorry I can't help any more.

 

Some of those voltage regulators (rectifiers) have some additional insulators (I do not remember the English name) but I call them "Talc" and you can use the Silver 5 on them.

 

Would that be the generic unlabled white goop I have laying around like the ones that came with my old p3 heatsink/gpu heatsink?

Well see that's the problem I have found little to no information on what kind of compound to use on them. & from what I found on two pages through google two experts said not to use a compound containing silver for some reason when they were talking about these components on a forum. They did not mention which one to use though. So I think I should shy away from arctic silver 5...

 

OK, you've done some homework, I see. The reason not to use silver is that it's electrically conductive. If you mis-apply the goop, or it leaks onto the leads, it could make a short circuit thereby toasting your mobo. There's a ton of power going through there!

Get Artic's Ceramique.

 

If Augie's info is correct, you for sure do not want to use your AS5 as it contains silver. Arctic Silver does make a compound they call Ceramique which is non-conductive.

EDIT: Appears I was a little late with Augie beating me to the post button.

 

Sorry, I edited that in as the brain cells kicked in.

 

This may sound horrid, and thanks for the replies guys. But I really don't want to spend money to buy some Artic Ceramique when I could potentially use something I have laying around. Not to mention the fact that I'm nowhere near a computer store.

I mean wouldn't the generic white compound stuff that came with my old p3 heatsink or the white paste that came with my gpu heatsink from years ago be good enough? [ie: not electrically conductive]

I thought you guys might know if the generic stuff is generally non electrically conductive... I could take some pictures of the pastes if you'd like.


:confused

 

I wouldn't use anything you have that doesn't tell you exactly what is in the compound. You can order the ceramique from NewEgg for 5 or 6 dollars. It's quite a bit cheaper as it has no precious metals in it. Better to be safe than sorry if you ask me.

 

I would use any just don't get it on the contacts underneath and if you do wipe it off.

Pour a blob onto a bit of card and get a small paint brush and brush a thin layer onto the back of the copper on the chips,put the aluminium heatsink back then wipe of any excess with a cuetip.

http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheet/irf/irf1407.pdf

 

is this up and running yet?

 

I'll know as soon as I get the ac adapter I bought separately in the mail. It didn't come with one unfortunately and the system was sold as is. Here's hoping it works... The darn system was pretty clean on the outside a bit dirty, but not so bad. But the pcb board inside was dirty as heck on one side, had like a dark film on it I guess from storage or something. I had to scrape it off with the red tube that comes with cans of compressed air. It did come off though when I scraped it carefully with light pressure.

As far as the compound that was on those chips originally before I cleaned them off, well I think it was just generic stuff because it was white goo.

 

'White goo' eh? Is that supposed to mean something as 'IT"S ALL WHITE GOO'! You don't know what's in there just by looking at it. I wouldn't even be careful as Rikky says as those MOSFETs have an electrically conductive metal attached. If you use the silver, you may short those things out. Man, it's just $5.:confused

 

i would use Noctua NT-H1 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608008

I use it on my CPU's with really good results.

I hear that it is AS good as AS5 or better. Unsure about that tho.