Alternatives for star thermal pad?

[phook15]

It's out of stock currently, is there any material I can use to replace it? Maybe something from Michaels?

[Mineral]

"Thermal conductive adhesive"

[hapki]

Places that sell LEDs usually carry thermal pads.

[snilam]

thermal paste

[Sevinzol]

Any place that sells GPU/CPU after market cooing devices should have thermal paste. Try Newegg. I typed in thermal conductive adhesive and got 58 hits. Case modders used to use something called 'Frag Tape' but when I googled that I got links to stuff that's from 2008 or older

[Silver Serpent]

There's thermal paste, and there's thermal adhesive. They're not the same thing. Thermal paste just transfers heat, while the thermal adhesive also secures the parts together (permanently). The thermal pads sold at TCSS will allow you to remove the LED from the heat sink if you're careful, though this will destroy the thermal pad. If you use thermal adhesive, you're likely going to destroy your LED if you try to remove it for any reason in the future.

[AlmightyShmoo]

Yep Thermal Paste works great... is actually better at heat transfer than pads and you can pick up a tube at Bestbuy... maybe Radio shack... insert Consumer electronics store here.... this is the same thing you use on CPUs for heat transfer.

one thing though, it does not take much. You want just enough... too much is just a waist. Most come with a little plastic spreader. You just want a very thin coat.

[TrypWyr]

one thing though, it does not take much. You want just enough... too much is just a waist.

Speaking as an IT guy, ^THIS^. Too much can actually be detrimental to heat dissipation. Plus it's just messy...

[Silver Serpent]

Also note that if you're using thermal *paste*, you'll need some other method to hold the LED on the star. The paste doesn't glue anything in place, and the LED could slide around or come loose.

[JD8a27]

I put too much on my last build and it was a wreck! Had to clean off the heatsink and start over. But it def. works and does a wonderful job!