Thermal Grease vs. Thermal pads

[Indy]

Is there any difference as far as using a thermal pad instead of thermal grease between a processor and a heat sink?

[Chris]

Thermal paste will make better contact with the surfaces immediatly, less chance of air pockets.
And I've always found my temps to be lower with paste then the pads.
Easier to clean when doing maintenance also:)

[Onethenumber2]

pads are easy to instal and hard to mess up, however. and they sometimes can help in instalation. They can prevent a mess too if you are ultra clumsy. Course if you mess up with paste you can wipe it off pads you have to pull it off and if you have an AMD that is not always fun cause it looks so, well, delicate.