Thermal pads vs. thermal compound

[DragonTamer1]

I noticed the other day that the VRM on my motherboard is lacking heat sinks. After running a quick CPU stress test I noticed that the VRMs were getting up to 95*C. I'm very cheap, so instead of buying heat sinks online I'm just going to machine a scrap block of aluminum that I've got lying around.

 

I noticed that the motherboard even has holes for where a heat sink was supposed to be but never installed (probably to save on cost). The question that I have is should I try to machine the block so that it mounts to the holes with screws and nylon washers and use thermal paste as the interface material or should I just get some thermal pads and simplify the process? I know the thermal compound will transfer the heat better but it process is more complicated and I only have enough scrap for one attempt.

[Security]

The VRM's are manufactured to stand high heath so any cooling is a plus (and good if you want to OC), thermal pads should do the trick and be really easy to place and remove where I think thermal paste would mostly make a mess but indeed conducts better.

[Torn]

Best option imo would be adhesive thermal pads.

[ThomasD]

To go the paste route you'd need to measure the height of each VRM and machine the base of the sink accordingly.  Otherwise I'd be concerned that you might not get good contact.

 

This really is the sort of application that pads are intended for.