There are a lot of thermal pastes out there, and choosing the best one can be difficult. Whether you’re building your first PC, or are making some serious upgrades to an existing rig, a good thermal paste can improve performance significantly.

Unlike air, which is a poor conductor of heat, thermal paste fills in the little cracks and crevices between your CPU and the heat sink. This allows heat to flow more easily, which will help lower your CPU’s temperature. You’ll want to use a quality budget paste if you’re a casual PC user, and consider getting something more premium if you’re into overclocking or demand the lowest possible temperatures.

Some pastes are more easy to work with than others, and that can play a role in your decision-making process. You don’t want to pick a liquid metal thermal compound, for instance, because they contain metallic particles that are electrically conductive, meaning if you accidentally spill some on your processor’s pins or motherboard it could short out your system.

Arctic Silver Ceramique is a non-conductive, beginner-friendly product that works well for most systems. It’s similar to Arctic Silver 5, but uses a ceramic base instead of silver. It’s also fairly inexpensive, and comes in a large package that should last for dozens of processor applications or more. It is a little thicker than some other options on this list, but it still spreads out pretty easily and doesn’t leave any messy residue. best thermal paste for cpu