Does Tom's hardware apply the heatsink paste material correctly ???

[Skybuck Flying]

Hi,

Take a look at this video and tell me what you think:

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20050603/stresstest-02.html

Is the heatsink/cpu paste/material applied correctly ?

Occording to the gigabyte motherboard manual I would say no.

This guy simply puts a drop on the cpu/heatsink ? (Maybe that s why it
burned through)

Why doesn't he smear it out like one is supposed to do ?

Risky bussiness

I would smear it out just in case

Right now I am reading a gigabyte motherboard manual, and I must say that
this manual is much more professional and more details than the asus's
motherboard manual ! (though the gigabyte is an intel cpu/motherboard
manual and the asus was an amd cpu/motherboard manual but still.)

Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[PB]

Hi,

Take a look at this video and tell me what you think:

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20050603/stresstest-02.html

Is the heatsink/cpu paste/material applied correctly ?

Occording to the gigabyte motherboard manual I would say no.

This guy simply puts a drop on the cpu/heatsink ? (Maybe that s why it
burned through)

Why doesn't he smear it out like one is supposed to do ?

Risky bussiness

I would smear it out just in case

Right now I am reading a gigabyte motherboard manual, and I must say that
this manual is much more professional and more details than the asus's
motherboard manual ! (though the gigabyte is an intel cpu/motherboard
manual and the asus was an amd cpu/motherboard manual but still.)

Bye,
Skybuck.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions_big2.htm

 

[Ed Light]

Possibly it was Arctic Ceramique. If so, you're supposed to put a dot in the
middle and then after fastening on the heat sink, you're supposed to rotate
the sink 2 degrees either direction.

Or on long cpus like bartons you're supposed to make a thin stripe down the
middle.

Not sure about A64's. I think you still put a dot, as it spreads out enough
to cover the cpu underneath the cover. You can look on the Arctic Silver
site for the instructions.

I've used Ceramique on Bartons twice with a thin stripe and it worked like a
charm.

For the Silver and Alumina, I think pre-spreading it is still the norm.
--
Ed Light

Smiley :-/
MS Smiley :-\

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.

 

[milleron]

Possibly it was Arctic Ceramique. If so, you're supposed to put a dot in the
middle and then after fastening on the heat sink, you're supposed to rotate
the sink 2 degrees either direction.

Or on long cpus like bartons you're supposed to make a thin stripe down the
middle.

Not sure about A64's. I think you still put a dot, as it spreads out enough
to cover the cpu underneath the cover. You can look on the Arctic Silver
site for the instructions.

I've used Ceramique on Bartons twice with a thin stripe and it worked like a
charm.

For the Silver and Alumina, I think pre-spreading it is still the norm.

I used Ceramique recently. I didn't know about the "dot" technique,
so I applied a very thin film on both the heatsink and CPU as per some
instructions I had, probably from Thermalright (can't recall for
sure). I used a Thermalright XP120 on an Athlon 64 3500+, and so far,
I've never seen a temperature above 41°. Most of the time it's around
33-37° with room temps of 25-28°

I'm not positive I did it strictly according to Ceramique
specifications, but it seems to work just fine doing it the old
tried-and-true way. The "dot" truly puzzles me because I can very
easily see that leaving air space between the heatsink and CPU,
especially at the corners. In fact, unless you applied so much
Ceramique that a lot of it squished out at the sides, I cannot see how
this air-gap problem could be avoided. Does Ceramique liquify so much
that it can literally spread out all the way when heated up??

Ron

 

[Jason]

I used the Ceramique on my 64, first with the drop technique(bad idea, it
doesn't spread very far, cpu temps with no load of over 55), and after
careful cleaning and reapplying it runs at under 40 at full load.

 

[milleron]

I used the Ceramique on my 64, first with the drop technique(bad idea, it
doesn't spread very far, cpu temps with no load of over 55), and after
careful cleaning and reapplying it runs at under 40 at full load.

Hey, thanks for the reply. What technique did you use the second
time? Spread all over the CPU in a thin film?

Ron

 

[Leythos]

Hey, thanks for the reply. What technique did you use the second
time? Spread all over the CPU in a thin film?

While I've not been part of this thread, I use the following method most
times:

1) Using 98% Alcohol, I clean both surfaces
2) Using a razor blade (or other firm/straight edge) I put a dab on the
CPU and the HeatSink, then use the blade to remove all but a micro layer
from both - to much is bad, enough to ensure the irregularities are
filled is perfect.
3) mate both parts, secure with clamp/etc.

I've never had a problem with this method and testing indicates it
provides the optimal thermal contact between the two devices.

 

[Ken]

Hey, thanks for the reply. What technique did you use the second
time? Spread all over the CPU in a thin film?

Good idea. As thin as possible.

 

[milleron]

While I've not been part of this thread, I use the following method most
times:

1) Using 98% Alcohol, I clean both surfaces
2) Using a razor blade (or other firm/straight edge) I put a dab on the
CPU and the HeatSink, then use the blade to remove all but a micro layer
from both - to much is bad, enough to ensure the irregularities are
filled is perfect.
3) mate both parts, secure with clamp/etc.

I've never had a problem with this method and testing indicates it
provides the optimal thermal contact between the two devices.

Well, that's exactly what I did, too. That's the method we always
used with Arctic Silver prior to the introduction of Ceramique. I was
informed in this thread, however, that Arctic Silver's official
recommendation for applying Ceramique has changed dramatically.

My CPU (Athlon 64 3500+ 90nm) temps are 32-37°C. I'm glad I didn't
see the Ceramique instructions before I did it "wrong."

Ron

 

[Leythos]

Well, that's exactly what I did, too. That's the method we always
used with Arctic Silver prior to the introduction of Ceramique. I was
informed in this thread, however, that Arctic Silver's official
recommendation for applying Ceramique has changed dramatically.

My CPU (Athlon 64 3500+ 90nm) temps are 32-37°C. I'm glad I didn't
see the Ceramique instructions before I did it "wrong."

Since I've not used the Ceramique - what are the differences?

 

[milleron]

Since I've not used the Ceramique - what are the differences?

For Ceramique, Arctic Silver recommends putting a small dab right in
the center of P4 and Athlon-64 CPUs withOUT spreading it out.
http://www.arcticsilver.com/ceramique_instructions.htm
They go so far as to specify an amount equal to 1/2 a BB for a P4 and
2/3 of a BB for an A64. I'm not making this up -- as if anyone could
really dispense that stuff from a syringe to a tolerance of 1/6 of a
BB )
Anyway, I did NOT follow these strange instructions, mainly because I
was unaware of the change in them vs traditional Arctic Silver.
However, I don't believe I could have brought myself to do it that way
even if I had known.


Ron

 

[Leythos]

For Ceramique, Arctic Silver recommends putting a small dab right in
the center of P4 and Athlon-64 CPUs withOUT spreading it out.
http://www.arcticsilver.com/ceramique_instructions.htm
They go so far as to specify an amount equal to 1/2 a BB for a P4 and
2/3 of a BB for an A64. I'm not making this up -- as if anyone could
really dispense that stuff from a syringe to a tolerance of 1/6 of a
BB )
Anyway, I did NOT follow these strange instructions, mainly because I
was unaware of the change in them vs traditional Arctic Silver.
However, I don't believe I could have brought myself to do it that way
even if I had known.

Interesting - the Intel Boxed P4 units (Xeon) come with a syringe of
Silvered colored paste, the instructions for applying it are not 100%
clear, but I used it the same way I do all other pastes and found it
worked fine with the standard method.

I expect that the Ceramique, unless it dries out before you finish,
would be fine the same way.

 

[Jason]

Pretty much the way I did it, but I used a homemade tool we have at work to
apply a very thin layer evenly across the chip(electronics tech in the USN).
You want just enough to fill in the irregularities in both, and to make sure
no air gets trapped inside(air is a very poor conductor). The Ceramique is
a bit different in that optimum thermal efficiency isn't reached until the
compound has been heated and cooled a couple dozen times.

 

[Leythos]

(electronics tech in the USN).

Hey - 84-88, VF-31 aboard the USS Forrestal CV59!

 

[wooly.bully]

Hey - 84-88, VF-31 aboard the USS Forrestal CV59!

And I, 65-68. ET aboard the USS Enterprise CVAN-65 (CVN-65).

 

[Nitehawk]

And I , 59-63, aboard several vessels and at NAS, Brunswick,ME



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