Heating up my CPU & glad for Arctic Silver

[Charlie Wilkes]

A couple of weeks ago I removed the thermal pad on my CPU and replaced
it with a thin smear of Arctic Silver, which dropped the temperature
about 5 degrees C. A discussion ensued in which a number of people
made the point that I didn't achieve any performance gain. I agreed,
because all my test loads and games had shown that the CPU never gets
above 42.5 C no matter what I do... but that was before I started
rendering 2 hour videos. Now I'm dealing with CPU temps of up to 47 C
during hot jobs, and I'm glad to have the extra cooling power.

Granted, my CPU is overclocked, but still... I think home builders
have an opportunity to add some extra quality, above and beyond OEM
quality, on finish details, and this is one of them. The thermal pads
are well-engineered for convenience and performance, and they are
"good enough" for the average user. I don't think they're good enough
for the user who is maxing out hardware capabilities.

Charlie

 

[Dave (from the UK)]

A couple of weeks ago I removed the thermal pad on my CPU and replaced
it with a thin smear of Arctic Silver, which dropped the temperature
about 5 degrees C. A discussion ensued in which a number of people
made the point that I didn't achieve any performance gain. I agreed,
because all my test loads and games had shown that the CPU never gets
above 42.5 C no matter what I do... but that was before I started
rendering 2 hour videos. Now I'm dealing with CPU temps of up to 47 C
during hot jobs, and I'm glad to have the extra cooling power.

Granted, my CPU is overclocked, but still... I think home builders
have an opportunity to add some extra quality, above and beyond OEM
quality, on finish details, and this is one of them. The thermal pads
are well-engineered for convenience and performance, and they are
"good enough" for the average user. I don't think they're good enough
for the user who is maxing out hardware capabilities.

Charlie

I can understand a heat sink compound being more effective than a thermal pad.
The compound can be made much thinner and if the surfaces are pretty flat, then
you only need a thin layer.

But is this "arctic silver" any better than standard "silicon grease", which is
white in colour and has been used professionally in electronics for years? I'm
sure if someone could find a way of integrating LEDs into the heat sink compound
they would!

--
Dave K MCSE.

MCSE = Minefield Consultant and Solitaire Expert.

Please note my email address changes periodically to avoid spam.
It is always of the form: month-year@domain. Hitting reply will work
for a couple of months only. Later set it manually.

 

[John Doe]

"Dave (from the UK)"

But is this "arctic silver" any better than standard "silicon
grease", which is white in colour and has been used professionally
in electronics for years? I'm sure if someone could find a way of
integrating LEDs into the heat sink compound they would!

lol
glow in the dark heatsink compound

 

[Conor]

But is this "arctic silver" any better than standard "silicon grease", which is
white in colour and has been used professionally in electronics for years?

Absolutely. I used to use standard white thermal paste as I was an
electronics engineer so had a large tube of the stuff. I tried artic
silver, as a friend had bought some and had spare, and noticed a
massive drop on an Athlon XP3200. I use it as a matter of course now.
One of those small syringes will do many CPUs.

 

[Charlie Wilkes]

I can understand a heat sink compound being more effective than a thermal pad.
The compound can be made much thinner and if the surfaces are pretty flat, then
you only need a thin layer.

But is this "arctic silver" any better than standard "silicon grease", which is
white in colour and has been used professionally in electronics for years? I'm
sure if someone could find a way of integrating LEDs into the heat sink compound
they would!

I don't know if Arctic Silver is any better than any other good
compound. I paid an extra couple of bucks "just in case" it is
better, but I probably paid for hype more than substance. My point is
that compound is better than the pad.

Charlie

 

[Robbie McFerren]

I can understand a heat sink compound being more effective than a
thermal pad. The compound can be made much thinner and if the surfaces
are pretty flat, then you only need a thin layer.

But is this "arctic silver" any better than standard "silicon grease",
which is white in colour and has been used professionally in electronics
for years? I'm sure if someone could find a way of integrating LEDs into
the heat sink compound they would!

Arctic Silver makes the silicone stuff too, not knowing any better (and
wanted to make sure of non-conductivity) I bought it. It is (or was)
called Ceramique. I paid $3.99 for a 2.5 gram tube. You have to order
10 or more to get the same price now. One tube is $4.99 on newegg now.

 

[sbb78247]

Arctic Silver makes the silicone stuff too, not knowing any better
(and wanted to make sure of non-conductivity) I bought it. It is (or
was) called Ceramique. I paid $3.99 for a 2.5 gram tube. You have
to order 10 or more to get the same price now. One tube is $4.99 on
newegg now.

it has ground ceramic instead of the silver. both work well as long as they
are applied properly. a while back, i forget where i read it (might have
been gruntville.com or tom's hardware), but the ceramic compound is on par
with arctic silver 3 and as5 is only slightly better.

and as always, a little dab will do ya'