How do you put on your AS5?

H

HaX

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 17, 2005
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How do you put your arctic silver 5? Do you just put a little dab on and then put your heatsink on? or do you put the thermal grease on and spread it evenly across the surface.. I'm just wondering what's the best way.
 
I tried it both ways, thin layer, tested temps, then cooked grain of rice size in middle, and then about the size of a uncooked grain of rice..

cooked = 37-39 idle abut 63-65 load
thin layer was the same
uncooked grain of rice is now at 32-33 idle, and 52-53 load..when i first installed it it was 2-3 degrees higher, it took some time to settle down

those were just my results a month or 2 go with my opty 165 OCed to 2.84, others may vary
 
I've got about 300 blobs of pre-measured AS5 on wax paper tablets that I keep refridgerated at work.

I just wipe one of them on the IHS and push the HSF into it. Twist it around a little bit, and let it warm up.
 
I try to cover the whole IHS as thin as possible but all cpus and heatsinks ive had were lapped...... easiest way Ive learned is to use a wide elastic and put it over a sharpie pen from tip to tip ( i hope that make sense ), i then put a lil bit of as5 on the cpu and use the sharpie to smear it..... This way it makes it easy to apply as5 evenly and its easy to control the thickness you want, also doesnt make a mess......
 
A lot of instructions for thermal paste, mainly the thicker ones, recommend putting an uncooked grain size amount on the center and letting the HSF and IHS pressure distribute the paste to prevent air bubbles.
 
Old School here....use a razor blade to spread a thin layer across the entire heatspreader. Works great. Tried the grain of rice method, works fine as well.
 
I've seen the instructions many times.. I just wanted the opinion from the users not the manual
 
Depends on the application. On my CPU that is lapped, a VERY small amount in the center of it, then twisting and grinding the waterblock into that to get coverage but a very very thin layer. On my 8800 with an EK block, liberal slathering to assure coverage, then retightening the block to the board after a week or so (I'm not real confident of the 8800 IHS flatness, and with no guarantees of squareness on all components touching the full-coverage block, I figure that's the best way. Temps are great across both components. Oh yeah, same as CPU AS5 application for my bare die 975x northbridge with a lapped HR05 cooler.
 
TheRapture said:
Old School here....use a razor blade to spread a thin layer across the entire heatspreader. Works great. Tried the grain of rice method, works fine as well.
Click to expand...

Yeah, me too. I put the thermal compound on the heatsink first, and then set it on my proc so i have a square on the heatsink, wipe off the rest, then apply permanently. I have great temps.
 
HaX said:
I've seen the instructions many times.. I just wanted the opinion from the users not the manual
Click to expand...
i've used the razor blade method, followed the online instructions, etc. and i always got the best results with the instructions from the manual.
 
I put a couple small dabs in the middle of the processor, then spread it out thin and even with my finger wrapped in a plastic ziplock bag.
 
I'm an old-schooler as well and stuck on the spread method. I've never been able to get comfortable with putting just the right sized blob in the center and relying on the heatsink to uniformly spread it out nice and thin for me.
 
So here is a shot of my q6600 installed in the MB with AS5 right before I added the HS. It shows the right amount in my opinion given a lapped HS and CPU (which is a thicker line than I used before); the red triangle I drew shows where that tag is on the CPU, remember that on quad core chips, the dies are placed in a different located relative to a dual core, see the instructions on AS5's website for more):

line800qe9.jpg
 
Saran wrap around index finger. Spreads AS5 easily, warms it up in the process (making it easier to spread), and allows you to bond with your processor. Tactility ftw.
 
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