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Applying AS5 - "prep" heatsink?

V

Venthos

Weaksauce
Joined
Nov 24, 2004
Messages
120
I was trolling the forums and found a post where someone inquired about Arctic Silver 5 and for shits and giggles went to review the installation instructions for AS5. I noticed first off they had different instructions for AS 1/2/3 and AS5.... why? Secondly I noticed that for the A64 (or any CPU with a Heatspreader) they had to skip down to instructions that simply had you putting a glob on the heatspreader and squishing down the heatsink. Nothing more than that.

In the other instruction set for bare-cores (and what I had always done) was put a bit of AS on the heatsink, rub it in with my finger covered up in a plastic baggy (so no oils from my hands would get in it) then wiping it off. As said on that instruction set it fills up the valleys in the heatsink as you see a discolored portion where it did so.

Are you not supposed to do this "prep" on the heatsink anymore? Merely slop down some AS5 and squish away?

What do you guys do? I was planning on prepping the heatsink that way (ThermalRight XP-90) by putting some on, rubbing it around, wiping off excess. Then putting a small amount in the center of the heatspreader and installing the heatsink so it squished it in.

-Venthos
 
This isnt really a black and white question, everyone has their own opinion

If you CPU has a heatspreader(a64, p4) then i usually place a small drop on the center of the heatspreader and then place the heatsink on. Because the cpu core is dirrently below the middle of the heatspreader.

If you cpu has its core exposed(axp) then yes you want to apply a thin layer over the entire CPU core area.

Honestly i use the small drop in the middle for my p4 and I have tried spreading a whole layer accross it and there was really not a performance difference at all
 
wasn't my question =)

I'm fine on the CPU Core thing and realize there's two theories people subscribe to. What im wondering about is what you do with the Heatsink.

Prior to the A64 I ordered (last proc I got was an XP 3000+) Arctic Silver's instructions on their site had you put a small amount on your heatsink itself, rub it in, then wipe off all excess. This would discolor the heatsink in the area it went on and the reasoning for having you do it was to fill the microscopic gaps on the heatsink. THEN they had you go apply it on the Core, then you put it together.

The new instructions, if you have an A64 or pentium with a heatspreader, they tell you to skip everything down to where they say glob and squish. They speak nothing of the "prep" for the heatsink they had you do for the bare-core ones.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm <-- Step #6

My question was whether or not this was beneficial to do and why they decided to "skip" it for anything with a heatspreader.

-Venthos
 
Sorry to /bump but getting my final parts to my brand new machine tomorrow and would like to know the best route for this prior.

Thanks!

-Venthos
 
I have never "prepped" a heatsink before, and I have had great success with AS 3/5, so I say go for it.
 
I still prep my HS, but I use my old AS3....Then I use my AS5 on my CPU...
 
Venthos said:
wasn't my question =)

I'm fine on the CPU Core thing and realize there's two theories people subscribe to. What im wondering about is what you do with the Heatsink.

Prior to the A64 I ordered (last proc I got was an XP 3000+) Arctic Silver's instructions on their site had you put a small amount on your heatsink itself, rub it in, then wipe off all excess. This would discolor the heatsink in the area it went on and the reasoning for having you do it was to fill the microscopic gaps on the heatsink. THEN they had you go apply it on the Core, then you put it together.

The new instructions, if you have an A64 or pentium with a heatspreader, they tell you to skip everything down to where they say glob and squish. They speak nothing of the "prep" for the heatsink they had you do for the bare-core ones.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm <-- Step #6

My question was whether or not this was beneficial to do and why they decided to "skip" it for anything with a heatspreader.

-Venthos
Click to expand...

I apologize must have missed the last part of the post. I really cant see a point in prepping the heatsink. The AS5 you place on the cpu will fill the miniscule gaps in the heatsink around the important area.
 
For Amd64 CPU's, I found it to be a little better in terms of [CPU\HS] coverage, if you make a small circle [Size of a dime * 1mm] with the AS [spread evenly]. And not rely solely on the HS to evenly spread the AS.

For example, with the drop technique if you place one side of the HS down before the other .... it will squish the AS unevenly to the other side, creating an imbalanced application. The best results cannot be acheived if its not uniform.

The HS doesn't require an application of AS.
 
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