Arctic Silver 'breaking in'...

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[H]ard|Gawd
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Jul 25, 2005
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I've finally decided to give Arctic Silver 5 a try after using the compounds which come with my cooling components for quite some time....

I was curious, how long does it generally take for AS5 to fully take affect? And what's the best way to minimize this time?

Their site tells me 200hrs and I will see up to 5C difference...Is it usually that large of a difference?

Right now I'm a little suspicious of my temps because I added the compound while installing a new WC system. Right now, my temperatures at max load (ie Folding@Home) is 45C which seems fairly high with the cooling components I have (MP-05 CPU Block, 77' Bonneville Heatercore no A/C, Hydor L35).

I suspect the contact between the CPU and waterblock is where the problem is occuring...My idle temp is 33C, that's a 12C difference between idle and load which shouldn't be happening with watercooling. And the temperatures quickly jumps between this 12C difference within 10 seconds. My radiator (heatercore) to the touch seems to be near or at room temperature....
 
200hrs, or a few days, but most people probably wouldn't see a 5C drop.

In your case, a 12C jump in 10 seconds is a lot... even air-cooled heatsinks shouldn't see that sort of jump. Sure you've applied the thermal compound correctly? Sure you've got the proper amount of tension on your CPU block?
 
That's actually another thing I'm also worried about, the tension on the CPU block...The instructions which came with my MP-05 are so vague.

They only cover Intel sockets which use 4 screws, they assume you can figure out AMD64.
 
Their site is full of it. Im pretty sure it doesnt say 5C either. 5C is huge bro. I think it says 1-3C or something.

Anyways. In my experience, AS5 no matter how long its been set, doesnt yeild any better temps after any period of time. Maybe 1C at the most.
 
Heat Transfer is better than the regular crap that comes with the processor..... I use AS5 and I run at 2.9 ghz Opty 148 OC from 2.2 and my Load Temps are 42C not bad at all. Using prime 95
 
On systems measuring actual internal core temperatures via the CPU's internal diode, the measured temperature will often drop 2C to 5C over this "break-in" period. This break-in will occur during the normal use of the computer as long as the computer is turned off from time to time and the interface is allowed to cool to room temperature. Once the break-in is complete, the computer can be left on if desired.
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm
Click to expand...
Notice the portion in bold. The key being thermal cycles.

You can draw your own conclusion about the drop in temp. But notice it mentions readings
measured from CPU internal diode. Socket temps would likely be different.
 
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