Thermal Paste questions!

[JeffB]

What is the best thermal paste?

Arctic Silver 5?

 

[thecarguy]

Yes, AS5 is the best.

 

[tehandydumke]

I bought AC3 because I got twice as much for alittle cheaper.

 

[Fatal]

What about Nanotherm PCM. I heard about it last year, but never tried it. Anybody try it?

 

[tgillespie]

I've heard many reviews about AS5 but very little about Nanotherm. I tube of AS5 isn't very expensive when you're dealing with very expensive equipment.

 

[OPUS1]

I'd go with Ceramique, non conductive and just as good.

 

[Spewn]

Originally posted by OPUS1
I'd go with Ceramique, non conductive and just as good.

Seconded.

 

[Fatal]

Read up a bit on nanotherm, and it seems to have some problems. Most common I've heard of were oxidizing. Not good. Its temps were like 2 celsius lower than AS though.

 

[MontyAC]

Go for either of the Artic Silver products.

 

[OPUS1]

I get this impression that everyone thinks that heat sink compound is a miracle paste! The ideal situation of heat transfer would be for two absolute flat surfaces touching,No paste! But since that is theory only, The paste is used to occupy the small voids at the microscopic level. If you need more than that, ether use a thermal blanket or do a lap dance.

Oh so I don't get sued "this is my opinion"

Sorry didn't mean to hijack the post, but the time was right.

 

[jaffy]

Actually, Shin-Etsu MicroSi is the best. It outperforms AS in every review that I have seen. It is hard to find in the US, but crazypc.com currently has some in stock. It is hard to apply, especially on a pentium or Athlon 64, due to the size of the heatspreader. I have found that if you heat the paste up before applying, it is much easier.

 

[MontyAC]

Shin-Etsu is good but hard as hell to spread. I tried it but switched to Artic Silver.

 

[diredesire]

Originally posted by MontyAC
Shin-Etsu is good but hard as hell to spread. I tried it but switched to Artic Silver.

ditto. I like ceramique, AS5 is good, but i never liked the dab and squish method. Shin Etsu's thermal compound can be found rebadged as cooler master premium heatsink compound (with the blue cap) if anyone is interested.

Nanotherm PCM+ had issues, it was oxidizing people's heatsinks (due to the water content) but they supposedly have the problem fixed. However, the reason people dont use it/recommend it anymore is because nanotherm avoided the problem until it was made public/widely known. I say a good product is a good product.

 

[kronchev]

Originally posted by Fatal
What about Nanotherm PCM. I heard about it last year, but never tried it. Anybody try it?

it was found to be absolute shit that evaporates

 

[jaffy]

Shin Etsu's thermal compound can be found rebadged as cooler master premium heatsink compound (with the blue cap) if anyone is interested.

From what I've heard, the Cooler Master is a mix of Microsi and some other compounds. It does not perform near as well as the real Microsi.
ps: 100th post!

 

[theTIK]

Originally posted by OPUS1
I'd go with Ceramique, non conductive and just as good.

If you read up on AS5, you will see it is also non-conductive. Not that it really matters, AS3, ceramique, and AS5 all have a higher thermal conductivity rate then copper, which is the most thermally conductive material used on most heat sinks. But rule of thumb for me is the newer model is usually better for one reason or another, especially when dealing with companies that I trust like AS.

 

[lil layzie]

I use Arctic Ceramique and it works well. Haven't tried AS5, but from what I see around forums, AS3, AS5, and Ceramique work well and perform almost equally close.

 

[OPUS1]

Hey theTIK:

From Arctic Page:

Ceramique does not contain any metal or other electrically conductive materials. It is a pure electrical insulator, neither electrically conductive nor capacitive.

While much safer than electrically conductive silver and copper greases, Arctic Silver 5 should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. While it is not electrically conductive, the compound is very slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical paths.

Mean't "slightly capacitive" sorry

Your more wrong then me,so you read
(edit:This last statment was mean't as a humorous response I forget that good grammer is important when writing and i'm not funny, my apologies)

 

[diredesire]

Originally posted by OPUS1
Hey theTIK:

From Arctic Page:




blabhalbhablhabalbh

Mean't "slightly capacitive" sorry

Your more wrong then me,so you read

actually, he isn't. He stated that AS5 wasn't conductive, which it isn't. And also, don't take so much offense to his remark, he wasn't insulting you.

 

[kronchev]

Originally posted by OPUS1
Hey theTIK:

From Arctic Page:






Mean't "slightly capacitive" sorry

Your more wrong then me,so you read

follow your own advice. at the very most, AS3/5 is capacitive to a pico farad. that is not enough to screw up ANYTHING AT ALL

 

[OPUS1]

I forgot the smily
will go back and edit

No affence mean't or takin

 

[DeRailur]

Has anyone here lapped a heatsink after it has been in use for awhile? I did recently with a copper heatsink I bought at a local pc shop. It had been on my t-bird for about a year before I got around to taking it off and lapping it. The retention mechanism for the heatsink was one of those pita two screw driver technique ones, quite a bit off pressure produced from this. Anyways, after lapping for a bit I took a look at the bottom of the heatsink and there was a portion right in the middle that was unsanded. It was the perfect shape and size of my tbird core! Heh, I am assuming that the heat and pressure and the softness of the copper cause the bottom of the heatsink to "form" around the core. I havent tested it, but its possible that using no TIM might be better with this particular set up. Im sure it would suck ass for awhile, until the heatsink formed around the core, but after that I guess it would be "ideal". Dunno, whats your thoughts on this?

 

[diredesire]

Originally posted by DeRailur
Has anyone here lapped a heatsink after it has been in use for awhile? I did recently with a copper heatsink I bought at a local pc shop. It had been on my t-bird for about a year before I got around to taking it off and lapping it. The retention mechanism for the heatsink was one of those pita two screw driver technique ones, quite a bit off pressure produced from this. Anyways, after lapping for a bit I took a look at the bottom of the heatsink and there was a portion right in the middle that was unsanded. It was the perfect shape and size of my tbird core! Heh, I am assuming that the heat and pressure and the softness of the copper cause the bottom of the heatsink to "form" around the core. I havent tested it, but its possible that using no TIM might be better with this particular set up. Im sure it would suck ass for awhile, until the heatsink formed around the core, but after that I guess it would be "ideal". Dunno, whats your thoughts on this?

You'll still have microscopic holes, it wont 'melt' to the core, if so, it'd stick to the core when you took it off ;D

This actually happened with cathar's special-run of silver cascades (or supposedly thats what he thought happened... i forget the details). I guess the softer material did the same thing your copper did!

 

[JeffB]

Would that even be efficent if it was melted to core? Couldn't that potenially cause some problems?

 

[diredesire]

Originally posted by JeffB
Would that even be efficent if it was melted to core? Couldn't that potenially cause some problems?

I'm sure it takes more than 70c (max temp for some of the athlon dies, wont say all) to melt copper ;P