Application of Arctic silver 5

[Qwave]

When using Arctic Silver 2 a few years back, I remember reading that when applying the compound on a heat spreader (Pentium 4), one was suppose to spread the compound with a credit card (or anything flat) about paper thin over the entire surface of the heat spreader. Now with Arctic silver 5, I've been told to only use a little dab of compound in the center of the heat speader, and let the pressure from the heatsink do the rest...

Has anyone had any problems with using such little compund?

Picture of the compound on a Pentium 4

Another picture

 

[Thermalrock]

its true do like in the pictures. i didnt pay attention and spread it out and had higher temps than with a crap thermal compound. fixed it now. plus they wouldnt tell you to use less if it werent better. theyd sell you more of their product and make more money if you had to put more of the stuff on your cpu. they cant tell you that tho else youd get higher temps like i did after spreading it out be unsaticefied and would never buy arctic silver again.

 

[btbam]

use a very small, pinpoint dab on the spreader, put a ziplock bag or saran wrap over ur finger, dab the paste around using your wrapped finger, any access wil stay on the saran wrap, and the oils from your skin are kept out of the picture.

as seen on mechbgons first time builders website...


was very helpfull to me

 

[Thermalrock]

however do not do this with as5. do as arctic silver tells you to and youll have better results.

 

[AristoV300]

"only use a little dab of compound in the center of the heat speader, and let the pressure from the heatsink do the rest" is what I do and works just fine for all of my P4's.

 

[Fern]

I prefer to spread my AS5 with a piece of plastic rather than hope the "pressure" will spread it thoroughly.

 

[Zardnok]

I have never heard of simply putting a little dab of thermal paste. I was always told to place a BB size amount in center and spread it out using a credit card.

My current build I spread the AS5 evenly on both my chip and bottom of my heatsink using a credit card and wiped excess off the card. I used a paper thin layer and have not had any "problems" with heat. My Mobile 2600 is running at 2504mhz and is limited only by the cheap RAM I am using. My idle temp is 31C and full load is 39C.

If there is a better way to apply this stuff, perhaps I should take my HS off and try it another way. I just do not see how this could evenly spread it out and insure there is no area that is uncovered. What am I missing here??

 

[Thermalrock]

that the core of the cpu is alot smaller than the spreading plate that some cpus have and its not important to have as5 on the sides. if you only apply a lil bit in the middle and let the paste be spread by the heatsink its gonna be spread till its a very thin layer. if you spread it all over and then mount the heatsink the paste wont spread till its that thin because moving all the other paste you applied takes more force than displacing air. the thinner the better and having a thinner layer over the hot spot is better than having a thicker layer even tho everywhere. you should really trust arctic silver on this they would not tell you to use less of their product just to sell you less and make less money if it didnt lead to better performance therefore good reviews that inspire more ppl to buy as5.

 

[AristoV300]

Well this is per Arctic Silver's homepage as quoted below:
"On an Intel P4 or Athlon64 type CPU with a large metal heat spreader, put a small amount of Arctic Silver onto the center of the heat spreader..."

"Our testing has shown that this method minimizes the possibility of air bubbles and voids in the thermal interface between the heat spreader and the heatsink. Since the vast majority of the heat from the core travels directly through the heat spreader, it is more important to have a good interface directly above the actual CPU core than it is to have the heat spreader covered with compound from corner to corner...While the CPU core on an Athlon64 is slightly larger than the P4 core, it is still much smaller than the metal CPU Cap that covers it."

 

[ThePiston]

I honestly don't think it has ever made a difference for me how I put it on.

 

[imported_NoGodForMe]

Great thread. Just bought some AS5 and I'm going to re-do my FX53, because I put it all over the chip thinking that was the way to go. I used the credit card method also. Now I'm going to go back, clean it up, and do the bb size dot in the middle.