Arctic Alumina Vs. AS3

[syberscott]

Well, that's about it. How does Arctic Alumina compare with AS3? I like the safety with Alumina, especially for ram chips, etc.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Alumina is a lot less thermally conductive than AS3, but easier to clean up. There are other types that are better for CPU use (Coolermaster has a compound that's got a high thermal rating but I've never used it). Alumina is more appropriate for less heat-intensive chips.

The conductivity is the only possible "safety" issue. The specs for AS3 specifically state that it's slightly capacitive and should be kept away from points that may result in a short, but it's only actually conductive when under high pressure (I assume at that point the silver particles get compressed so much they're essentially a wire). As long as you aren't globbing it on to the point that it's oozing out all over the leads and traces, it should be fine. Unless you're building a lot of machines, there's no point to getting both types of compound for different uses.

 

[Lizardman]

AC3 vs arctic alumina can mean up to a 3 deg different for some people. I use alumina epoxy because its alot easier to mess something up when you have to quickly apply epoxy. I also use arctic alumina paste on my P4 rig, has done me good so far. When I run out I will prob try some AC3 though.

 

[Lord Evermore]

You use epoxy BECAUSE it's easy to mess up and have a permanently wrong setup?

Epoxy is very much not recommended for most applications; if you can do anything other than that, you want to, since you can never change it, and epoxy isn't nearly as good thermally.

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore
Alumina is a lot less thermally conductive than AS3, but easier to clean up.

All the reviews I read showed that, in worse case, CPUs with AA are only a few degrees higher than with AS. Couple of the reviewers couldn't even find much of a difference. AA should be more than sufficent for most people. Only extreme OCers require AS.