arctic silver 5

[noxiousCaitSith]

i guess this is the right place for this question since it has to do with a processor.
i'm just wondering if anyone knows of any stores such as best buy, compUSA, or circuit city that sell arctic silver 5. i didn't see it on their website but they may not have listed it...i dunno. just checking before i go driving all around town. i'd rather just drive and buy it from a store than pay $5 shipping. or if there's somewhere that has really cheap shipping on it that'd be nice as well.

 

[lopri]

Toothpaste FTW!



On a serious side, I doubt you'll find AS5 at BB/CC. I know MicroCenter and CompUSSR carry it. (but the latter went belly up?) They overcharge for it though (like $10).

 

[noxiousCaitSith]

yeah, that's gonna be a problem. most stores charge more than online retailers. also, i believe comUSA is now back in business cause someone bought them i guess and decided to keep them open...

 

[Jax Omen]

Radioshack carries it, it's $10 for the same size tube that's $5 on newegg.

 

[nyker96]

I recently got a bottle of TC grease 0098 from tim-consultants.com. It actually worked about 2-3 drgrees better than AC silver. Haven't really tested fully yet just used it on a older machine with AS5. but the temp came down at max load. under idle they seem to be equivalent maybe 1C apart hardly noticeable. If you dislike AS5 for the price, this guy sells 50g of it for $17 shipped (will last forever). So it's cheaper than AS5 and do a better job at it.

Edit: shoot I just checked their website, ever since I bought this stuff, the company had received some awards and appearantly got bought out and how 50g is like $75. holy cow.

 

[noxiousCaitSith]

hehe. well i just decided to go to compUSA and got what they had available. some stuff by OCZ...out of the 4 reviews it has on newegg all of them are 5 "eggs". for some reason i'm thinking arctic silver 5 is just a bunch of hype...hopefully

 

[bunnyfubbles]

there's quite a few top brand TIMs and they'll all perform just about the same, although each with their own distinct advantages/disadvantages

some are completely nonconductive and require no burn in time for maximum cooling (although even the worst of these such as AS5 still work extremely well even when just applied fresh)

others might not be that good on air but can hold up where others cannot under extreme cooling


out of all the top air coolers IMO you'd might as well just stick with the cheapest you can get, and that usually is AS5. The OCZ Freeze is one of those top air coolers, so if that is what you can find to meet your needs for the cheapest then that's a good choice.

 

[Vitaminx]

I heard MX-2 is better than Arctic Silver-5. Sadly the shipping costs as much as the product.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16835186020

 

[TheRyuu]

AS5 is overrated.
I've always liked the ceramic, because of the price and how closely it performed with the AS5.

That being said, if you want best performance, get the new MX-2 stuff, non-conductive and better at cooling.

 

[TheJian]

Originally posted by: Dragon5152
AS5 is overrated.
I've always liked the ceramic, because of the price and how closely it performed with the AS5.

That being said, if you want best performance, get the new MX-2 stuff, non-conductive and better at cooling.

http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.ph...9&Content_Random=12088

MX-2 lost. Arctic silver is NOT overrated.

Most reviews I've seen don't let it cure. The company says let it cure 200hrs. This is the best review I've seen for analyzing curing but even they stopped short at 120hrs and I've seen it drop a few C's myself after checking a week later. I also have to wonder how Arctic cooling came up with not needing to re-apply for 8 years? Did they start testing it before they even became a company? Didn't they start in 2001? Grease came out in 2007? So they've had tests going since 1999 when they didn't even become a company until two years after this and the grease years later? Hmmm. Arctic silver on the other hand has been on cpu's since like mid 2000 and tested to death by overclockers everywhere. I can attest to upgrading cpus 2-3yrs later and seeing that it hasn't changed in viscosity much at all many times for customers. It never seems to dry out like others and doesn't run etc.

It sounds like you think Arctic silver is conductive. Prove it. I can't with a multimeter...LOL. Yeah I tried. I really didn't believe the reviews in the beginning (eh, 2001 or so when I tested it after reading for a while and finally biting). I've tested rev 1, 2 and 5. NOTHING. I have not tested the ceramique for this. I stick with AS5 as time tested. I wonder about ceramique, and if it's just capitalizing on their name since it is definitely CHEAPER to make for them. Call me a skeptic. I am.

You can read review after review covering years for AS. Their site points to tons of them. Arctic Cooling points to ONE.
http://www.mvktech.net/content/view/3568/
And it reads like an ad. "The team of Arctic Cooling insists o­n international young highly educated people with business, technical and communicational skills. The attitude to work is based o­n the Swiss innovative spirit and adheres to the high Swiss standard recognized internationally. This striving for excellence is integrated in all processes and is a matter of course."

So did they meet these guys, drink beer with them etc? This reads like I'm interviewing my best friend or admiring my lover and trying to get a little extra tonight...ROFL. My god, let me attach my lips to your a$$ a little more babe...I love your hair today. You look hot in that dress. At best I'd call it a press release.

I'm not saying their grease sucks. From reading multiple reviews it looks good. I have no need as any 1-2 degree difference isn't worth me switching from what I've SEEN myself over years with AS and how it holds up. I stopped buying others years ago. Even just for kicks I used to try them...In a business selling pc's I never lost money trying another (they're all fairly cheap) I just got tired of finding AS the winner. Until I read some domination article where they get handily beat AS still looks great. I'll wait for you to tell me how your grease turns out in a few years

That said, there are quite a few top greases out there. I just wonder about time and how they hold up. I prefer to let others find out.

 

[TheJian]

Originally posted by: Vitaminx
I heard MX-2 is better than Arctic Silver-5. Sadly the shipping costs as much as the product.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16835186020

True for all mail order grease. Just buy it with something else at newegg and it drops to nothing. Add a motherboard to your basket and check shipping. The grease doesn't add much to a few parts in the basket. But yeah, the all suck by themselves in a basket

 

[SlowSpyder]

http://www.svc.com - Free shipping on AS5.

 

[JAG87]

AS 5 is the best compound in my opinion. I tried them all, and yet I keep coming back to AS 5.

However, AS 5 is not electrically safe. It is NOT conductive, but it is capacitive and it changes the impedance between two points.

And that's what Ceramique is for

 

[slugg]

if you want to buy it in a brick & mortar store, Radio Shack is the only one I know of.

 

[TheJian]

Originally posted by: JAG87
AS 5 is the best compound in my opinion. I tried them all, and yet I keep coming back to AS 5.

However, AS 5 is not electrically safe. It is NOT conductive, but it is capacitive and it changes the impedance between two points.

And that's what Ceramique is for

You mean if I squirt it all over my board?

Assuming you can put it where it belongs I'm pretty sure this should not be a problem IT doesn't run etc. But agreed. It would be bad to squirt it across your traces and not clean it off. I guess I was just giving us the benefit of the doubt thinking we're not all pigs with our grease...LOL.



SlowSpyder: Good catch on the free ship. Dang, just checked ceramique is $5 with free ship also. Their are only a few on there with free. Maybe I'll have to pony up for ceramique and retest performance.

Jag87's got me thinking again (damn you for doing that...LOL).

 

[j0j081]

Originally posted by: lopri
Toothpaste FTW!



On a serious side, I doubt you'll find AS5 at BB/CC. I know MicroCenter and CompUSSR carry it. (but the latter went belly up?) They overcharge for it though (like $10).

I use AS5 as my toothpaste it's soo good.

 

[Muadib]

I had to pick up AS5 from Radio Shack, because I didn't order any as I thought I had enough AS3 for one more job. I was shocked to see how little of it you get. My tube of AS3 was almost 4 times the size of AS5!

RS also had ceramique for 6 bucks & change. I almost got it, but didn't want to risk it. Whats the difference between AS5 & ceramique?

 

[10acjed]

Originally posted by: noxiousCaitSith
hehe. well i just decided to go to compUSA and got what they had available. some stuff by OCZ...out of the 4 reviews it has on newegg all of them are 5 "eggs". for some reason i'm thinking arctic silver 5 is just a bunch of hype...hopefully

Its OCZ Freeze, got one last week to replace my as5.

no diff in temps so its seems to work just fine..

++ no cure time...

 

[noxiousCaitSith]

i got the cpu installed and running with my zerotherm btf90...i used the thermal grease that came with it cause i'm just going to be switching the cpu back out after i get the x3350. it seemed kinda crappy. it got dry pretty quick so it was harder to spread and was uneven. i used a razor blade to do it. i'll probably try using a credit card or something like it next time.
anyway, the cpu temp is at 45C and it's a pentium 4 3.2GHz. does that sound about right or is that a bit much? if it is then i probably didn't put enough on

 

[Ratman6161]

Well, I've been using Arctic Silver for years, but I have to admit that I have never actually read their instructions until just now. The instructions for a quad core surprised me - they say to just put one thin line accross the heat spreader going from left to right and then let the pressure of the heatsink spread out the compound. Hmmm. When I installed my Q6600 earlier this week I did as I have allways done in the past which is to dab a little dots of it all over the surface. Then I use a business card to spread it out so it covers the entire surface. The use a clean business card to scrape the surface down to a very thin layer. This has always worked for me and seems to be working now too. So I guess I won't worry about it!

 

[bka4u2c]

Originally posted by: Ratman6161
Well, I've been using Arctic Silver for years, but I have to admit that I have never actually read their instructions until just now. The instructions for a quad core surprised me - they say to just put one thin line accross the heat spreader going from left to right and then let the pressure of the heatsink spread out the compound. Hmmm. When I installed my Q6600 earlier this week I did as I have allways done in the past which is to dab a little dots of it all over the surface. Then I use a business card to spread it out so it covers the entire surface. The use a clean business card to scrape the surface down to a very thin layer. This has always worked for me and seems to be working now too. So I guess I won't worry about it!

Yea, I was a little skeptic about the instructions for AS5 application. But I figured its their product, they should know how to apply it. For the dual and quad core I used the one line method, if I remember correctly they both go in different directions. But after removing the heatsink to replace CPU's lately. Each time it is evenly spread over the whole CPU with barely any on the sides. It works!!

 

[ther00kie16]

http://www.yesbuy.net/arctic-c...-thermal-compound.html
$7 shipped for mx-2 but you'd take a risk with the site as it's gotten a lot of bad reviews.
With that said, I doubt they can screw up a shipment of thermal compound...

edit:very reputable site: http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/arcomxthco.html
cheap shipping if you choose first class. ends up being <$9 shipped.

 

[fire400]

Originally posted by: lopri
Toothpaste FTW!



On a serious side, I doubt you'll find AS5 at BB/CC. I know MicroCenter and CompUSSR carry it. (but the latter went belly up?) They overcharge for it though (like $10).

10 bucks is too much? Sure the price is doubled, but you're paying shipping via the Internet most of the time anyway. 5 bucks + shipping, what does that come to. You're putting away a few few dollars more, basically skippin' out of a McChicken or the like.

I'd rather pay 10 bucks for artic silver 5 than use the paste that comes with most HSF sets.

Honestly, you're paying for the product on the spot, as opposed to saving a few dollars and waiting a few days, in which it must be shipped to your door. Come on, think about it.