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Arctic Silver on Thunderbird/Duron - best method?

S

snow patrol

Diamond Member
I'm wondering if there are any good instructions out there detailing the best way to apply artic silver to your socket A CPU. I know it has to be a small amount, but what's the best place to put it etc?

Any linkage? Thanks a lot 🙂
 
A thin layer on the CPU die (the bluish/greenish square in the middle that has the CPU's name on it). Some ppl say just put a dot there and let the pressure of the HSF spread it out. THat should work fine too, since AS spread fairly easily.
 
No, don't place a small 'dot' in the middle and leave it to chance. Nevin has gone to the trouble of putting the instructions on the Arctic Silver website. Go look their and do it right.
 
just put it on there and spread it out using a flat edge. make sure it's thin and even. That's all you have to do
 
Is it supposed to seem fairly liquidy? Everytime after I apply it, run the CPU for a few weeks, then remove the heatsink, I see the arctic silver grease barely on the CPU or the heatsink where it contacts the CPU. It looks rather watery.
 
That's the whole point of good HSF to CPU contact - a flat HSF and flat cpu mated with a strong spring will leave almost no air gaps. The AS or any other thermal compound will fill the gaps and conduct heat better than an air gap, better even than a metal-to-cpu interface.

Removing the HSF should reveal a minimum of compound if you have a good installation. The AS is only a heat conductor, not a heat sink, and ensures rapid heat tranfer from CPU to HSF. It also fills any air gaps between them, since air is NOT a good heat conductor in this application.

If you got good temps, (yes, I know it's innacurate), no heat related crashes, you're OK. If you see little compound on removal, evenly spread on the CPU, it's a good installation.
 
Ah, the clips that provide some force between my golden orb and CPU were bent low, so I bent them back up and got the proper force again. I now see CPU temperatures lower than earlier today, back to what I had a few months ago. I believe this is why my P3-650 CPU started losing the ability to hit 949 and could only run at 923 with stability (after some accident where I had the CPU/slocket/heatsink sitting on my case cover and getting knocked over :Q, conveniently coinsiding with the installation of the just-received Santa Cruz sound card). I think part of the reason I won't see the heatsink compound spread evenly on the CPU and heatsink when I pull them apart is because of the twisting motion that the golden orb requires to lock/unlock the clips.
 
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