Arctic Silver thermal compound, do you apply thin or thick ?

[jaytone]

Hi
I remember a couple of years ago when I built my P2, that when you apply thermal compound it was suppose to be applied paper thin.
I am not building a system with a P3 FCPGA 700 and will be using Arctic silver. Does it also get applied paper thin, or should it be put on heavier.
It did not come with instructions.
thanks

 

[DaMasta]

Hey, I'm sorry that I can't anwser your question but are you from GL?

 

[GT1999]

As thin as possible.

Instructions



<< Arctic Silver Premium Silver Thermal Compound

Important Precautions

Don't eat it.

Don't squirt it in your eye, nose, ear, or any other accessible body orifice.

Don't give it to children or leave it laying around where kids can get a hold of it.

Don't smoke it.

Clean it off your skin with isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol.





Caution:

While much safer than silver greases engineered for high electrical conductivity, Arctic Silver should be keep away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. The compound is slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridged two close-proximity electrical paths.



Application Instructions

1. Even though Arctic Silver is specifically engineered for high electrical resistance, you should keep the compound away from processor, memory, and motherboard traces and pins. There is a possibility that dust or metal particles and/or shavings carried by the airflow inside the computer case could contaminate the compound and increase its electrical conductivity.


2. ONLY Arctic Silver should be between the processor core and the heatsink.
Remove any thermal pads or other interface material from the heatsink before applying the Arctic Silver.


3. Clean the mating surfaces completely with a low residual solvent (isopropyl alcohol will work) and a LINT FREE cloth. (i.e. lens cleaning cloth) If the heatsink surface has had thermal compound previously applied, the surface should be thoroughly scrubbed and cleaned with a quality degreaser (Available at automotive stores.) and then followed with the alcohol cleaning step. It is important to keep the surfaces free of foreign materials and NOT to touch the surfaces (a hair, piece of lint, and even dead skin cells can significantly affect the thermal interfaces performance, especially on modern small core CPUs as the surface area is already severely limited). In addition, oils from your fingers can adversely affect the performance by preventing the micronized silver fill from directly contacting the metal surface. (Finger prints can be as thick as 0.005&quot


4. Cup the syringe in the palm of your hand with the barrel between your middle and index finger as shown in the photo to the right. Slowly squeeze your hand shut until the compound begins to come out of the nozzle.
Only apply the thermal compound to the top of the actual CPU core. (Also known as the slug or die.) In the photo to the right it is the small raised blue rectangle in the middle of the Celeron II processor. In the photos below, it is the small raised rectangle in the center of the AMD Duron processor. The Duron photo on the lower right shows the Arctic Silver applied to the core.

The flatter the mating surfaces, the thinner the layer that is required. Stock processors and/or heatsinks with normal surface irregularities will require a layer 0.003&quot; to 0.008 thick to fill the resultant gaps. (Equal to the thickness of 1 to 2 sheets of standard weight paper.) Properly lapped processors and heatsinks with mirror finishes will only require a translucent haze.





DO NOT use your finger to apply or smooth the compound (skin cells, and oils again). A razor blade or the clean edge of a credit card can be used as the application tool. You may use whatever tool you choose as long as it is CLEAN and allows you to control the application area and thickness.


5. RECHECK to make sure no foreign contaminants are present on either surface, and assemble the two surfaces.


6. PRESS the two surfaces together ONLY. Minimize any &quot;twisting&quot; or lateral &quot;sliding&quot; in either plane in an attempt to mate the &quot;peaks&quot; of the surfaces together. When you twist or slide one surface against the other, &quot;peaks&quot; on one or both surfaces will travel over areas where two &quot;valleys&quot; should come to rest. The peaks will scrape away compound that is needed to fill the void between the valleys that will oppose each other when the surfaces are in their final position and cause small voids (air gaps). ANY air gap will significantly increase thermal resistance in an otherwise GOOD interface. If the thermal compound is properly made and of the proper consistency, direct non-sliding pressure vertical to the mating plane will be more than enough to insure that the surfaces &quot;bottom out&quot;. Additionally, &quot;sliding&quot; the surfaces together may cause one surface to scratch/gouge the other possibly opening up a larger inter-surface gap which will increase thermal resistance.


7. Secure the thermal interface with the supplied clips or other hardware. >>

 

[Impact55]

<< Don't smoke it. >>


LOL!

 

[DaddyG]

&quot;As thin as possible&quot; maybe?? If you have a 'lapped' hsf then this may apply. But, slightly thicker will get better results with the factory finish on the hsf.

 

[GT1999]

DaddyG- While you do have a point, you are not completely correct. The reason why you use as thin of an application as possible is so the heat transfers properly. If you add too much compound, it will obviously go to the edges of the processor, isn't where it belongs. While this does not hurt the CPU, it isn't needed - why use more thermal compound than you need? It's a waste.

 

[EvilDonnyboy]

Also, if the clip isn't strong enuf, not all of the goo will be squeezed out, leaving a blanket of goo. this isn't good, obviously.

 

[jaytone]

Thanks to all, most appreciated and DaMasta, where is GL ?

 

[ToXiCRaGE]

to my understanding, thin, but dont be cheap with it.

 

[amdskip]

Anyone got a partial tube of this laying around? I don't wanna get a whole tube for just my computer!