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AS Ceramique or AS 5

M

Mudbone

Member
I've got to order a bunch of supplies soon. I am swapping out the CPU (AMD) HS for a Zalman, the GPUs for NV 5s and plan to do something with the chipset later. Which of those two thermal compounds would be better for these applications. Or is one better for one thing and one for another?
 
I think AS5 is supposed to be a tad more efficient. I personally don't see a difference in temps between AS3 and Ceramique, and so I doubt there's a huge difference between Ceramique and AS5. I've found Ceramique to be much easier to apply and clean up. And it's completely non-conductive.
 
AS5 is like tar, very hard to apply, haven't had to clean it yet. AS3 is great stuff, cleans up easily, and I haven't seen any real world diiference between 3 and 5 in my systems....

m 🙂
 
I always have used Ceremique. Its very easy to clean off of your hands, and cpu. The performance drop between this and AS5 is non-life threatening.
 
Yes, AS5 is supposed to be A LITTLE better. However people do say that Ceramique is supposed to be easier to clean up.

-Kevin
 
I use both. For my CPU and GPU I used AS 5. For the ram chips on the Vid card I used AS C. Personally I did not find AS 5 that hard to clean up, though it definitly was harder than my AS 3 which is why I am keeping that tube around.

On a side not, anyone know whatever happened to AS 4?

-spike
 
I was doing some reading on the NV 5 and 6800 series cards. The basic gist was that the NV5 heat spreader, which covers the gpu and the memory chips, could use a thicker layer of compound than is normally used on a CPU. Since the AS5 is stiffer, I was thinking it might be a good choice. However, if its just going to start moving once it heats up, I am not sure that it matters. I would be more comfortable using the Ceramique on the video memory chips anyway. They are so small it wouldn't take much to over apply and have it running out the sides.
 
Originally posted by: Mucker
AS5 is like tar, very hard to apply, haven't had to clean it yet. AS3 is great stuff, cleans up easily, and I haven't seen any real world diiference between 3 and 5 in my systems....

m 🙂
Click to expand...

Actually, it's nothing like tar until it sets and it's easy to remove as long as you go about it the right way. Go over it first with goof-off and then some denatured alcohol for the final clean-up.

 
Actually it is like tar when you try to spread a thin film of it (compared to AS3). I like 100% coverage on the CPU heat spreader, not less, like you end up with the grain of rice method. I have seen the photos of the coverage after the rice method and it's less than 100%.....

m 🙂
 
I used a little more than a grain of rice but the credit card I used to spread it did a nice job of cleaning up any excess when I got it to the appropriate thickness.

-spike
 
When people talk about thermal compounds being conductive, what are they worried about? Getting fried because you're applying it while something is still plugged into the wall? 😉

Just be careful, no?
 
Originally posted by: walkure
When people talk about thermal compounds being conductive, what are they worried about? Getting fried because you're applying it while something is still plugged into the wall? 😉

Just be careful, no?
Click to expand...

hehe 🙂
No they worry mainly about accidently transfering some to the top of the cpu. Connecting traces can be a bad thing.....

Personally I have never used Ceramique, but I never have any trouble applying AS3 or AS5. They both clean up easily with denatured alchohol.
 
I've used Ceramique and didn't like it. It functions properly, but applying it is a real pain.
I've used AS3, but not AS5. I really liked AS3, so my next compound order will be for AS5.
 
Originally posted by: Blain
I've used Ceramique and didn't like it. It functions properly, but applying it is a real pain.
I've used AS3, but not AS5. I really liked AS3, so my next compound order will be for AS5.
Click to expand...

spreading it via credit card is a pain, but doing the "dot" or "grain of rice" like the website says is pretty easy. (This could be said of AS5 as well).
 
Why do people use a credit card to spread the compound? You don't need to. Just put a rice dab on the spreader and then drop the heatsink on there. The weight of the sink should spread the compound where it needs to go.
 
Originally posted by: xbassman
Originally posted by: walkure
When people talk about thermal compounds being conductive, what are they worried about? Getting fried because you're applying it while something is still plugged into the wall? 😉

Just be careful, no?
Click to expand...

hehe 🙂
No they worry mainly about accidently transfering some to the top of the cpu. Connecting traces can be a bad thing.....

Personally I have never used Ceramique, but I never have any trouble applying AS3 or AS5. They both clean up easily with denatured alchohol.
Click to expand...

Or what I'm trying to do - low voltage DC -> higher voltage DC convertors. They have one really little chip on the PCB, through which the entire current of the circuit must flow; the chip is only 9 square millimeters too. Tiny. The power going through the chip can be up to 4 watts. So the little buggers go up in smoke really quick if they aren't given a heatsink. I prefer something nonconductive, because with such a really tiny area, it's easy to get heatsink compound on the leads, and the chip does even worse with being shorted out than it does with being powered on uncooled.
 
Originally posted by: walkure
When people talk about thermal compounds being conductive, what are they worried about?
Click to expand...

A friend of mine killed an Athlon 1200 because he got AS3 onto the bridges. Then again, he's killed about 4 socket A chips so far.
 
Originally posted by: MrControversial
Why do people use a credit card to spread the compound? You don't need to. Just put a rice dab on the spreader and then drop the heatsink on there. The weight of the sink should spread the compound where it needs to go.
Click to expand...

Because it leaves air pockets. Additionally it is spread unevenly when that happens. All of that on top of the fact that connecting certain bridges can harm the chip.

-Kevin
 
Originally posted by: Jeff7
Or what I'm trying to do - low voltage DC -> higher voltage DC convertors. They have one really little chip on the PCB, through which the entire current of the circuit must flow; the chip is only 9 square millimeters too. Tiny. The power going through the chip can be up to 4 watts. So the little buggers go up in smoke really quick if they aren't given a heatsink. I prefer something nonconductive, because with such a really tiny area, it's easy to get heatsink compound on the leads, and the chip does even worse with being shorted out than it does with being powered on uncooled.
Click to expand...


Can you explain what the purpose of that is? I guess I haven't heard of it before.
 
Originally posted by: Gerbil333
I think AS5 is supposed to be a tad more efficient. I personally don't see a difference in temps between AS3 and Ceramique, and so I doubt there's a huge difference between Ceramique and AS5. I've found Ceramique to be much easier to apply and clean up. And it's completely non-conductive.
Click to expand...

What he said.

I've used both and didn't see any performance difference worth noting. I use Ceramique since it's easier to work with. :thumbsup:
 
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