I've heard from a "few" people around the net that Arctic Silver II dry's up after about 6 monthes and hardens, is this true? I don't see how it could dry up, since on the AS site they state that cannot happen.
Any experts on the subject; please correct me if I'm way off base here: I think the way semi-metalic thermal pastes are supposed to work is that after X# hours of heat and usage, the metal in the paste oozes/slides/goo's together to optimize the gap-fill between the surfaces at the microscopic level. This tighter formation of silver could seem thicker than the ACII first applied making it seem like it dried up. I noticed a 'sheet' of silver on my HS the first time I removed it...never thought of why though until now.
If i were you I would not worry about it. Unless this caused your temps to rise alot, but i dont see how it could since the asII is 95% silver so the rest is just water and goo. Of course the water will dry and who cares about the goo.
shouldn't dry up
but every 6 months or so, i clean out my heatsink and re apply the ASII. when i take off the heatsink i notice that the paste isn't as evenly spread as it was when i first applied it. it was sorta dried in some areas on the core. oh well it's the dust in the heatsink that really messes with airflow
I've had it applied on my overclocked Athlon 1.4Ghz for about 6 months now and so far the temps have not increased from when I first applied the ASII, leading to the conclusion that its not dried up - I've not taken the HSF off the CPU though because the temps are very good at the moment and I don't want to disturb it.
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