c-orb Thermal Pad Q

[alm4rr]

Hi
heres the problem...

UPGRADE PLANET :| sent me a chrome orb without the plastic cover on the thermal pad. since i never seen one before, i thought there might be one there, just really clear, so when i tried to take off what wasnt there i scraped off a lil bit of the pad. theres still plenty left on the hs to cover the core, it just may not cover 1 or 2 of those rectangles surrounding the core (yes im a marooon)

I was going to radio shack to pick up some goop, and i just want hear any comments as to ()whether i should take all of the pad off b4 applying the new goop, ()whether not having the plastic cover woulda dried the pad 'out' (if possible).


Thanx for pitying this newbie

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[Sunny129]

i dont know anything about AMD CPUs and their coolants, but if you ask me, thermal pads suck. unless you need that thermal pad on the Corb to conform to the core of the CPU, there is no sense in keeping it on there. the conduction of heat through thermal pads suck compared to thermal compounds. you would probably be better off using the radio shack stuff...i've used it and it works well. but it is cilicon based, and the metallic based stuff (such as arctic silver) works much better and will make a fairly significant difference in temp.

 

[alm4rr]

I take the pad off before I apply the compund right?

 

[alm4rr]

sorry im so dense - i take the pad off
i picked up silicone radio shack stuff today and will put it on the core.

im just real paranoid about messin up my investment so far as i dont have much $ to spare and its my first time doin a complete build.

 

[Sunny129]

i completely understand your worries. i also just put together a fully custom system myself and had worries about the same things. but yes, you do want to remove the pad completely b/c it is the pad that yields poor heat conductivity and you dont want any of it in between the core and the heatsink. just thermal compound should sit between the two. and make sure you spread it on smooth so no air bubbles or pockets remain, b/c air is also a poor conductor of heat.

 

[nickburns]

when you take the pad off, make sure you get all of it, cuz if the suface is at all uneven with the CPU core then your temps will drastically reflect it.

 

[Sunny129]

yes, any uneven surface will result in parts of the contact area to not completely touch, leaving only air to fill the gaps. and like i said b4, air is a very poor heat conductor, hence the reason higher temps when the pad isnt fully removed.

 

[Usul]

As long as it is flat on the core, U're fine.
And socketA thermal pad are good!
Radio shack grease is Evil.
If U need, use AS

 

[thermite88]

alm4rr wrote:

<< UPGRADE PLANET sent me a chrome orb without the plastic cover on the thermal pad. >>

The Chrome Orb does not come with a thermal pad. The interface material is CHOMERICS T725 phase change thermal paste recommended by AMD to meet their contact requirements for cooling. The CHOMERICS T725 will mold to the CPU core when it is used and heated up the first time. It will not dry out over long period of high heating uses with AMD CPU's. It and the similar interface materials are the only ones accepted by AMD. Ordinary thermal paste such as those sold at Radio Shack should work ok with Intel CPU's which are very low heating, but they definitely should not be used with the high heating AMD CPU's.

The CHOMERICS T725 is a thick, rubberish brownish-yellow layer. It is very tough and difficult to remove at room temperature. When it heats up by the CPU, it will flow and mold to the CPU. It is one of the more advanced thermal interface design.

If the Chrome Orb does not come with this CHOMERICS T725 interface pad, it is not original from thermaltake and should be returned.

If you removed the CHOMERICS T725 pad by mistake, get a new Chrome Orb for use with your Duron. You can sell the Chome Orb without the CHOMERICS T725 pad to someone who uses Intel CPU, which works wonderfully with the artic Silver paste.

 

[Sunny129]

well i guess we should have taken a better look at that &quot;thermal pad&quot; b/c apparently, thats not what it was. thermite88 sounds like he knows what he's talking about when it comes to AMD CPUs. like i said, i'm and Intel user, but also like i said, thermal compounds are much better to use than thermal pads, and thats what that stuff on your Corb was. i've never seen the chrome orb up close, so i didnt know it wasnt a thermal pad. oops...

by the way thermite, do the Corb's cool any better than the Gorb's? i have a Gorb that isnt quite cutting it, and i heard that the fan on the Corb is more powerful than that on the Gorb since it was meant to cool an AMD CPU. and also, is it louder than the Gorb?

 

[thermite88]

I compared the Golden Orb, Chrome Orb and Alpha FCPGA-35t on a P3-700 overclocked to 933 MHz @ 133 FSB at 1.75 volts vcore. The limit of my CPU is 1.0 GHz @ 143 FSB at 1.9 volts vcore. The Coppermine is such an efficient design, all of them provide sufficient cooling with a large margin to the Intel ultimate spec. Using the Alpha FCPGA-35t and ArticSilver, the CPU never went more than 10C (18F) above case/MB temperature running Prime95 loop. All HSF are completely stable running Prime95 loop.

There is some appeal for the Chrome Orb. It cools just a hair better than the Golden using the same space and cools almost as well as the Alpha using much less space. The Alpha cools 10F better than the Golden Orb at full load, and 3F better at idle, but it blocks off two of the four memory slots in the Asus P3B-F. The Chrome Orb with Arctic Silver cools as well as the Alpha and blocks only one memory slot. The Golden Orb is good enough for the overclocked P3-933 with absolutely no stability problem. Mechanically speaking, it is the most stable of the three.

There is one warning about using the Chrome Orb on Coppermine CPU. The Chrome Orb comes with the Chomerics T-725 phase change thermal interface material when shipped from Thermaltake. The Chomerics T-725 is designed for the Duron/Thunderbird which generate a lot of heat. It will not become effective until high heat is applied to it. Since the Coppermine runs a lot cooler than AMD CPU's, it is not hot enough to cause the phase change. The Chomerics T-725 is a very poor thermal interface for the Intel CPU. Scrap the Chomerics T-725 (relatively thick light brown sticky stuff) off the heat sink and clean it with paint thinner before using it on coppermine.

 

[Sunny129]

i heard that the Corb is made specially to fit on an AMD CPU b/c the cores crush easier. would i have to worry about the way a Corb fits on an Intel CPU at all after i take off the brown sticky stuff you mentioned? and also, is the fan on the Corb much louder than the one on the Gorb?

oh yeah, and if the Corb and Gorb are the size and have the same dimensions, then it shouldnt block any DIMMs on my CUSL2 b/c i have no problems accessing all three while using the Gorb...

 

[thermite88]

sunny129,

I read your other thread. Your CPU temperature is higher than I would expected. It is either your case ventilation or the installation of the Golden Orb.

When installed properly in a well ventillated case, the Gorb should keep the Intel CPU at no more than 20C above ambient running full load loops, such as Prime95. At idle, the CPU should be less 10C above ambient.

The Chrome Orb is essentially the same HSF as the Golden Orb, with a faster fan and different clip. I like the twist clip on the Gorb a lot better than the Corb push-on clip. But both will work fine with any coppermine CPU.

The Chrome should fit any slotket just fine, but its clip may interfer with the nearby capacitors on some socket motherboard. The Asus CUSL2 is one of them, which the Chrome Orb will not fit.

The white stuff that comes with the Gorb is Dow Corning 340 thermal paste. It is one of the best thermal paste product on the market and will not dry out with time. It is a perfect thermal paste for the Gorb. Don't ever replace it with the cheap Radio Shack stuff!! If you want better thermal interface, get a tube of the Actic Silver.

I would recommend you to stay with the Gorb and try to make sure that the installation is properly done. Good luck.

 

[Sunny129]

thermite88, take another look at my thread again. its been much updated since then. i have used the cheap radio shack stuff in the past, but i would nt use it now. infact i already did as you suggested...i used arctic silver in place of the dow-corning stuff. as far as temps go, i just put a chart up on my temps. i think the reason they were so high in the first place was b/c i forgot to remove the dow-corning b4 using the Arctic Silver. so today i removed the Gorb, cleaned off the sticky mix of arctic silver and dow-corning, and reapplied the arctic silver. my temps dropped a good 5C. i am nowhere near 20C over ambient anymore. thanks for the advice though. i would appreciate it if you did check out my recently posted info, as i would like to hear your feedback. thanks...