The specifications for AS5 on the arctic silver website mentions thicknesses of .001 and .003 inches, and implies that this thickness is best for filling in the microscopic valleys in the heatsink surface. Before I lapped my Thermalright SP-94, 947U, and 700 heatsinks the ridges were probably about .001 to .005 inches, but now they are a couple orders of magnitude smaller and it seems a mil of AS5 is more than I need.
I've been using the thermal paste provided with my Thermalright heatsinks. Would I see a benefit using AS5 if I use so little? My theory is that most of the performance difference in thermal pastes does not depend on the ability to fill in cracks as much as thermal conductivity, and thermal conductivity is not so vital if I have decreased the distance between the CPU core and heatsink by more than an order of magnitude.
I've been using the thermal paste provided with my Thermalright heatsinks. Would I see a benefit using AS5 if I use so little? My theory is that most of the performance difference in thermal pastes does not depend on the ability to fill in cracks as much as thermal conductivity, and thermal conductivity is not so vital if I have decreased the distance between the CPU core and heatsink by more than an order of magnitude.