How much difference does Arctic Silver make?

[benjamat]

When I got my 1.6A Northwood I stuck it straight into a brand new system with standard heatsink and got a tremendous 35 degree temp. Ran like this for over a week while overclocking up to 2.4 but not ultra stable so I thought take it off, do the wire trick and use arctic silver.

Big mistake, before anything else happened and at idle temp the thing had jumped from 35 to 39 degrees. Now I know I had increased the voltage but did not expect this heat increase at idle and can only put this down to the tremendous heat transfer properties of the compound/tape on the back of the standard heatsink as compared to stripping this off and using arctic silver.

My recommendation is do all your tricks on the processor before clamping iy down for the first time and then leave it alone. If you take it off you will lose some of the properties as it sticks everywhere. I would set the voltage at 1.7v for performance and safety.

I would appreciatye any thoughts on this.

Many Thanks

 

[Mikewarrior2]

What idd you use to clean off the default thermal pad?

Have your case temps/room temps increased at all between the two heatsink installations?



Mike

P.S. Voltage is a huge reason for the increased heat... Did you have it at 1.5V before? if so, your temps will increase significantly at 1.7V

 

[WarCon]

Even with a watercooler, temps jump fairly dramatically when you up the voltage with these P4's. I have seen this on my friends P4 with similar results and we never used the pad. Pulled it off right away.

If you look at the differences in percentage increase compared to a T-bird you might see why. Upping your voltage from 1.5 to 1.7 is a 13% increase. Upping your voltage from 1.75 to 1.85 is only a 5% increase. If your AMD mobo supports higher voltage or you do a voltage mod, you would have to run at almost 2.0vcore (1.98) to have the same increase. If you have ever overclocked an AMD with that much voltage difference you might of noticed a significant increase in temps even at idle.

I really don't think those numbers are abnormal for the stock heatsink. It really starts to depend on case cooling to limit the heat rise. My friend only has two case fans and that isn't enough to run high vcores and keep his full load temps below 50C. (Was his highest temp he would accept) So he runs at 2.133 with 4:5 memory timings at around 45C full load.

Good luck man.....

..................edit.......................
I had a thought the other day about how to clean the wax out of the pores of the metal semi-easily. Clean as much off by hand that you can then put the heatsink in your dishwasher. As long as your not using anti spotting agents your heatsink should be fairly dewaxed if you dishwasher gets as hot as mine. Just a thought.......😀

 

[SteelCityFan]

<< When I got my 1.6A Northwood I stuck it straight into a brand new system with standard heatsink and got a tremendous 35 degree temp. Ran like this for over a week while overclocking up to 2.4 but not ultra stable so I thought take it off, do the wire trick and use arctic silver.

Big mistake, before anything else happened and at idle temp the thing had jumped from 35 to 39 degrees. Now I know I had increased the voltage but did not expect this heat increase at idle and can only put this down to the tremendous heat transfer properties of the compound/tape on the back of the standard heatsink as compared to stripping this off and using arctic silver.
>>




OK, so you did the wire trick to increase voltage on your P4, and you didn't expect this to increase the heat generated? Adding voltage to anything is going to increase the heat. Other than that, I might conclude that you used more AS than was needed on a relatively flat P4 heat spreader.

I saw a drop of about 2-4 degrees going from the Thermal Pad to AS3. Not as much as I expected, but still a drop nonetheless.

 

[wfay]

here is AMD's official response (received via email just now) to my emailed question "can i use Arctic Silver 3 thermal compound instead of the retail-provided thermal tape?"



<<
Dear Valued AMD Customer,

Thank you for contacting AMD's Technical Service Center.

The AMD warranty states that the warranty is void, if third party heat sink and fan is used instead of the retail boxed version.

Only phase change material is recommended, since thermal paste tends to ooze out from in between the die and the heatsink, which can cause CPU failure.

We appreciate your business. >>



so they deftly avoided answering my question outright, but my interpretation of this email is that as long as i use the retail hs/fan and am fairly careful about applying the AS3, i am still covered by the warranty.

what do you guys think?
--wayne

 

[redhatlinux]

AMD has stated MANY times that only Phase Change Thermal Compound is approved. What don't you understand about, "thermal greases oozing out and damaging the cpu". AMD WILL not warrant a cpu that fails if you remove the PCTC and use AS of any kind. One of the properties of PCTC is that its 'thixotropic' , won't squeeze/run out. Other reasons that AMD only approves PCTC is that its pretty much idiot proof, as long as you remove the thin plastic film. Inexperienced users have 'smeared' various thermal greases all over the cpu and screwed the pooch. AS needs to be applied correctly, the PCTC needs to be cleaned off very well, no residue left in the HS micro-grooves, considering the chances of user error, I wouldn't warrant the CPU. BTW, I'm pretty sure that INTEL will not warranty their cpus with anything other that the thermal pad.

 

[wfay]

1> do you work for AMD and can tell me definitely either way?
2> can you offer a URL to AMD.com webpage that says "use of the applied PCTC is REQUIRED to keep your warranty"?
3> can you offer an email or other documentation from AMD that says the above?

if not then your post is a waste of bandwith. i don't want your opinion, give me proof!

"recommended" != "required to keep your warranty" in my book. if AMD means to say REQUIRED then they should say it. this should be displayed on their website, in responses to emails like mine, and in their retail warranty papers included with the CPU.

if the AS is applied correctly, it won't "ooze out from in between the die and the heatsink" and AS3 won't dry out as AS1&2 can/will.

--wayne