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Is the thermal paste that AMD supplies with chips any good?

C

chasm22

Senior member
The title says it all. I bought a chip and asked for some Artic Silver. The place didn't have any. They offered me a packet of thermal grease that they said they received from AMD with each chip. Is this stuff OK to use, or should I order(and wait..)for some artic silver???

Grumpy
 
I believe that AMD does not supply thermal paste with their chips. In fact, they won't approve of any heatsink unless it comes with a thermal pad. I think the reason is that they feel that the chips are more prone to breaking when paste is used. Thus, it is highly unlikely that AMD gave them anything of the sort. (They are probably selling you an OEM chip which comes with a shorter warranty and no hsf)

If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on most stores giving you sub-par thermal paste. Go for arctic silver.
 
I disagree, Arctic Silver is a waste of money. It does perform better than a pad or cheaper thermal compounds but it is not that good.

As long as you get an AMD approved heatsink you will be fine. If you want to overclock get an appropriately oversized heatsink. For example, when I built my girlfriend's Duron 800 based system I asked the salesman to give me the heatsink that would be used for a 1200Mhz Tbird. This way when I overclock the extra heat should not be a problem.

Exotic cooling compounds are a waste. Take it from an Arctic Silver buyer. It is really not worth it.

Oh yeah, it is my experiance that the heatsink will come with it's own pad or compound. The CPU is not supplied with it unless it is retail packaged.
 
Yoshi,

IS this based on socket-thermistor(socket-a) testing? You do realize that a 2-3C read temp change could be a 12-15C actual core temp change.

reserve judgment of a product until you can accurately test it.



Mike
 
Chasm, AFAIK, AMD has never shipped thermal paste with their processors. Some time ago, I contacted AMD and they only approve PCTC, several brands, but Chomerics T725 is the most used.
 
Hmmm. I'm not sure what to do here. I won't have the chip and the thermal grease until tomorrow. I may have misunderstood the vendor, but I could swear he said the stuff was supplied to him from AMD. Either way, I asked him what brand and he said there wasn't any markings on the packets and he wasn't sure of the brand.

Mikewarrior2, your response seems to indicate that you have done or seen testing that shows using artic silver does result in better temps. It would seem that your opinion would be to go with the artic silver??? I am putting together a system with a abit kt7a raid mb,1.2Ghz t/bird with a taisol 742 hsf with either a delta 30cfm fan or an adda 28.2cfm fan.(Got both, want to see the difference in cooling and noise) If the artic silver will help, I'll wait.(I tried to order with hsf but vendor was out)I am a relative newbie at this, and I want to reduce the risk of problems. I might try to overclock a little later, but initially I just want the system to be set up right.

I guess while I'm at it, I should ask what the opinions are of the new artic silver II?

Thanks again guys for all the input. It's help like this that will hopefully allow me to experience fewer problems in the future.

Grumpy
 
Mike you missed my point.

AMD specs the CPU core to run within a certain temperature range. As long as you are using a cooler that is AMD approved it is a safe bet that your AMD CPU will be running within the acceptable temperature range. I don't need elaborate temperature sensors or an infrared gun to figure this out. So what if Arctic Silver makes a 10-15 degree difference, as long as the core is not overheating it will be fine. Besides that CPU cores have outlandishly high max operating temps.

If a CPU will not overclock to a given speed, it is most likely the cause of material and fabrication imperfections IMO. Don't get me wrong heat is a factor, but typically improvements to manufacturing processes (for same process, not for example going from a 0.25 micron to a 0.18 micron process) not bigger heatsinks improve yields.

Arctic Silver is still IMO a waste. Also, note I stated that it will make a difference (I did not post numbers because I know mine are not very accurate). The more important question is does it matter??

BTW

Intel PIII933, Max operating temp 75C or 165F - Current Temp of my PIII700@933 reported by Asus Utility for Windows is 40C or 104F. This is with RC5 running, damn near full load.

AMD Duron, Max operating temp 90C or 194F. Don't feel like getting up to see what the Asus utility is reporting on my girlfriends Duron 800 system today. It was well under this last time I checked.
 
15C core temp could make a difference. THe fact that a 55C kt7 reading could mean an 80C core temp, whereas a 53C kt7 reading might mean 65C. THat is a huge difference.

ChasmII,

Arctic silver is a superior product. So is ASII. Any person who has truly tested it knows the benefits. You're looking at possible 6C-15C savings on a T-bird depending on the application. That makes a huge difference.


Mike
P.S. Generic grease can drastically reduce the effectiveness of a heatsink. For my p3s, artic silver and an FOP32-1 will easily outperform a PAL6035 with RS grease.
 
my OEM TBird 1000 came with a small pacet of thermal paste... My buddies TBIRD 950 cam e with the saem little packet but his was from a different vender online.......

I personally bought the Artic silver as an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of......(you know how it goes.....) As for being tooo $$?? cmon guys..... were computer guys spending multiple hundreds (even thousands) on extravagant systems with the best parts we can find and we're gonna complain about $13 being a waste!

 
Yoshi, those outlandishly high operating temps mean NOTHING. The actual cpu core temp is almost impossible to measure. While its true, that AMD cpus are more tolerant of heat than Intel, you will get a much more stable system with better hsf thermal performance. Arctic Silver is one part of the equation, good air flow through the case is another.

Is Arctic Silver beneficial over say PCTC, in my opinion, only in extreme conditions. Is AS better than most silicone based greases, yes. Do many users of AS mess up the application, absolutely.
 
I put a single drop of AS on the Duron core, squished it with the HS/F, wiped off the access, did it again, and finally put the hs/f on for good. As a result, there is a VERY thin layer of the stuff, the way I think it was intended to be put on.

Yes or No?
 
I worked for a company dealing in very heat sensitive electronics involving public safety while I was in school. I soldred surface mount and did alot of stuff too sensitive for automation. I've thermal pasted thousands of components exponentially more important than a cpu(goverment contracts)and the thermal paste should be as thin a possible without seeing any of the metal of the heatsink. The stuff we did would burn up if the paste was too thick or too thin. Also dont use your fingers. Your body oil will corrupt the paste and lower its ability to tranfer heat. The Military made us use qtips but i dont know why. Their is also a big difference in the quality of pastes. Dont use radio shack paste in any thing but your own stuff, it dries out and has to be reappliied every now and then(who wants to check every couple of months)but in a pinch you'll be ok with it
 
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