Is Thermal Grease Necessary? Building an Athlon 1600+, shuttle ak31 mobo,volcano 6cu hs/fan

[jbright]

Hey guys, I'm looking for some assistance.

I'm new to the forums. I've been reading them for about a week, but this is my first post.

I'm upgrading my outdated Intel PIII 500 to an Athlon 1600+.

I'm going to order the following (probably from newegg):

AMD Athlon 1600+ CPU
Shuttle AK31 Rev. 3.1 Motherboard
Thermaltake Volcanon 6cu heatsink/fan

I have never really built my own system before, but I have a lot of experience working on computers (hardware and software), so I am confident that I can do it.

My question is about thermal grease. Is this a necessary thing? I heard the volcano comes with some black pad or gunk on it. Some say it will do the job and some others have said that you should remove it and use thermal grease. What should I do?

And if I should use thermal grease, what is the best? I heard about Artic Silver II but newegg doesnt have it. They have some stuff called "High Performance Silicone Compound" for $1.00. Has anyone ever tried it?

What should I do? Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Jerboy]

<< Hey guys, I'm looking for some assistance.

I'm new to the forums. I've been reading them for about a week, but this is my first post.

I'm upgrading my outdated Intel PIII 500 to an Athlon 1600+.

I'm going to order the following (probably from newegg):

AMD Athlon 1600+ CPU
Shuttle AK31 Rev. 3.1 Motherboard
Thermaltake Volcanon 6cu heatsink/fan

I have never really built my own system before, but I have a lot of experience working on computers (hardware and software), so I am confident that I can do it.

My question is about thermal grease. Is this a necessary thing? I heard the volcano comes with some black pad or gunk on it. Some say it will do the job and some others have said that you should remove it and use thermal grease. What should I do?

And if I should use thermal grease, what is the best? I heard about Artic Silver II but newegg doesnt have it. They have some stuff called "High Performance Silicone Compound" for $1.00. Has anyone ever tried it?

What should I do? Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. >>




You don't need ASII unless ya doing serious overclocking. Silicone will do fine.

 

[TechTalkie]

it would be good if you use thermal grease as it helps in better heat conduction and thus improve the performance of your PC. Processors usually fail to perform to their optimum level if the temperature is high...

 

[Jerboy]

<< it would be good if you use thermal grease as it helps in better heat conduction and thus improve the performance of your PC. Processors usually fail to perform to their optimum level if the temperature is high... >>



It also prevent core damage during installation as it provides lubrication and minimize aluminum to chip core grinding.

 

[jbright]

Actually it would reduce copper to chip grinding in my case

Also guys, does anyone know anything about the Volcano 6cu, is it a good fan? Is it very loud?

And how exactly do you apply the thermal grease?

Thanks.

 

[Jerboy]

<< Actually it would reduce copper to chip grinding in my case

Also guys, does anyone know anything about the Volcano 6cu, is it a good fan? Is it very loud?

And how exactly do you apply the thermal grease?

Thanks. >>



Cu I'm not sure about. Cu+(7,000RPM version) sounds like gas turbine.

 

[Wind]

<< My question is about thermal grease. Is this a necessary thing? >>

If u r not O/Cing, the stock termal pad tht come w/ the HSF is fine. If u r into O/Cing...a good termal compound such as ASII or equivalent is recommended.




<< It also prevent core damage during installation as it provides lubrication and minimize aluminum to chip core grinding. >>

LOL. The stock termal pad will provide more cushion between the CPU-HSF than the termal pad !. No. The termal grease such as ASII do not provide "lubrication" as u only apply paper thin layer...that is not sufficient for "lubrication".



<< Also guys, does anyone know anything about the Volcano 6cu, is it a good fan? Is it very loud? >>

Most of the 7k HSF is loud.

 

[KouklatheCat]

When I first built my current system I thought I would never overclock it. Well after a couple of months the oveclocking bug bit me. I put Artic Silver on my computer when I first built it. Im glad I spent the couple of extra bucks and used the Artic Silver. That is my two cents worth

 

[jbright]

Where can you get artic silver? Newegg doesnt have it. If I get it, I want to get the best price. But most places are charging outrageous prices.

 

[Doh!]

Yes, newegg does have it here.

ps. Linky is not working. Just copy and paste the following:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=85&manufactory=1410&DEPA=1

Or you can find it under "CPU Thermal Paste/Grease" section at newegg.

 

[Comp625]

I just installed the ThermalTake Volcano 6 CU+

This baby is loud. I won't say it's really loud...but it's loud. Hehe...hard to describe sounds. Let's just say the stock fan was quieter

My stock hs/fan helped run my Tbird 850 CPU up to about 55 deg Celcius during load. The Volcano 6 CU+ has lowered it down to about 42 - 45 deg Celcius under load. The Arctic Silver II reduces temps by up to 6 deg. Celcius from what I've read.

On my T-bird 850/Volcano 6 CU+, I'm using that pink thermal tape thing that came with the CPU. It does the job fine. I'm currently overclocked to 902mhz and my CPU temp only went up to 45 deg. I could probably go up to 1ghz if I unlocked my processor and had better thermal grease.

 

[FatMan42]

And how exactly do you apply the thermal grease? ...here's some instructions.

If you want a quiet cooler, I suggest one of two courses of action:
1) Pick a good heatsink and remove the high-RPM 60mm fan it'll inevitably come with. Use a 60mm->80mm (or even a 60mm->92mm) funnel adaptor to use a larger diameter and lower-RPM fan. You'll get the same or greater airflow for less noise.
2) Pick a low-noise cooler by design. I recommend the Silverado by Noisecontrol. I'm using it on a 1800+ @1.6GHz and it's not audible over a 10k RPM HDD, or over 'standard' case fans. Runs at ~36C.

 

[Zap]

Contrary to popular opinion, the Volcano 6Cu should cool the Athlon 1600+ nicely, even with the thermal pad... unoverclocked. If you're gonna overclock, all bets are off. There are actually two different Volcano 6 fans, the 6Cu has a 4550RPM unit and the 6Cu+ has a 7000RPM unit. The 6Cu+ with compound instead of the thermal pad is adequate for non-extreme overclocking. IMO, the 7000RPM fan on the 6Cu+ is loud, but not as annoying in pitch as the Delta fans.

WORD OF WARNING concerning using the Volcano 6Cu on the Shuttle AK31 boards... the heatsink will touch one of the clips on the northbridge heatsink, cauing the CPU heatsink to not sit flat on the CPU (VERY BAD). The fix is easy, just remove the plastic pin/spring assembly from the northbridge heatsink. The northbridge heatsink has some kind of glue or tape holding it on, so it actually does not need the plastic pin to hold it to the motherboard. I've even picked up the motherboard by holding only the northbridge heatsink (without any of the pins in it) and it hasn't come off, so it's secure.

 

[Jerboy]

<< My question is about thermal grease. Is this a necessary thing? If u r not O/Cing, the stock termal pad tht come w/ the HSF is fine. If u r into O/Cing...a good termal compound such as ASII or equivalent is recommended.


It also prevent core damage during installation as it provides lubrication and minimize aluminum to chip core grinding. >>

LOL. The stock termal pad will provide more cushion between the CPU-HSF than the termal pad !. No. The termal grease such as ASII do not provide "lubrication" as u only apply paper thin layer...that is not sufficient for "lubrication".[/i] >>





Its [THERMAL] with an h between t and e. I hate seeing English language blatently abused.

And no you don't need much more than paper thin to provide lubrication. Who said you have to have five mm of grease layer to lubricate? The oil lubricating the piston and cylinder bore in an engine is much thinner than ASII application yet it provides adequate lubrication.

 

[DongTran]

for stock speeds @ room temperature you do not need thermalgrease of any kind to run any of the tbirds. it does however prolong the life of the processor as it provides a good thermal conduct between the core and the heatsink.

regarding the thermaltake v6, i've pretty much given up on the v5s and v6s. IMO, they don't work much better than V2s. for the last 14 systems that I've built, I've been using the V7, pretty much the best bang for the buck. here is a review comparing the V7 to the V6cu+.

http://www.commongrounds-pc.com/Reviews/volcano7.html

it does cool better, looks a whole lot better, a little bit shorter in length than the V6 which means it'll fit on more motherboards, and it is MUCH quieter. that adjustable fan speed garbage is crap, the thermister is on the damn fan, and for some reason the RPM monitor is on it's own connector (i take it out and put plug it in on the power plug). anyhow my 2 cents...

 

[jbright]

Well I don't plan on OCing and if I do, it won't be much. I got the Ahtlon XP 1700+, so maybe from 1.466mhz to 1.5 but I seriously doubt anything more than that.

I picked up some Arctic Silver II also. So, with the ASII and the V6cu, I think it will be ok.

 

[Wind]

<< I picked up some Arctic Silver II also. So, with the ASII and the V6cu, I think it will be ok. >>


Fine.

 

[jbright]

Thanks!