Radio Shack Heatsink Compound? Any good for a 1.4GHz Athlon?

[NFS4]

I've got a new 1.4GHz Athlon coming in (coming late b/c of the grounding of FedEx planes). Anyway, I've got a couple of new tubes of Radio Shack silicon-base heatsink compound laying around. Will this stuff work ok for a non-overclocked 1.4GHz Athlon? I don't need anything fancy and my thermal pad will get wasted once I remove my Duron from my current Taisol cooler.

 

[mechBgon]

If you have time, read WarCon's thread in Cases & Cooling. He put a lot of time and effort into some carefully-controlled measurements of CPU temperatures with three thermal compounds, and one of his findings was that under the extreme heat load of the Tbird, the Radio Shack compound was apparently drying out fast. I ran RS compound for 10 months with no deterioration on my Duron, but the Tbird may put out more heat than it can stand up to. Having a fresh new Tbird 1.4 of my own, I can say it certainly does produce a lot of heat.

I have a dual-P3 system running SETI with Radio Shack thermal compound. I'll try to stick some Arctic Silver on one of the CPUs in my P3 dualie and see if the CPU temperature of that CPU drops relative to the CPU with the RS compound. Stay tuned...

 

[mechBgon]

Well, Motherboard Monitor 5 is showing the same temperature readings as before. 24C/42C/41C for case/CPU1/CPU2. I believe the CPU temps are from the socket thermistors (I can test that by pulling one CPU), so they are somewhat desensitized as to the exact core temperature, but the only factor changed was the use of Arctic Silver II on CPU1, so whatever change in thermal transfer occurred is below the resolution of the socket thermistor/MBM5 to show. I didn't do the full clean-with-acetone routine (acetone scares me) and the thermal transfer is supposed to improve with time as AS II's silver particles settle in, so maybe it will start showing a change later on.

 

[Mikewarrior2]

Considering that socket-thermistors at best show 1/2 core temp change and at worse show 1/4 to 1/6 core temp change, you can't tell greases chanes iwth socket-thermsitors.

Also, without cleaning off the old grease, you're getting grease contamination... which means that the microsopic "valleys" of both cpu and heatsink base are probably still filled with your old grease.



Mike

 

[mechBgon]

Mike, yes, I know that. And P3 733@733 is not really a hot-running CPU in the first place, so it's not the best testbed in the world... but it's what I have to work with.

 

[Wingznut]

It should be ok for the short term. The problem with the RS grease is that, over time it will harden and crack, leaving gaps. Compuwiz has even said that he sees it during his couple day testing. So, I'd get some AS on its way.

 

[NFS4]

<< It should be ok for the short term. The problem with the RS grease is that, over time it will harden and crack, leaving gaps. Compuwiz has even said that he sees it during his couple day testing. So, I'd get some AS on its way. >>


Where do you get Arctic Silver from?

 

[Sketcher]

Arctic Silver's Website


I bought mine from CoolerGuys.com

I found a few sites that listed it for a buck less but if you're buying multiple different items, compare overall prices. CoolerGuys came out pretty good for my whole order.

*PLUS: $1.00 from every order they receive goes to the RED CROSS for the New York effort! Gotta feel good about that

If you're running a 1.4Ghz T-bird - I'd not use an unknown or questionable compound.

 

[Bakwetu]

Get some AS2, 2cool has it. Since you live in Raleigh, couldn't you get someone to lend you a dab?

 

[mechBgon]

Check this thread in Hot Deals, $6.99 shipped for a tube of AS II: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=40&threadid=550212&highlight_key=y&keyword1=arctic

 

[MGMorden]

Wasn't there some new type of light-blue colored paste that was just a bit better than ASII? (I'm not buying any 'cuz my tube of Artic Silver isn't empty yet, but i'm considering this if I run out of arctic).