Should I reapply arctic silver?

[Hankysmoo]

Hi, I finally gave in and spent $14 for some Arctic Silver instead of using the Radioshack gunk. I'm running an asus Cusl2 with an alpha pep66 700e at 1000ghz 1.7v. Before with the radioshack stuff, my idle temps according to motherboard monitor were 30-31 degrees C and under full load 40-41 degrees C. Now with Arctic Silver, my idle temps are 29-30 degrees C and under full load at about 38-39 degrees C. Did I just pay $14 for 1 degree C??? Do you guys think I should just leave it alone or reapply this stuff again? Basically, I squirted out a little circle of this goop and spread it evenly with a clean edge of a credit card on the core, the whole thing was a layer of silver, it wasn't transparent. Am I applying too much or should i try a different method? This is the exact same method I used to apply the radioshack stuff. So, I think there are only two methods left. Apply a little squirt of goop in the middle of the core and just put the alpha pep66 flat on, or spreading a really thin transparent layer of the stuff on the core. Which method is better? Or, are my temps good enough that I shouldn't even bother try reapplying the arctic silver? thx

 

[lotust]

Hankysmoo
Leave it. your temp is good. My temp is 33 at idle.AMD 800@918 With a VOS32.

Good overclock by the way

 

[Packet]

Its probably still a little to thick, while your temps are pretty good (good enough were you don't need to reapply it). It should be thin enough were it is trasnparent... Sometimes this can get kinda hard when your dealing with a small surface area (like the core of a coppermine) but it should drop your temps another 2 - 6c if done right.

Also, you could make sure that your PEP66 is not concurve and lap it.. I am not sure about alpha's, but I noticed alot of golden orbs are far from flat, and lapping them can get a good 5c drop or more.

GL

 

[Almighty1]

Hmm, a question. If I'm using a Thermal Take Golden Orb HS/Fan and a coppermine chip, should the Arctic Silver actually be transparent so I can see the blue core? I noticed when I did the video chipset on my Matrox G400 Dual Head Max, the heatsink/fan seem to not touch the compound in certain areas when I lifted it up.

 

[Mikewarrior2]

No, Artic Silver should not be semitransparent... It should be thicker than normal applications of thermal grease.

This is due to the extremely "thin" nature of artic silver.

Here's an example of someone last week who had too thin a layer of artic silver on his chip... he corrected when reapplying it, by applying more.

Artic Silver Thread in CPU/Overclocking

Krueger81 got a 6C drop after reapplication of AS.

Mike

 

[Almighty1]

Thanks. I have a question though, it seems like on the www.arcticsilver.com site which is basically The Cooling Store?, it does say to make it a thin layer. I remember previously like last year, people said with any thermal compound, just apply it and place the heatsink to squeeze it out but then it seems like it's the thinner the better approach.

 

[CarpeDeo]

Yea- apply a thicker layer. I had a thin layer on and it dropped my temp by about 1 degree. I just reapplied a pretty thick layer and it dropped down by 3 degrees idle and 5 degrees loaded! Running at 24 C idle (550e @ 809).

 

[Mikewarrior2]

Thin to a degree, but not thin to where its semi-transparent(as a lot of people recommend). But definately thicker than you would normally apply thermal grease/paste.


Mike

 

[Nevin]

The problem is that different CPUs and heatsinks require different thickness of compound. A perfectly flat and highly polished CPU AND heatsink may only need an initial layer 0.0005 thick while a stock Global Win or Hedgehog and a PIII may need an initial layer 0.01 thick. Thus one computer could need a layer 20 times thicker than another computer. This makes answering the "How thick should I apply compound?" questions very difficult to accurately answer.

Another consideration is that is almost impossible to completely remove a compound once it has been applied. By design, the compound fills the microscopic valleys on the CPU and heatsink and the fibers on a cloth or paper towel are far too large to fit into these valleys and get the old compound out. When you change compounds, there is always some old compound left that the new compound is applied over.
(Imagine trying to clean mud off of a rough stucco wall with an inch-thick rope and you will get the idea.) This is why it is very important to apply the best compound first if at all possible, so that you can realize the full benefits of its superior thermal conductivity.

Nevin

 

[Almighty1]

Hmm, what's the correct way to apply it though since when I use the edge of a credit card, it actually ends up on the edge of the card rather than the Coppermine core. Besides, I thought
the Golden Orb's pressure would push against the core anyways so it seems like even with a thicker coat, it'll end up thin as soon as the Golden Orb locks on the Socket.

 

[Strafe]

hmmm, I've always just applied it to the heatsink, not the core - me bad?

 

[Almighty1]

Dunno. When I first got the Golden Orb which was end of September, I didn't know the white stuff was the actual compound so I touched it and ended up having to use Radio Shack stuff. For whatever reason, it seems to have scratched the corners of the core of the Celeron II 566 CPU. It seems atleast with this heatsink, the compound is on the HS/fan but I'm just not sure how they made it perfectly square =)

 

[Mikewarrior2]

See, with a thicker coat/gorb, it'll fill the gaps, the the excess is squeezed out because of the clip method... you technically "waste" some, but this is far better than having too little grease.


Mike

 

[Almighty1]

Hmm, but with the GOrb heatsink, it seems like as soon as you put the GORB on top of the core, it might squish out all the compound since it's using pressure on the core. Atleast it seems when I take off the GORB the last time, it seems like very little Arctic Silver is there even though it was a thick layer before that.

 

[Hankysmoo]

So thicker layer or thinner layer is better? i'm confused....I thot my layer was pretty thick and I'm only experiencing a 1 degree C difference from my radio shack compound...