Thermal Pad on FOP32-1 vs. Arctic Silver stuff

[Daudi]

Is the arctic silver stuff really that necessary? How much advantage does it actually provide vs the normal thermal pad. I've read a few reviews and they've said that it makes virtually no difference at all on the newer socket A stuff..

 

[Mikewarrior2]

The reason that you don't see a benefit with socket-a setups is due to temperature reading compression issues.

Socket-thermistor measures a percentage of core temp change(often less than 40%), and sometimes even less than that. So, the 5C(jsut throwing a number in) difference may be measured as a 1-2C performance increase.

Not that PCTC is bad. It is far better than using a silicon based grease. But whether or not you want to use AS is another issue, as well. If you only install hte heatsink once, PCTC should do fine for you. IF you plan on changing heatsinks a lot, then i would go ahead and invest in arctic silver(even though the temp drops may not be measured due to socket-a read problems).


Mike

 

[Daudi]

okay now I'm confused on what to get...there AS thermal grease, paste, adhesive, epoxy, and compound...which one?!? I ordered the adhesive cuz that's the only stuff that they carried..will that work??

 

[Mikewarrior2]

NOOO!!!(sorry)

The adhesive is not the one you want.

You want either Arctic Silver Thermal Grease(or Paste, same thing)....



Mike

 

[Daudi]

okay can i just use the thermal pad for now (I want to get my tb1ghz up to 1.1-1.2ghz), and use the thermal grease later? or do i have to use ther thermal grease before I OC?

 

[kengsim]

In my experience, the thermal pad that comes with the HSF is a bit too think and doesn't conduct heat that well. You could probably use it first, but lay off the overclocking if you can until you get your hands on a tube of artic silver (not the adhesive)

 

[Daudi]

so the paste/compound/grease are all the same thing? Why do they advertise them as being different then?

 

[Mikewarrior2]

thermal grease/paste is the same, there's only 2 types of Arctic Silver- Epoxy/Thermal adhesive and Grease/Paste.


As far as the PCTC pad goes, Kengsim, did you melt the pad. The "melting" helps improve performance, and helps to thin out the pad.

Daudi,

The pad is sufficient, but one thing to keep in mind, that once you apply it and heat "phase-change" it, it will fill microgaps in both heatsink and cpu. And it will always be there(save lapping the core and heatsink, not recommended). If you want peak performance, I woudl suggest waiting for AS.


Mike

 

[DaddyG]

Daudi,

Arctic Silver has two types ot thermal grease, small contact area, for flip-chips and large contact for PPGA cpus and Slot 1/A with a heatplate attached. Socket A requires the small contact AS. The AS epoxy is used to attach hsfs to graphics chips and chipsets which don't have a retaining mechanism and the attachment is permanent.

 

[Spoooon]

Another not for those of you that are interested, the small contact area formula works just fine on large surfaces, and it's supposed ot transfer heat better than the large contact area formula.

 

[Lalakai]

Just picked up the FOP from a shop here and asked them the same question; they recommended I stay with the existing pad based on AMD's recommendation. He also mentioned that some thermal compounds have shown the ability to short out the cpu, in that the thermal material itself is conductive. Guess I'm still on the fence also as to retain the existing pad or go with the AS thermal.

 

[DaddyG]

AS is not eletrically conductive under 'normal' conditions. I have seen reports, though no first hand experience that getting AS on the resistors has caused problems. Course this could be some of the fake AS thats out there.