Thermal Paste

[kiriakost]

My wish is not to start over again , our little naval engagement .

But the truth is that all pastes haves silicone as base plus something more ...

silicone keeps the material unified , and the add on parts , could be anything.

silicone is not conductive , becomes conductive , if the add on material is a conductive one.

The add on particles its not visible to the common eye , if some one has a good microscope ,
and some free time to loose , i will assist him with some of my ideas , to experiment and find the truth.

All the ideas added here about : particles alignment - paste life over time - conductive or not ............ are valid .

Marketing and hypes , are not valid .

I bet that if Arctic cooling , was publicly say that our AS5 does not have silver any more , it would kill their sales .
It took too long to build the myth about silver , so to destroy it over night .

Still i have not see any compound to have visit a true chemical lab, for complete analysis , over the claims that the producer does.

Still i am confided about the AS3 that uses true silver in it , just because of personal simple notice.
I noticed that the color of it its brow-gray , if silver starts to oxidate , its gets a dark grey color.
Silicone its white as milk .

Thats my practical way to evaluate this mess, about goop quality.

 

[Mussels]

arctic silver sell pastes with no silver content. The sales are still good for those pastes, from what i've seen. I even use some of them.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/products.htm

 

[Israar]

because it's inferior in every way compared to MX-2, TX-2, freeze and pretty much all of the newer compounds. the new ones dont need to burn in, they arent conductive, they dont dry up as easy and the list goes on.

Cheers dude

I've done some reading since the reply like, although I must say all my builds have had AS5 in them and been fine, no replacement being needed, one recently though, my old rig I gave to my brother, which had an appliance of AS5 and that was fine, the only reason I reapplied the paste was due to re-building the water loop in it and taking out the GPU water loop so it's CPU only. The paste wasn't dry at all mind, but when I apply paste it's extremely thin

I'm not saying it's better than the MX-2 and TX-2 as proof has been shown in temps they're better and in applying they're easier to get a balance as you don't have to apply too much pressure making sure the layer is flat (as you do with AS5) and for the burning in (curing) well that's been stated a lot lol

I would from what I know recommend alex 66 the MX-2, but still, I've yet to try the MX-2 myself but for now all my rigs are and have been on AS5 including the Xbox 360's I've fixed

--Lee

 

[Mussels]

Cheers dude

I've done some reading since the reply like, although I must say all my builds have had AS5 in them and been fine, no replacement being needed, one recently though, my old rig I gave to my brother, which had an appliance of AS5 and that was fine, the only reason I reapplied the paste was due to re-building the water loop in it and taking out the GPU water loop so it's CPU only. The paste wasn't dry at all mind, but when I apply paste it's extremely thin

I'm not saying it's better than the MX-2 and TX-2 as proof has been shown in temps they're better and in applying they're easier to get a balance as you don't have to apply too much pressure making sure the layer is flat (as you do with AS5) and for the burning in (curing) well that's been stated a lot lol

I would from what I know recommend alex 66 the MX-2, but still, I've yet to try the MX-2 myself but for now all my rigs are and have been on AS5 including the Xbox 360's I've fixed

--Lee

i guess the key here is that AS5 is a great paste. its just that the newer ones are EXCELLENT pastes.

 

[kiriakost]

i guess the key here is that AS5 is a great paste. its just that the newer ones are EXCELLENT pastes.

I will just agree , because i like the way that you have put it ...

About the degree " EXCELLENT " , its a bit exaggeration , and false hope.
The correct description are " Just a bit better " ..

Take care .

 

[Israar]

i guess the key here is that AS5 is a great paste. its just that the newer ones are EXCELLENT pastes.

Can't disagree with you, and I'm not going to either as it would be daft to do so hehe!

--Lee

 

[MohawkAngel]

I dont know what type I use it come in a small plastic thing that you just tear the end. But it can keep my CPU at 37 celsius. Its a 2.4 4600+ brisbane overclocked to 3.0 and i still use the amd fan-heatsink combo

 

[oli_ramsay]

I dont know what type I use it come in a small plastic thing that you just tear the end. But it can keep my CPU at 37 celsius. Its a 2.4 4600+ brisbane overclocked to 3.0 and i still use the amd fan-heatsink combo

Sounds like a sachet of mayonnaise.

 

[MohawkAngel]

Maybe!!! Minerals conduct electricity and dissipate heat bIf mineral oil can dissipate the heat of a motherboard then Hellmans surely can

 

[sneekypeet]

AS5 of course!!!! there is nothing better.... but than the nubs will say as5 is the worst.... Why? ha ill tel ya why....... they put to much on and short there shit out..... there is no argument on this ppl

Thats really a clouded view as AS5's own website says it is non-conductive, so you want to try another guess. http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm

And I have done comparrison testing of TIM in a lab like environment, and AS5 isnt the best!

 

[kiriakost]

And I have done comparrison testing of TIM in a lab like environment, and AS5 isnt the best!

I did that too , eleven years back .

http://two.xthost.info/kiriakost/html/pc_cooling_theory.html

 

[oli_ramsay]

Obviously a LOT has changed since then and AS3 sucks by today's standards.

Get only Arctic Silver 5 or 3 , avoid the rest .

MX-2 is king and this thread is waaaaaaaay too long.

 

[kiriakost]

I will make it longer ...

Gentlemen s , what we simply have are one copper based CPU head spreader ,
and one copper based CPU cooler .

The only thing that we need for our sandwich its good mustard .

If CPU and heatsink was unified , we would not need any paste .

If we had one paste with copper in it , it would be great and we do not need anything more.

Silver as idea its best than any other , its even better than copper .

Silver is a solid material = lasts in time .

Chemical substitutes must prove them selfs in time , lets wait some years then.

 

[zithe]

I will make it longer ...

Gentlemen s , what we simply have are one copper based CPU head spreader ,
and one copper based CPU cooler .

The only thing that we need for our sandwich its good mustard .

If CPU and heatsink was unified , we would not need any paste .

If we had one paste with copper in it , it would be great and we do not need anything more.

Silver as idea its best than any other , its even better than copper .

Silver is a solid material = lasts in time .

Chemical substitutes must prove them selfs in time , lets wait some years then.

Sounds good on paper. Sadly, AS5 does not perform as well as MX-2. It loses even to MX-1, which I believe has been discontinued. Not really a large loss, though. They both cost around the same and one performs better and has no 'burn in' time. In no way does AS5 suck. It may be just slightly less effective than MX-2, but at the same price, there's no reason to buy it anymore. http://aphnetworks.com/reviews/arctic_cooling_mx_2

 

[J-Man]

MX-2 is the best because on the back of the MX-2 packaging, it says MX-2 is 1c lower then Arctic Silver 5. They tested a E6600 or something at 3GHz.

 

[Flyordie]

For your information the AS5 is no conductive .. the AS3 was .

Yea, AS5 is poor by today's standards

-It's conductive and will kill your hardware if you apply too much
-It requires several hours of "burn-in" before it's fully effective
-It dries out and you have to re-apply it eventually
-MX-2 FTW!

I use Arctic Silver Ceramique. Its non-conductive, non-capacitive and does the job. You all are arguing like little kids over who was the best super hero...
Get what provides best bang for buck and call it a day, however avoid the silicone crap. We all agree its crap (in the enthusiast world, general usage its fine), so don't use it on high end CPUs that crank out heat like its the sun.
edit-
Also, I have had AS5 kill a mainboard before. Accidentally dropped some on a transistor near the CPU (VERY SMALL TRANSISTOR) and thought I cleaned everything up, I even used Alcohol (Isopropyl) all around where I thought it dropped... well it shorted the Transistor and the board went up in smoke... (it took 3hrs of it being on to kill it, but it finally cooked it)

Fly

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

In my experience, AS5 is my most used and reliable.

When I reapplied the HS to my 4850. I used MX-2. It was a world of difference. (obviously)

When upgrading my CPU from AS5 -> MX-2 I lost 3c. I will use AS5 until my tube runs out of old rigs, but I will use MX-2 no doubt on all my expensive hardware.