Thermal paste question

[Ghaz]

I needed some more thermal paste. My friend gave me some, but he isn't sure how old it is, and whether is will be suitable. On the packet it says 'Silver thermal Grease'.

Ingredients:

Silicon compound: 50%

Carbon Compound: 20%

Metaloxide compounds: 25%

Silveroxide compounds: 5%

Thermal resistance: 0.06 C -in/W

Is this suitable for my i7 920? I have some paste on it already, just I think I need to reapply it.

 

[Freak]

I aint too sure on puttin conductive stuff near my chip. I would stick with mx2....

 

[sprento]

This is the best stuff around.

It has no silver in it because silver compund paste can conduct electricity and cause a short on mobo (if TIM drips on to it)

 

[ali_james]

I believe Arctic Silver 5 is pretty much entirely silver (99% anyway) giving it decent cooling results. Based on the make-up of the stuff you've got there I wouldn't fancy it'll be much better than generic stuff really. Stick to MX-2 if you need to some paste, otherwise sit tight on what you're running unless it's scorching.

 

[mayhem]

and here is me spaying Liquid Metal all over every thing lol ....

Beats all them compounds down the the ground with a good thud ....

 

[tinytomlogan]

For temps & safety as I said in your other thread buy some AC MX2

 

[rapidman17]

For temps & safety as I said in your other thread buy some AC MX2

Yep.... esp if you are not 100% familiar with TIM then it is best to go with something like this...

however like ali_james said, unless you plan on overclocking or have particularly bad airflow or a useless cooler, then that generic stuff will do fine....

 

[Ghaz]

I ended up on buying some Arctic Silver 5, as it was readily available. It apparently is not electrically conductive (although slightly capacitive).

I'm going to use some Arcticlean to remove the stuff on my chip and HS. Would it be best to apply it to the cpu while in the board, or out? If out, what should I place it on?

 

[Freak]

Out, less chance of breaking things.

 

[rapidman17]

Out, less chance of breaking things.

Yep.... make sure you use a good cloth as well.... dont want to get any fibres stuck on the chip....

 

[mayhem]

Arctic Silver 5 not conductive...

Wow thats a new one who told you that ....

I didnt know you could make silver none conductive.......

 

[Ghaz]

Arctic Silver 5 not conductive...

Wow thats a new one who told you that ....

I didnt know you could make silver none conductive.......

Well that is what the company and novatech said. And you can make the fluid the silver is contained in non-conductive.

I got a tiny bit of thermal paste on the underside of my processor while I was doing this, but I wiped it off with a lint-less cloth. It should be okay?

Temps seem to have come down a bit, although one of my cores is still a few degrees hotter than the others ><

 

[JN]

Well that is what the company and novatech said. And you can make the fluid the silver is contained in non-conductive.

I think the real answer is: Yes it's conductive, but the conductivity is so low that you'd have to be extremely unlucky for it to form any kind of circuit, and therefore you dont in most cases really need to worry.

But on the other hand why bother taking the risk. If you are applying it to a £300 GFX card, just buy some Ceramique or other non-metal compound and forget about it

 

[Ghaz]

I think the real answer is: Yes it's conductive, but the conductivity is so low that you'd have to be extremely unlucky for it to form any kind of circuit, and therefore you dont in most cases really need to worry.

But on the other hand why bother taking the risk. If you are applying it to a £300 GFX card, just buy some Ceramique or other non-metal compound and forget about it

Well it is applied to my cpu now, I didn't get any anywhere but the heatspreader (although I got a little of the old stuff on the bottom of the processor, don't know what it contained, but it seems fine).

I have currently overclocked my 920 to 3.3GHz @ 65C at full load, and that should come down a bit after the break-in period of the paste.