What is the best thermal past?

[BGP Spook]

What is the best thermal past?

I am using some generic silicon based thermal past right now and am not very impressed with it. Although it does the job.

Also what kind of improvement should I expect to see with a better thermal past.
http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8290

Post #14 I stated my operating temperatures.

[Snafu]

Arctic Silver Ceramique (ASC) or Arctic Silver 5 (AS5) are the best out there (note: OCZ stuff is AS5 and may be cheaper).

ASC cures in 20 hours of temp cycling while AS5 cures in 200 hours of temp cycling.

Check them out and their products HERE (http://www.arcticsilver.com/)

[FireDancer]

I second what Snafu says, I am currently useing Arctic Silver Ceramique right now cus thats what came with my water blocks and I thought I would give it try. I have used AS5 for a while now and think it is the best available right now. IMHO :thumbs:

Good Luck

[BGP Spook]

Hmm...it looks like AS5 is a better long term choice.

Snafu, did I understand you correctly?
Did you say that the OCZ thermal compound is repackaged AS5?

[Snafu]

Yep. Although I have not checked it out myself 'cause I use ceramique I hear that you can get the OCZ stuff cheaper than AS5.

When you say AS5 is for longer use can you tell me where you heard this form? I had something in teh back of my minds that ASC was better if you swap stuff out and AS5 if you plan to keep it for a while (no times given in either scenario). However, for the life of me I cannot recall where I heard this from and now hesitant to pass this along to anyone.

Cheers

[BGP Spook]

I made my statment based entirly on the claimed thermal properties of AS5 compared to the ASC.
(AS5 has slightly better cooling properties I believe. Although the cure time is considerably longer than ASC. Although for those of you with subzero cooling ASC is the better choice because it works down to -150C!!! While AS5 works down to about -50C.)

Summer is comming up and I need to shave as much heat off my computer as I can.

And I tend to leave my computer on for 10-14 hour streches at a time. So....

[Snafu]

Thanks Bud. I was wondering about this difference between the two.
Cheers :beer:

[Rocket $auce]

http://www.dansdata.com/goop.htm

Check out the above article it deflates some of the hype surrounding thermal paste. The guy runs a series of tests using different thermal pastes and even household pastes such as toothpaste, pretty interesting results. =)

[flexkill]

lol ...that was a good article :thumb:

[BGP Spook]

Fascinating, but I never expected any monster improvement from one compound over another.

O yeah! I bought and received the OCZ stuff today and am running on it right now.

At idle without any cureing time I am running about 1C less than before.
With ambient being as close to the same as I can measure it.

200+ hours from now I will be able to tell just how well it really cools. :)

[FireDancer]

LMAO :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao: That guy was funnier then hell...thanks for the article it was great :thumbs:

Regards,

[RotorHead]

I love Dan's Data, some good stuff over there. :thumb:

Also he's got one of, if not the biggest heatsink comparisons on the net. Hasn't been updated in a while but still great.

http://www.dansdata.com/coolercomp.htm

[BGP Spook]

My temperature has continued to drop slowly since yesterday. Am now running about 3C lower than before at idel.
I am about to start a 4 hour run with Prime 95 wish me luck. :thumbs:

[harleybro]

Great article. Guess I am off to purchase a jus o toothpaste for benchin.

[tylerhskate]

I just sucked all the dust out of my heatsink with a vaccum and applied some AS5 and my temps dropped like 4-5°C

[BGP Spook]

I think my cooling has gone as far as it can go without me spending any more money.

My current temp readings are relative as follows.

CPU is idleing at 10C-11C above ambient. (naitive 1.65v)
Northbridge idle is about 2C-3C above ambient. (currently passive cooling on my northbridge, may be able to pickup an old 486 fan for free but I don't think it will make much difference)

At 30C ambient idleing should be at about ~40C.

CPU load is about 18C-20C above ambient. (native 1.65v)
North Bridge load is about 3C-4C above ambient.

At 30C ambient full load should be at about ~50C.
This is a significant improvement as previously, with ambient at 22C, at load it was exceeding 55C!

I should note that in addition to switching to AS5, I have made use of a small box fan to force air into the front side of my case. And I have rearranged some of my internal fans, cables, and components for better cooling.


Hopefully it will be enough for this summer. I used 30C as my ambient because that is about what my room will be at when summer is in full swing. I also used 1.65v because that is the lowest I can run at. My intent was to represent the coolest I could run with ambient at its worst.

[Snafu]

So how does that compare to before? I hope it is better. You may see the best improvement with load temps.

[BGP Spook]

So how does that compare to before? I hope it is better. You may see the best improvement with load temps.


To answer your question....



At 30C ambient full load should be at about ~50C.
This is a significant improvement as previously, with ambient at 22C, at load it was exceeding 55C!



The improvement is:

Under full load there should be a 20 degrees Celsius elevation above ambient temperature.

It used to be around 33 degrees Celsius elevation above ambient temperature when under full load.


Full load temp was before: 33C + (ambient temperature)

Full load temp is now: 20C + (ambient temperature)

20C - 33C = -13C (temperature reduction at full load)

[Snafu]

:rock:

Looking good :thumb: