Arctic Silver application on Conroe

[Shakey_Jake33]

Just a quick newbie Q, always used AMD CPU's until now, and just stuck the white thermal paste into the square area in the center of the CPU, job done.

Moving on now, planning to use Arctic Silver instead, and a Conroe CPU - no 'square' in the middle like AMD's!
Do I still apply to just the center of the CPU? As thin a layer as possible I suppose... being over-cautious here!

 

[Corasik]

Either apply the AS in a thin layer over the entire heatspreader, if your using AS3, or if your using the newer thicker AS5, just put a blob about the size of a grain of rice in the middle of the chip, dont spread it at all. Apply the heatsink to the cpu, and twist it a little. It will squeeze the AS5 across the cpu.

After that the AS5 will spread slightly more over the next few days. Its best to make sure you power cycle your PC a few times over this period, as it spreads best when going from cold to hot.

 

[Shakey_Jake33]

Wow as little as that? Sounds like I'll be bearly putting any on at all.

 

[Jimbo]

Lol I just asked the same question in overclocking. Didnt know there was different methods with diff A.S.

 

[hp7909]

As far as I've seen the IHS hasn't changed from P4 (& D) type? SO application should be the same (see here from 9)

 

[Shakey_Jake33]

Brilliant link mate, know what I'm supposed to be doing now

Probably seems madly basic stuff for most overclockers here, but for those of us who have always been happy using white thermal paste at stock speeds, it's all new, and it's a totally different method of application really.

 

[hp7909]

Oh, & don't forget...

Due to the unique shape and sizes of the particles in Arctic Silver's conductive matrix, it will take a up to 200 hours and several thermal cycles to achieve maximum particle to particle thermal conduction and for the heatsink to CPU interface to reach maximum conductivity. (This period will be longer in a system without a fan on the heatsink or with a low speed fan on the heatsink.) On systems measuring actual internal core temperatures via the CPU's internal diode, the measured temperature will often drop 2C to 5C over this "break-in" period. This break-in will occur during the normal use of the computer as long as the computer is turned off from time to time and the interface is allowed to cool to room temperature. Once the break-in is complete, the computer can be left on if desired.

First time I applied mine, missed that bit so thought I’d wasted my money. Long story short, still have same tube I bought (reapply every 5-months) over a year ago & satisfied with results

 

[Shakey_Jake33]

Is reapplication completely necessary? 5 months seems pretty frequent, and it looks like it's a pain to re-do.

 

[Street]

Apparently it needs replacing every so often, I'm not sure about ever 5 months though.. Mine probably gets replaced that often anyway, I don't seem to keep CPUs that long! Its only a 10min job to take off your heatsink, clean it and reapply it

 

[Corasik]

I've had my 3.2Ghz Northwood for quite some time, LGA775 hadnt even been invented.... I used an aftermarket cooler, and applied AS5 from the very start. I've never changed it since then, and it is still exactly the same temperatures as I got after the first 5 days after which it had fully bedded in.

Thats gotta be a couple of years? When did LGA775 get released anyway?

 

[Shakey_Jake33]

I have my machine on 24-7 for various reasons, so having to do through the powering down process at the beginning is a big enough pain as it is (gotta do it though), so having to go through the process again every few months would just be downright annoying!

 

[silversurfer]

Properly lapped heatsinks with mirror finishes will only require a translucent haze.

Use a laminated bus pass type card rather then a credit card which is too thick really. Use much less then you would on a toothbrush, less is more. You only want to fill tiny gaps of what would otherwise be air, between two flat surfaces there is almost no gap.