Arctic Silver cure time?

[Roll]

I've just read somewhere that it takes something like 200 hours of use for Arctic Silver to 'cure' and reach optimum performance.

This seems quite a long time to wait before it hits its' best.

I just wondered if anyone can confirm if this really is the case and how much temperatures drop after the curing time?

Thanks

 

[MikeTimbers]

I've never seen any evidence of it personally. The difference between good TIM and bad TIM is pretty small; the amount of TIM between the cpu and the heatsink should be so small that the thickness or consistency should make no measurable difference.

 

[benjo]

Isnt the difference only meant to be a few degrees?

 

[MikeTimbers]

Isnt the difference only meant to be a few degrees?

A few degrees is an enormous amount to attribute to the TIM. The difference between AS3 and toothpaste was that toothpaste was better by 3C for a 100W cpu. The difference between original AS and AS3 was precisely nothing! Plain water was better than AS3 by 9C!

The omitted fact from that article is how incredibly difficult it is to isolate the TIM as the only difference in a test. Can you guarantee that you can mount a heatsink on a cpu exactly the same twice? To do a proper test of TIM requires multiple mountings of an identical heatsink where each test is allowed to run for at least 24 hours. So testing one TIM would take at least a week to do properly. And a full comparative test on varying cpu loads and cpu types and varying heatsinks is months of work.

 

[Roll]

Thanks, that confirms that there is such a thing as cure time.

Seems like its best just to apply the stuff then forget about it

 

[Foehammer2003]

Thanks, that confirms that there is such a thing as cure time.

Seems like its best just to apply the stuff then forget about it

Yeah, thats what i did, then about three weeks later (average use) i noticed the idle temp drop by about three degrees or so out of nowhere, doesn't take long at all.

 

[SiriusB]

Yeah, according to the AS website the molecules need time to line up correctly for optimal thermal transfer etc..

SiriusB

 

[Bundles]

Yeah, according to the AS website the molecules need time to line up correctly for optimal thermal transfer etc..

SiriusB

Which to me just sounds like a way of saying "other TIMs might give lower temps straight away, but ours does get better, honest"

 

[raja]

I've used AS5 on a variety of devices - cpu and gpu, I can quite honestly say I've never noticed a difference in temps over time, even months..

 

[Bundles]

I've used AS5 on a variety of devices - cpu and gpu, I can quite honestly say I've never noticed a difference in temps over time, even months..

I have, my systems tend to drop 1 or 2c after about a week.