Lets settle this once and for all. Best way to apply AS5?

Soldato
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14 Apr 2004
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Right, I just want to get this right.

What is the best method of a effective application?

Here are the common ones:

Apply a thin wafer and spread out with a old CC.

Apply a pea sized in the middle, then just put on the heatsink, without checking to see if it's applied properly.

Apply a thin line across the middle and apply heatsink, with a twist.


Post away!
 
All depends on what cpu ** using it on.

Bare core/IHSless - thin layer spread across with a razorblade.

IHS single/dual core AMD- BB sized blob in the middle with a slight twist of HS.

IHS dual core intel (concave) - thin line in the same direction the cores go.

IHS quad intel - two thin lines along both the dual cores.

The only exception I would use is that if your IHS is NOT concave and has been lapped then I would use the razorblade spread method. The less paste used the better.
 
I;ve done small blobs everytime I have ever applied AS5, never had a problem.

Looks like I may not be for the core2duo coming tomorrow though :)
 
I've always spread it out over the IHS with a credit card, always worked for me. Apart from with my new Conroe which seems to be horribly concave and suffers from poor temps. Should have my glass paper arrive tomorrow to lap it properly in time for my new water cooling setup! :)
 
Concave IHS? - just fill the gap with thermal paste. The Intel stock cooler and AC Freezers come with huge pads of thermal paste that fill any gaps. Once that paste has gone hard it's a solid point of contact.

Everyone wants instant results, well it's not always possible. Sometimes you have to 'bake' the thermal interface material for 2-4 weeks to get a good bond and therefore good heat transfer.

Intel P4 overclockers were handling heat loads double this level two years ago, while the AMD users were laughing at how cool their processors ran. 70-100C is fine for an Intel processor as long as you don't disable the Thermal Management in the BIOS (TM1&TM2) as the chip will throttle back and shut down. You just have to make the mental leap to a slightly higher temperature band, that's all.
 
WJA96 said:
Concave IHS? - just fill the gap with thermal paste. The Intel stock cooler and AC Freezers come with huge pads of thermal paste that fill any gaps. Once that paste has gone hard it's a solid point of contact.

Everyone wants instant results, well it's not always possible. Sometimes you have to 'bake' the thermal interface material for 2-4 weeks to get a good bond and therefore good heat transfer.

Intel P4 overclockers were handling heat loads double this level two years ago, while the AMD users were laughing at how cool their processors ran. 70-100C is fine for an Intel processor as long as you don't disable the Thermal Management in the BIOS (TM1&TM2) as the chip will throttle back and shut down. You just have to make the mental leap to a slightly higher temperature band, that's all.

Since the thread is about AS5 I'm assuming the idea is to get the lowest temp. possible, this isnt gonna happen with a huge gap filled with the crap TIM that comes on AC coolers, since copper is ~50x better conducting than the thermal paste.

I've always used as thinner layer as possible, on bare and IHS chips. Tried allsorts with my dc opty, even lapped it, but in the end the only thing that made a worthwile difference was chopping the IHS off. Now depending on the water temp I get about 3/8c-2/5c idle/load above water temp. The water seems to do a better cooling job at 30c rather than 25c
 
Clingfilm on the end of your finger,that way you can spread it very thin & even ;)

Thats the way i've done it for the last few years now,works for me :D
 
i found the best way to do it is to follow the AS5 guide, that is, a line over the cores then a little turn once the HS+fan are secured over it. i also apply a little extra pressure so make sure it spreads a little bit more :)
 
WJA96 said:
Concave IHS? - just fill the gap with thermal paste. The Intel stock cooler and AC Freezers come with huge pads of thermal paste that fill any gaps. Once that paste has gone hard it's a solid point of contact.

Everyone wants instant results, well it's not always possible. Sometimes you have to 'bake' the thermal interface material for 2-4 weeks to get a good bond and therefore good heat transfer.

Intel P4 overclockers were handling heat loads double this level two years ago, while the AMD users were laughing at how cool their processors ran. 70-100C is fine for an Intel processor as long as you don't disable the Thermal Management in the BIOS (TM1&TM2) as the chip will throttle back and shut down. You just have to make the mental leap to a slightly higher temperature band, that's all.

You scare me :eek:
 
I used the entire tube of paste stuff that came with oem 6300 :D , blobed it in the middle and used a lollypopstick to spread it evenly across :)
 
The best possible contact is no thermal interface at all but unfortunately due to microscopic crevices in both the IHS and HS, thermal compound MUST be used to fill in those crevices. Notice I said fill in those crevices, NOT cake the cpu in the stuff as this will act as an insulator and will not conduct heat as well as metal to metal, even if a 'bond' has been made. A thin a layer as possible is what is required to get the best results (lowest temps) without leaving any gaps of air, which sadly a lot of people are finding when mounting a HS to a concave IHS such as some of the core2duo cpu's. In this case you either have to just put up with it and use a little more paste to fill that gap or lap the concave ihs until it is flat.

AS recommend a bedding in time of 200 hours before optimum cooling is reached. The difference however is very small with a drop in 1 or 2 degrees at best.

70-100c for an intel (c2d) is not acceptable and self hypnosis into that fact is reckless tbh. Sure, your cpu will shutdown but how many times will that happen before the cpu and system decides enough is enough and permanent damage is caused to both your cpu and your system(hard disks etc) due to immidiate shutdowns? Even if TM is disabled then running your cpu at 70-100c even if that is the load temp IS NOT GOOD for your cpu's health.
 
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