Thermal Compound Spreading

John Whitworth

Just found the following article. What's everyone's views?



To date, I have been a religious credit card spreader!

JW

Shadow36

"John Whitworth" <***> wrote in message
news:482f246f$0$26085$.co.uk...
> Just found the following article. What's everyone's views?
>
>
>
> To date, I have been a religious credit card spreader!
>
> JW

If it works for you then thats good. Personally, I like to let the pressure
of mounting the heatsink to the processor mash and spread it. I think thats
lesslikely to lead to any air pockets, although you'd have to have some
pretty big gaps to have a problem.

Ed Light

There was one test where the drop in the center gave several degrees
more cooling than the evenly spread coating.
---
Ed Light

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Phil Weldon

'John Whitworth' wrote:
> Just found the following article. What's everyone's views?
>
>
>
> To date, I have been a religious credit card spreader!
_____

Just looking at the 'closer look' image indicates to me that the razor blade
did not work at all for the author. On the other hand, I've used the 'old
straight edge' technique with a lot of different compounds for many
purposes, single-edged razor blades. credit cards, what-all.

My view is that the smoother, flatter, and more parallel the two interfacing
surfaces, the less thermal compound you should use - and that means avoiding
thick, gloppy goo and Arctic Silver in all its snake oil incarnations.

Just before I upgrade my E4300 I make try lapping the CPU for the first time
since the Pentium III days and repeat my experiment with unsalted butter B^)

Phil Weldon

"John Whitworth" <***> wrote in message
news:482f246f$0$26085$.co.uk...
> Just found the following article. What's everyone's views?
>
>
>
> To date, I have been a religious credit card spreader!
>
> JW

John Whitworth

"Phil Weldon" <> wrote in message
news: m...
>
> My view is that the smoother, flatter, and more parallel the two
> interfacing surfaces, the less thermal compound you should use - and that
> means avoiding thick, gloppy goo and Arctic Silver in all its snake oil
> incarnations.

What do you use instead? Regular compound?

JW

Phil Weldon

'John Whitworth' wrote:
> What do you use instead? Regular compound?
_____

Whatever is around at the time. I've been working off a 2 ounce tube of a
zinc oxide filled polyester base thermal compound (about the consistency of
Vaseline) for years. I keep threatening to get some 100,000 mesh diamond
polishing powder and make my own thermal compound - that's about the only
non-poisonous, non-metallic filler that is significantly better than zinc
oxide (actually more heat conductive than any metal, and surprisingly
inexpensive). 100,000 mesh powder is about the feature size of the Pentium
60 B^)

Honestly, when I did run a set of comparisons back in the days of the
Celeron 300a (the first CPU that easily overclocked by 50 %), I posted the
results in alt.comp.hardware.overclocking. I used the original Arctic
Silver, RadioShack generic zinc oxide filled silicone grease, no compound at
all, and unsalted butter. Except for the 'no compound at all', only a
couple of degrees C separated the performance of the various compounds.

Phil Weldon




"John Whitworth" <***> wrote in message
news:482f4a36$0$26077$.co.uk...
>
> "Phil Weldon" <> wrote in message
> news: m...
>>
>> My view is that the smoother, flatter, and more parallel the two
>> interfacing surfaces, the less thermal compound you should use - and that
>> means avoiding thick, gloppy goo and Arctic Silver in all its snake oil
>> incarnations.
>
> What do you use instead? Regular compound?
>
> JW

~misfit~

Somewhere on teh intarweb "Phil Weldon" typed:
> 'John Whitworth' wrote:
>> Just found the following article. What's everyone's views?
>>
>>
>>
>> To date, I have been a religious credit card spreader!
> _____
>
> Just looking at the 'closer look' image indicates to me that the
> razor blade did not work at all for the author. On the other hand,
> I've used the 'old straight edge' technique with a lot of different
> compounds for many purposes, single-edged razor blades. credit cards,
> what-all.
> My view is that the smoother, flatter, and more parallel the two
> interfacing surfaces, the less thermal compound you should use - and
> that means avoiding thick, gloppy goo and Arctic Silver in all its
> snake oil incarnations.
> Just before I upgrade my E4300 I make try lapping the CPU for the
> first time since the Pentium III days and repeat my experiment with
> unsalted butter B^)

I lapped my E4500 IHS (after I'd already lapped my cooler base) and got a 5°
drop in temps from it's pre-lapped state. It was really 'dished'. I didn't
try unsalted butter though. :-) I think I used AS5 as a mate bought a tube
around when he got me to fit his fancy new HS.

(Normally I'd use some of my 10ml, 10 year old tube of "Electrolube Heat
Transfer Compound" (HTC10S) that a mate gave me. He uses it between MOSFETs
and HS's in amplifiers etc. He got a box of 20 tubes several years ago from
a 'surplus store'. However, when I've removed coolers from CPUs that have
been in place for a couple years I find that this stuff has really dried
out. As my cooler is bolted on and removing it requires removing the mobo
from the case I decided to use the AS5 instead.)

Cheers,
--
Shaun.

Ed Medlin

"Phil Weldon" <> wrote in message
news: m...
> 'John Whitworth' wrote:
>> What do you use instead? Regular compound?
> _____
>
> Whatever is around at the time. I've been working off a 2 ounce tube of a
> zinc oxide filled polyester base thermal compound (about the consistency
> of Vaseline) for years. I keep threatening to get some 100,000 mesh
> diamond polishing powder and make my own thermal compound - that's about
> the only non-poisonous, non-metallic filler that is significantly better
> than zinc oxide (actually more heat conductive than any metal, and
> surprisingly inexpensive). 100,000 mesh powder is about the feature size
> of the Pentium 60 B^)
>
> Honestly, when I did run a set of comparisons back in the days of the
> Celeron 300a (the first CPU that easily overclocked by 50 %), I posted the
> results in alt.comp.hardware.overclocking. I used the original Arctic
> Silver, RadioShack generic zinc oxide filled silicone grease, no compound
> at all, and unsalted butter. Except for the 'no compound at all', only a
> couple of degrees C separated the performance of the various compounds.
>
> Phil Weldon
>
I remember those tests......:-). Someone here actually used a thin coating
of Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter and got the same results, although he said it
got a bit "rank" smelling after awhile...:-). I use whatever compound I have
close by. My local 'puter shop gives me Arctic Silver whenever I get
anything there, so I have a lot of it around and plenty of Radio Shack zinc
oxide and I use whatever I grab first. I honestly can't see any difference
unless I accidently apply too much Arctic Silver and then I will see
slightly higher temps. I don't get that with the zinc oxide...... It just
gets messy......:-).


Ed

Godzilla Pimp

"John Whitworth" <***> wrote in message
news:482f246f$0$26085$.co.uk...
> Just found the following article. What's everyone's views?
>
>
>
> To date, I have been a religious credit card spreader!
>
> JW

I just put a dab of the radio shack stuff in the middle, about the size of a
booger. I always see a square of white on the HS when the CPU is removed so
I know it works.