My Arctic Silver 5 experience
DogSoldier
The heart of radical Amish country..
First off, let me point out that I get real nervous when fiddling with my hardware. It goes back to an incident in 98 involving an unplugged computer, a screwdriver and a burnt out Abit BH6.
Anyways, I figured this would be a simple thing so I came home at lunchtime thinking it wouldn't take me more than an hour. That was my first mistake. After vacumming out the dust bunnies, I proceeded to dissasemble my hardware. I pulled the Arkua heatpipe off, looked down and noticed the CPU wasn't in the socket, looked under the heatpipe and viola. Usually, (Say, 99.99% of the time) you need to lift up the lever on the ziff socket in order to disengage the CPU, but the guys who upgraded my mobo used too much AS3. And the tackiness of all that AS3 sucked the CPU out of the socket. Lunch was over so I shelved the CPU/Arkua combo and went back to work with the thought running through my head "..I killed my computer.. I killed my computer..""
When I got home, I twisted the CPU off the HS and cleaned them both up with isopropyl alcohol. There was a ton of AS3 on there so it took me some time and lots of q-tips. I also removed the North Bridge HS and scraped most of the thermal pad off. Following the instruction from arcticsilver.com, I applied just a dollop of AS5 to the NB chip and secured the HS. Then applied a firm twisting pressure in order to spread out the AS5 onto the chip. I than did the same with the CPU and Arkua. Reassembled all the other parts I had lying around and plugged it back in.
I didn't have much hope it would boot up, but it did. I opened up the Bios hardware monitor and stared at the temps. Everything seemed to be running nice and cool, but I watched for a good five minutes before I was satisfied and let it boot into windows. It's been 3 hours now and everything is looking kosher. My CPU/Mobo temps are now 4-5 degrees cooler. And from what I've read, this will actually improve as the AS5 "cures". I'm happy with the added cooling, would I do it again? &%$# NO!
Anyways, I figured this would be a simple thing so I came home at lunchtime thinking it wouldn't take me more than an hour. That was my first mistake. After vacumming out the dust bunnies, I proceeded to dissasemble my hardware. I pulled the Arkua heatpipe off, looked down and noticed the CPU wasn't in the socket, looked under the heatpipe and viola. Usually, (Say, 99.99% of the time) you need to lift up the lever on the ziff socket in order to disengage the CPU, but the guys who upgraded my mobo used too much AS3. And the tackiness of all that AS3 sucked the CPU out of the socket. Lunch was over so I shelved the CPU/Arkua combo and went back to work with the thought running through my head "..I killed my computer.. I killed my computer..""
When I got home, I twisted the CPU off the HS and cleaned them both up with isopropyl alcohol. There was a ton of AS3 on there so it took me some time and lots of q-tips. I also removed the North Bridge HS and scraped most of the thermal pad off. Following the instruction from arcticsilver.com, I applied just a dollop of AS5 to the NB chip and secured the HS. Then applied a firm twisting pressure in order to spread out the AS5 onto the chip. I than did the same with the CPU and Arkua. Reassembled all the other parts I had lying around and plugged it back in.
I didn't have much hope it would boot up, but it did. I opened up the Bios hardware monitor and stared at the temps. Everything seemed to be running nice and cool, but I watched for a good five minutes before I was satisfied and let it boot into windows. It's been 3 hours now and everything is looking kosher. My CPU/Mobo temps are now 4-5 degrees cooler. And from what I've read, this will actually improve as the AS5 "cures". I'm happy with the added cooling, would I do it again? &%$# NO!
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Comments
AS5 certainly is the bomb
Al_... WHY does it happen?
Simple... the P4 has a heatspreader. It's got a massive surface area (relative to the athlon xp) covered in EXTREMELY STICKY thermal compound. The thermal compound is sticky enough that with the size of the P4's heatspreader, at low temperatures, it's more like a glue than a grease. Consequently, taking the heatsink off of a P4 system is a real good way to potentially destroy the CPU.
The K6s had this problem to an extent I imagine, as do the Tualatin P3s, and the AMD Athlon 64/FX/Opteron will probably have this problem as well.
The solution? Heat the CPU up before you take the heatsink off. Boot the system, and run F@H for 1/2 an hour or more; if you've got water cooling, or a HSF that'll keep the thing below 100*F, turn the fan(s) on the heatsink/radiator off; ideally, you'll heat it up to 120*F+ continuously for a period of 1/2 an hour or more.
Actually, with the P4 you could probably just turn the fan off entirely, start F@H, and go do something for 30 minutes or an hour. The thermal protection should take care of it. SHOULD. But I won't be the guinea pig on this one, guys, so do that at your own risk.
Somebody prove me wrong and I'll switch to AS5 in a heartbeat... I'm open-minded. Heck, I'm even giving Abit another shot!
That's the truth. I've pulled the CPU out of the socket twice, not intentionally, mind you!
But like i said...just next time you order from newegg or someplace....tack it on the order. You can't go wrong.
It being conductive kinda scares me though :sad2:
Post now irrelevant.
You want very, very little grease on the core. Spread it with a credit card and then clean the card with water and paper towels. If you put too much grease, you can always dab the excess off. Make sure to put some on the heat sink before putting it on the core. It ensures a clean connection, and reduces the risk of damaging the core (BAD!). Use a small amount (about the amount you use on the core) and spread it around, again with a credit card or something similar. Bring Heatsink and Processor together, and put the thing in the slot. Make sure you have everything line up correctly too. Slap your fan on, and you're set.
I feel better now that I know it wasn't an isolated incident. hehe. The stuff is real viscous, when you apply it, have a lint free cloth handy to dab the nib as you pull it away, other wise the flow will leave a trace where you don't need it.
mmonnin, I did just that. Printed off the instructions and followed them to the letter. Also looked at a few websites that described the process.
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm
That's the same thing it said for AS3 "slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical paths" - and I've heard of enough AS3 shorting bungles that, well...
Ceramique's page says:
So I think I'm gonna stick with Ceramique anyway. I like the way it applies and cleans up compared to AS3 as it is...
//edit: Note that AS5 still contains silver, Ceramique contains no silver at all.
If you buy the Arctic Alumina Adhesive (thermal epoxy), it comes with this neat plastic tool for stirring and spreading thermal compound. It's supposed to be disposable, but I cleaned it after using it with the epoxy and it works great for spreading a small, even layer of compound on just about anything. It's like a really, really small plastic spatula like what you would use for scraping pie filling out of a mixing bowl on a small scale.
I usually use a small drop of Alumina and spread it evenly on the core with the epoxy tool. All the thermal compound is supposed to do is fill the microscopic gaps between the heatsink base and processor core, so you don't need much. Too much and it'll be squished out the sides when you put the HSF on (big mess, I did it on a 486 once).
-drasnor