Interesting findings on silver thermal grease at Overclockers.com

muddocktormuddocktor
edited November 2004 in Hardware
I happened to run across this article over at Overclockers.com about one of their members testing 4 different types of thermal grease to see if they actually contain silver in the mixture. Needless to say, Arctic Silver is again proved to be the one to trust for silver goop. :respect: Check out the article; it's short and informative. :smiles:

Comments

  • Al_CapownAl_Capown Indiana
    edited January 2004
    Good read. I wonder about Antec's stuff though.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited January 2004
    Interesting, but not necessarily valid. It may just be that the compound used to suspend the silver in the other greases (not the arctic silver) isn't as good as whatever arctic silver uses, and so the silver has settled out of the compound. I'd be more impressed if he had squeezed the entire contents of the tube out, mixed it, and then tested it.
  • BudBud Chesterfield, Va
    edited January 2004
    Im also curious how it much of a difference in temps there are
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    Geeky1 wrote:
    Interesting, but not necessarily valid. It may just be that the compound used to suspend the silver in the other greases (not the arctic silver) isn't as good as whatever arctic silver uses, and so the silver has settled out of the compound. I'd be more impressed if he had squeezed the entire contents of the tube out, mixed it, and then tested it.

    That wouldn't work for real world useage though would it, as it is too solid to shake, and you wouldn't want to go extracting the whole lot just to use it once...
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited January 2004
    Enverex, very true. Of course, the goal of the review was to see which greases contained silver. You can't take a very small sample and then say that the paste doesn't contain any silver.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited January 2004
    Yeah you can it its supposed to be 99.9% silver. He cant take a small enough sample to be 0.1% and then what are the chances it has of having no silver then.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited January 2004
    Mmonnin, but what I'm saying is that the 99.9% silver is by weight, not volume, I believe. If that's the case, then it's possible that all the silver could be concentrated at the bottom of the syringe (bottom being whichever direction is pointing down).
  • EyesOnlyEyesOnly Sweden New
    edited January 2004
    So one could get no silver what so ever when using silverpaste. :confused:
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    Good article.

    If they empty the contents to measure then that's fine to prove a point ...however ...I use the paste from the stem to the base so realistically I only care what I get from each application. So I would think that the most consitency throughout the tube would be best.

    It would suck to have to empty the contents ...mix ...then put ALLLLLLL of that paste back into that little tube with each application! :scratch:;D

    Also, Shin Etsu (sp?) should have been included.
  • NecropolisNecropolis Hawarden, Wales Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    Geeky1,

    Just spotted this at the bottom of the review
    Ed Note: Silversinksam's conclusions have been verified by an independent testing laboratory - details will follow in Part 2 of this article.

    Looks like they got it checked in a lab as well but then again I know you cant take everything you read off the net for granted.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited January 2004
    We'll see. But don't misunderstand me- I'm not saying the results aren't true- I'm just saying that to conclude that they contain no silver based on a small sample isn't necessarily a valid conclusion. It may be, but it may not be.
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    Many heat transfer pastes used in industrial applications are silver colored because of the aluminum in them.
    Let's see, 70% silver by weight, that works out to 17% silver by volume. We aren't talking about a lot of metal here.
    Any sample should have some silver in it. Since it is mixed in large lots prior to filling tubes even the stuff in the tip should be fairly typical.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited January 2004
    ed: but what about storage? I know arctic silver recommends that their paste be stored tip-down so that the silver will settle to the part of the paste that will be used next. If this guy stored the syringes on their sides or on the plungers or something, that may be impacting the results.
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    If you are storing for months it might matter. I store mine on their sides. But which of US can go months without jinking with a CPU? I do try to remember to carry the tube around in my pocket for a while before I use it. That way it will warm up and not require tons of force to dispense.
    On a side note. After you finish a tube what do you do? Do you pull the plunger back to the 'full' position? I did this recently and found a lot of grease that had leaked around hte seal over the years.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    Geeky, what you are saying about the heavy stuff precipitating is valid, VERY valid. One reason AS is so good is that they use a composition that does not precipitate a lot. Also, if you want to store while laid on side, pull the plunger but use a stir stick to stir is also valid. You will lose a bit unless you use the stuff on stir stick also, but why not??? Small stir stick, like the wood part of a wooden shafted cleaning swab (the wood "q-tip" like shafts)....

    John.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited January 2004
    sorry if this is a repeat post but I thought it interesting ...see OCZ Ultra 2 recall!
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited January 2004
    No, that's not a repeat, csimon! OCZ is recalling all of their defective grease.:D

    Geeky, read the recall!!!!!

    Looks like SilverSinkSam was right after all about the grease. BTW, SSS is a retired silversmith and is also a Trollhunter too, in case any of you get trolled on a deal.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited January 2004
    I did. That's why I said it was interesting.
  • KINGPINKINGPIN PAKISTAN
    edited September 2004
    So should i get normal heat sink grease
  • KINGPINKINGPIN PAKISTAN
    edited September 2004
    that may be an incident , may be he got a defective one
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    Normal? You mean like from Radio Shack or CompUSA? Probably not advisable to use. Most of that stuff is silicon-based junk, not good if you run a high-performance or overclocked computer. The ordinary off the shelf stuff is adequate usually for electronic components running at mild or default settings.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited September 2004
    KINGPIN wrote:
    So should i get normal heat sink grease

    No, you shouldn't be afraid of any thermal paste from Arctic Silver and now, even OCZ. After this was found out, OCZ changed the company who supplies their thermal paste to the same company that puts Arctic Silver's formulation together, to OCZ's specifications.
  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited November 2004
    KINGPIN wrote:
    So should i get normal heat sink grease

    no you should get artic silver 5
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