thermal conductivity

does akasa ak-450 do the same job as artic silver? also can anyone recommend something to remove the old thermal paste

 

alcohol removes the goop pretty well. Just use something that doesn't lint, like an alcohol pad.

Arctic Silver has, to my knowlege, been the only goop that actually HAS a high amount of polysynthetic silver in it. You need to compare the concentration of the silver between the two brands. That will be a good factor in determining the actual performance of the compound.

 

I have them both ,Ak 450 is much easier to work with as its much less viscous,I have tried both methods of application spreading a thin layer and using a small spot with the akasa stuff both gave the same temp results the paste spreads very well over the cpu you really only need a small amount

The AS5 has more silver particles of differing sizes that help conduction but makes the paste much thicker,the break in time is much longer due to the particles settling down and 'interlocking' but once run in for a month nudges ahead giving a cpu temp around a degree or so lower than the akasa,which considering I got the akasa stuff free with a heatsink its good stuff

 

Have only used AS5 myself and agree there is a settling period of upto 200 hours. Isopropnyl alcohol of 99% conc is good for getting the gunk off using cotton buds. Have a look at:

www.articsilver.com

for good removal and application advice. It seems that to much or poor application can be just as bad as deterioted thermal interface material so read twice and apply once.

 

Just feel like i should note: Be carful with AthlonXPs and other CPUs with the pads on the corners they come off really easy when your cleaning the die with alcohol....

 

I like this comparison of various goops.
http://www.dansdata.com/goop.htm
If only they could come up with a way of stopping the fresh, minty toothpaste from drying out so quickly..
I used I.P.A. to clear off my CPU, but I used a low-quality cotton bud, which left lint after brushing near the sharp edge of the die... Spent an age making sure to remove all of it. Either use good cotton buds, or something lint-free.

 

GOOD article steev. Well written and good to see a scientific methodology adopted for the analysis of various thermal interface materials, GO THE VEGEMITE, lol!?! The only factor that detracted from the whole experiment was the allowance for the Nanotherm to settle for a 24 hour period. Therefore all samples were not treated equally, irrespective of manufacturers advice! For goodness sake vegemite and toothpaste don't have thermal interface application notes on the packaging!! Sadly that signifcantly skewed the whole results and detracted from any fair comparitive assessment, yes I am a scientist!!

The important thing to take away is thermal pads are rubbish, but new fangled, fancy thermal interface compounds are probably no better than the el-cheapo thermal paste you can buy at your electronics store and don't get sucked in by bullcrap statistics and fancy advertisements. I am a great believer in the more companies spend on fancy advertising then the more likely you are getting signficantly ripped off, let's face it they have to pay for their expensive ad campaigns.