Arctic Silver 5... not all it's chucked up to be?

[yurano]

I also read the directions that came with the AS5... it said, and I quote, word for word:

"Apply a small amount of thermal compound about the size of a grain of rice in the middle of the CPU metal cap."

I'm sorry, are you saying Arctic doesn't know how their product should be used?

And Artic Silver also suggests you spread out the paste as shown by BruceG87. Experiences from a whole slew of builders and overclockers has shown that paste spreading should only be relegated to the most careful and skillful of users.

Couldn't it be that Arctic Silver is correct about using a small amount during their tests where they have highly skilled paste appliers and high pressure from the heatsink face? And maybe they're using a heatsink with a flat face instead of the convex face found on the Zalman CNPS 9900.

By the way, Arctic Silver recommends the line method for their product.

How about you just try out several different methods and actually troubleshoot your problems before crying about AS5 on forums like its proof of the second coming after a single application attempt?

[DeltrusDisc]

So harsh, you are.

I find it funny you can't figure out why I could possibly not want to go through the effort to do the troubleshooting, when I have a paste that costs less $ for more paste, and based on the graphs from 2 different sources is within a margin of error difference of AS5, doesn't have a burn-in period, compared to AS5's absolute minimum burn-in period of 45 hours to 400+ hours, and has worked excellently for me now for two years.

I think I am allowed to share my opinion, and even after apologizing to the first reply for the way I posted, you're still hounding me about it. I should report your post for 'you know what' but I'm going to cut you some slack. Perhaps the apology post you missed, or you felt TL;DR on it and just wanted to share your opinion anyways.

I already said that AS5 is likely a very good paste, and I probably got a bad tube, who knows how long it was sitting on that shelf, and sure, I didn't spread it, but when I took the heatsink off, it had spread out the same way the Zalman stuff always did, covering the same amount of space. That tells me the pressure is more than good enough, as I know when I screw the heatsink on, it is very very tightly pushing against the CPU, so it's definitely not a lack of pressure, otherwise it would not have cooled the CPU at 4.6GHz and 1.42v at all previously, especially under an 8 hour Prime95 blend torture test.

So again, I apologized for hating on the paste in the first post, however I believe in integrity, and thus am leaving the original post as is, people can see how I posted about it originally, then they can see how I apologized for the way I posted. If you want to ignore the apology, be my guest, but don't expect me to give you any credit on these forums - as I doubt you will give me, anyways.

[BruceG87]

-Snip

You are entitled to your opinion. Just be ready for a number of responses when you post it in a public forum. Including but not limited to those who will disagree with you.

Now back to paste, forgive me if I am wrong.. but going back and reading posts all I see is your critiquing the required minimum burn-in time for AS5, while making comparisons to other pastes. I didn't see any comparison or result showing post-burn in period. This leads me to believe you never even allowed the appropriate time to burn-in then follow-up with tests.

Not only that, but if you did not tint prior then as per the manufacturer you are using their product wrong. Hell, regardless of the paste I see no reason NOT to tint prior to application. Exception being Indigo Extreme and Coollaboratory products.

[yurano]

So harsh, you are.

Pot calling the kettle black.

I find it funny you can't figure out why I could possibly not want to go through the effort to do the troubleshooting, when I have a paste that costs less $ for more paste, and based on the graphs from 2 different sources is within a margin of error difference of AS5, doesn't have a burn-in period, compared to AS5's absolute minimum burn-in period of 45 hours to 400+ hours, and has worked excellently for me now for two years.

If you're going to criticize a product, you must give it the best circumstances for it to succeed, which you didn't. Not even close.

None of this would have happened if your thread had been "why is AS5 not performing like my Zalman paste?" or had you just switched back to Zalman and not bothered posting at all.

I think I am allowed to share my opinion, and even after apologizing to the first reply for the way I posted, you're still hounding me about it.

You say that and then you follow it up with:

Honestly though, yurano, I've seen your arguments. I don't want to have any of them.

[DeltrusDisc]

You are entitled to your opinion. Just be ready for a number of responses when you post it in a public forum. Including but not limited to those who will disagree with you.

Now back to paste, forgive me if I am wrong.. but going back and reading posts all I see is your critiquing the required minimum burn-in time for AS5, while making comparisons to other pastes. I didn't see any comparison or result showing post-burn in period. This leads me to believe you never even allowed the appropriate time to burn-in then follow-up with tests.

Not only that, but if you did not tint prior then as per the manufacturer you are using their product wrong. Hell, regardless of the paste I see no reason NOT to tint prior to application. Exception being Indigo Extreme and Coollaboratory products.

Yes, I should have allowed the burn-in period.

However, Arctic says that after burning in, temperatures should drop from 1-5 degrees Celsius. Maybe if I'm lucky they may drop 10.

That still doesn't account for reaching 98 Celsius. Would the spread method stop it from reaching 98? That's possible, and I'll try it out again sometime, as I realize my irrationality in this.

However, at the moment, I've had an annoying couple months, with sending my old ASUS board to ASUS, having them replace some parts on it, instead of just replacing it entirely, and sending it back, having it die again in less than 2 months, and now I am sitting here, just wanting to relax and enjoy my time, not keep on stripping the computer apart and testing it, I bet you can understand that. The Zalman paste is working very well, keeping my temperatures low, and I don't need to worry about air bubbles forming if I incorrectly do the spread method, as honestly, I've only done it once before, and that was like 2 years ago, I don't even remember how that went. lol

You have my word though, BruceG87, I will try it out again sometime, maybe when I inevitably get a Haswell rig going, or get the ThermalRight Silver Arrow SB-E Extreme cooler that I've been drooling over for months.

[iggie]

Wait wait wait... So you're saying that you're idling at 40-50 Celsius?? Wat.

I idle at 45c.... though my airflow is bad and my room hot all the time (and humid!). I havent done themal in over a year and a half though, so I'm going to get a second fan to suck air out (other than stock) and get some A5.

Do you think I need a new CPU cooler? Using a coolmaster Hyper 101 currently. It sucks trying to cool a system when the ambient temp is so fucking hot/humid.

[DeltrusDisc]

I idle at 45c.... though my airflow is bad and my room hot all the time (and humid!).

Yeah, difference here is, I'm in a rather cold (easily below 65 F) basement, that is also dry. HAF X, as much as I hate the chassis, has obnoxiously good airflow, so those idle temperatures were just not normal for me - whatsoever.

[BruceG87]

-snip
You have my word though, BruceG87, I will try it out again sometime, maybe when I inevitably get a Haswell rig going, or get the ThermalRight Silver Arrow SB-E Extreme cooler that I've been drooling over for months.

You don't owe me anything. Honestly do as you please when it comes to pastes. Afterall, it is your rig and not mine.

Besides, as I previously stated. AS5 is not bad but it is not amazing either. Then again we are talking 1-3 degrees performance difference at best between pastes. Excluding Coollaboratory and Indigo Xtreme.

[DJFish]

First off, you should never use a Kleenex or a Qtip to clean off your paste. Always use something lint free. Many people use coffee filters. Things like a kleenex/qtip will leave behind small threads that will effect your performance. Also, the correct directions for AS5 are on the web. Just google "correct way to apply arctic silver" (I can't link it because I haven't posted enough). Shame on them for not mentioning that in their instructions (or shame on you for not finding that info in their instructions). The cure time is very important. It generally takes a week or three depending on use. It's also smart to shut your computer off once in awhile, which you may or may not do, I just know a lot of people who don't. I have seen temps drop 10c before after a full cure but I will admit it's rare. I'm really guessing that you just didn't do it right. No offense or anything but I've been using AS5 for a long long time and have never had a problem unless I just did it wrong (which I have before, I used to make CPUs look like cupcakes, if you get my meaning). All this being said, I have also never gotten a bad tube of the stuff. Anyway, hope you find whatever it is that works for you. Just adding my two cents.

[BruceG87]

First off, you should never use a Kleenex or a Qtip to clean off your paste. Always use something lint free. Many people use coffee filters. Things like a kleenex/qtip will leave behind small threads that will effect your performance. Also, the correct directions for AS5 are on the web. Just google "correct way to apply arctic silver" (I can't link it because I haven't posted enough). Shame on them for not mentioning that in their instructions (or shame on you for not finding that info in their instructions). The cure time is very important. It generally takes a week or three depending on use. It's also smart to shut your computer off once in awhile, which you may or may not do, I just know a lot of people who don't. I have seen temps drop 10c before after a full cure but I will admit it's rare. I'm really guessing that you just didn't do it right. No offense or anything but I've been using AS5 for a long long time and have never had a problem unless I just did it wrong (which I have before, I used to make CPUs look like cupcakes, if you get my meaning). All this being said, I have also never gotten a bad tube of the stuff. Anyway, hope you find whatever it is that works for you. Just adding my two cents.

Most of this has already been posted, including the "instruction manual" for arctic silver that includes cleaning, correct application as well as TINTING which you did not mention at all.

Thanks for backing up what has been posted already while jumping in 23 days after the latest post so you could take a blow at the original poster of this thread.

[Yohassakura]

Sounds more like the heatsink isn't properly attached / applied paste incorrectly / damaged CPU as that's a massive difference.

2500k @ 4.2GHz on 1.3+ sounds like a bad CPU, or something's messed up.

[DeltrusDisc]

Can anyone other than BruceG87 pay attention to the date of the last post?

I took the heatsink off, cleaned up the AS5, used the Zalman paste, tadah, my CPU was back down to super normal temperatures.

Also, turns out the ASUS P8P67 board was not dead, back to my better overclocks and such.

Computer was on as of yesterday morning for 13.5 days straight without ever going much past 65 Celsius even under load at 4.5GHz@1.40v, but finally, a horribly bad and 3 second-long surge from the storms that went over Chicago the morning of June 26 knocked my computer off momentarily. My Belkin surge protector couldn't stop that one.

Suffice to say, the computer is running cool, stable, and this problem is long gone, since I returned both the MSI Z77 MPower and AS5 to Micro Center for a full refund and instead got the Fractal Design Define R4 Arctic White chassis.

I wish I could lock this thread, as it has no further use whatsoever and is only opening up folks who can't check dates or past post #1 to have a go at my mistakes/foolishness.

[Deleted]

You have been around long enough to know that you can, just report your own post and say you want it closed since the issue have been resolved.

Gosh stop countering with logic

[Darsithis]

My previous issues were solved/taken care of. If you'd like to talk about Arctic Silver 5, here, however, feel free. Please do not direct anything at me, however, as I know my mistakes and any further commentary will be reported.

At this point I think we can definitely close this.