Applying Arctic Silver Thermal Paste 1

[biosol]

I'm trying some Arctic Silver 5 on my 3.2 prescott with the retail hsf. After cleaning both the hsf and cpu according to a couple guides I put one dot of the AS 5 on the cpu and then 2 dots on the stock hsf. It didn't smear around easily but I got most of the area covered. Then I wiped off a fair amount, mounted it, and fired the system back up. I started the Windows based HW monitor by the board manufacturer and watched for a couple minutes as the temp went from the low 40sC to 47C. I checked a couple emails and opened one web page that had some flash on it. Then I decided to reboot and see what the BIOS had for a temp. At first it wouldn't reboot. After a couple minutes it did and the BIOS cpu temp was 83C. It seems as though I need to redue something. Do you think I should only put 1 dot of Arctic Silver on the heatsink???

Suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

 

[garebo]

stduc, i know you werent critizing. I must have come across wrong is all.
no problem.

Actually, i did a sort of test a few years ago, and i found there was a couple degrees difference in the temp down the road. I also found a temp difference with plain thermal grease and arctic silver, with arctic silver lowering the temp a bit more than plain no-name thermal paste. I have a few different test setups as i do charity work, i take in computer and parts and such and make refurbs out of them and they go to schoolkids who dont have a computer at home. In so doing i found i have to have quite a few test units or bench units so i could test ram, h drives, cdroms, etc, etc, etc. So i was able to play around with the thermal grease as i wanted to know if arctic silver was worth the extra cost and i found it was and i also found the temp drop after a while as well. Not what you would call a real scientific experiment but good enough for me, lol.
However, when you can see a temp difference with a Pentium 3 900 mhz then you know it will be even more with a P4 2.8 or thereabouts! Here i am talking about the difference between using arctic silver or plain thermal grease, but either way arctic silver is worth the money.




Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[biosol]

Update-
I double checked the direction of my case fans and they are correct, so I decided to cut/clip out the fan screen on the back of the case because it seemed to be pushing air back into the case. That has helped a little, but I've notice the room temp. has made a bigger difference. When the room temp is between 76-80F, the machine idles at 33C for the case and 44/45C cpu, however after idling all night and through the morning with a room temp now of 64-68F, the case is at 27C and the cpu 37C.

This summer's going to be interesting.

I have noticed better cooling with the Arctic Silver over the stock thermal goo both with the stock HSF.

 

[garebo]

I knew you would, lol, if you tried it.
I know that some people in very warm climates, in the summer they simply take the left side off their case and put a regular house fan blowing on the motherboard.
I, myself, always leave the case cover off, but i always use full towers as well. Some smaller cases actually benefit from having the sides on.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[biosol]

Yeah, I might be looking for a strong little fan. My case is a little smaller than the average Dell XPS box size. So I'm not sure if taking the side panel off would hurt or help? Does anyone have a suggestion, on or off benefits a smaller case?

Thanks

 

[garebo]

Personally, i have heard both sides of the coin. Personally I cant say as i mentioned above that i use only full towers on my system and leave both sides off. When i am done with them i sell the parts off or use them on another build.

I think it would go like this:

If its a small case and all done up well, with someone giving a lot of thought to fannage and airflow and doing it right, then leaving a cover off could actually cause some temps to rise as the airflow design was based with the cover on and gets disrupted with the cover off.
On others, perhaps with a poor fan layout and not much thought into the process, then taking a cover off would do nothing good or bad, or perhaps some good.
So i would say its a case by case situation, perhaps you might just have to test it out both ways.

I do know that i have read a lot about people in warm climates taking a cover off and having a house type fan set up so it blows on the video card and cpu. I have never done that myself.
I also have and have seen in stores a fan that appears to be a full case fan but it has a standard electrical plug on it, in other words its not 12v, its 110 volt. So its not plugged into the computer, its plugged into the wall plug and they usually have a cast metal frame, as does the one i have. I only used it a few minutes. I was going to use it as kind of a fun thing to have a fan in the summer to keep myself cooled off and have it still look like a computer fan but it was too noisy for me. I would imagine it would be good for someone who doesnt have much of a power supply and needs the fannage for their vid card or cpu, though.
All in all, i think its more trial and error plus the fact that you have the advantage of being able to see your unit and we cant, so you would have to be the judge.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips