Heatsink Paste

[SoWat]

I've just upgraded my CPU from an Athlon 2400+ to a 3000+. That went smoothly and I have no problems there.

I wanted to put the 2400+ into my wife's PC, to replace her existing 1700+. I noticed though, that the square bit of heatsink paste stuff that sits on the bottom of the fan/heatsink had crumbled when I removed the heatsink from my motherboard.

What's the best way to replace this square; like for like, or is there a better way to do it... and what would you recommend?

Cheers

 

[JBP|]

personally i would use some white spirit to remove the gunk from the heatsink and use a cotton bud to remove as much as possable from the cpu (could take several buds)

then apply a very thin layer of new thermal compound (just covering the cpu) and resit the heatsink

 

[SoWat]

Thanks for the reply.

I've already cleaned the gunk off both the cpu and the heatsink using white spirit.

Thermal paste looks readily available, not to mention cheap so I'll give that a whirl.

On a related note, what would be considered 'normal' cpu operating temperatures? The 2400+ ran at 48 C, and the 3000+ runs at 47 C. This is using the heatsink that came with them (AMD retail pack stuff). As I have no intention of overclocking, are those temperatures ok?

Cheers

 

[Xavier]

White spirit is a bad thing to use to clean thermal goo - as an 'unclean' hydrocarbon it leaves an oily residue which causes many thermal pastes to decompose or perish, meaning they'll lose effectiveness very quickly. Ideally a TIM remover such as the ones made by Akasa (citrus oil based) should be used, though you can also use nail varnish remover or acetone to similar effect.

Make sure that once the surfaces have dried you've no oily residue and you'll be fine to apply the thermal goo of your choice.

On the note of thermal pastes, I'd avoid compounds such as arctic silver and opt for either straight silicon paste or better still Shin-Etsu. Apart from making a few extra degrees difference, Shin-Etsu has become the recommended 'goo' by both AMD and Intel as many of the early arctic silver products contain real micronised silver and thus are able to conduct an electrical current... not exactly what you want on top of a CPU which is bristling with surface mount components.

A small blob on the centre of the die, spread even and thin with something such like a credit card (or better still store loyalty card... best use I've found for them yet.). Oh, and only put the goo on one surface, in the case of an AthlonXP make that the CPU and not the cooler - generally when material is applied to both the cooler and the chip you'll end up with small air bubbles which will lower the coolers effectiveness and raise overall temps.

In terms of temperature, anything below 50C idling is a-ok for an AthlonXP, in heavy operation temperatures over 75C should be avoided, with the idle temps above you shouldn't have any problems there.

Xav

 

[Danyan]

Artic silver still contains real silver - it's not conductive though (nor has it ever been). You don't want to plaster it all over the place on the other hand as it is capacitive, which means it can cause electronics to malfunction if you connect traces or pins with it.

Personally I prefer artic silver as it's the best thermal paste by quite a long way (and thermal paste is one of the places you lose a lot of cooling performance unfortunately). As long as you're careful while applying it, you should have no problems.

 

[Xavier]

Artic silver still contains real silver - it's not conductive though (nor has it ever been). You don't want to plaster it all over the place on the other hand as it is capacitive, which means it can cause electronics to malfunction if you connect traces or pins with it.

Personally I prefer artic silver as it's the best thermal paste by quite a long way (and thermal paste is one of the places you lose a lot of cooling performance unfortunately). As long as you're careful while applying it, you should have no problems.

We've drawn tracks of AS across paper and run a current through it. It IS conductive. It's also why AMD will reject any warranty claims for failed CPUs if they can see it on the CPU. If you read the overclockers.com forums archive you'll find accounts of people UNLOCKING their CPUs using nothing more than Arctic Silver + Sellotape.

Xav

 

[Xavier]

http://www.overclockers.com/articles742/ Shin Etsu vs AS II

Also:

Artic silver still contains real silver - it's not conductive though (nor has it ever been).

*ahem*

c/o Arcticsilver.com

(While much safer than electrically conductive silver and copper greases, Arctic Silver II should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. The compound is slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridged two close-proximity electrical paths.)

from: http://www.arcticsilver.com/as2.htm

In laymans terms, that means it conducts.

And yes, I said:

as many of the early arctic silver products

You can use AS if you want, but unless you're going to overclock, which he stated he isn't, why bother?

Incidentally, if you want to skip faffing around with thermal paste and credit cards, etc, Overclockers.co.uk sell pads of thermal interface material (Shin-Etsu based again) made by Akasa here.

Xav

 

[SoWat]

The thermal pads sound nice and easy, so I've ordered a pack of those along with some citrus based cleaner (from Maplins as overclockers are out of stock).

Thanks all for the suggestions.

 

[Xavier]

Cool beans, glad that's sorted.

Xav