Arctic Alumina or Silver epoxy?

[Mr Floppy]

Is there much difference between using the Alumina over the Silver epoxy? I noticed on a test that it was less than half a degree difference but that was for a CPU. Would it matter that much for a LED? The other difference is the capacitance properties of the Silver. What possible issues could that cause?

thanks

 

[csshih]

with LEDs it would not make a noticeable difference, other than pricing :)
capacitance would only be a problem in signaling, which doesn't apply to flashlights.

 

[darkzero]

Is there much difference between using the Alumina over the Silver epoxy? I noticed on a test that it was less than half a degree difference but that was for a CPU. Would it matter that much for a LED? The other difference is the capacitance properties of the Silver. What possible issues could that cause?

thanks

Actually, the results you saw were probably for pastes as epoxies are not used for consumer PC CPUs (although I have seen units come in where it was). But I suppose the results would be comparable.

Per our contact at AS, it's the application which is more important rather than performance. The silver is generally recommended for bare die processors & chipset ICs where the cermaic is gernerally recommended for large area heatspreaders. But they can be used in place of each other if properly applied. Keep in mind this also applies to pastes.

You would probably not even notice a difference in performance & if the silver is much more expensive for you it's probably not worth the extra expense.

 

[Mr Floppy]

Actually, the results you saw were probably for pastes as epoxies are not used for consumer PC CPUs (although I have seen units come in where it was). But I suppose the results would be comparable.

Sorry it was a GPU on a videocard but yes, application is all important.

with LEDs it would not make a noticeable difference, other than pricing :)

Heh. Is that why you only stock the Alumina then? Hope you get some more 10mm 219's