"Silver" thermal paste...

\"Silver\" thermal paste...

Sometimes names can be misleading...This tester found that some pastes contained *no* silver.

Testing for silver

--Jerry

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Maybe I'm some kind of elitist modder (hope not), but I would NEVER use anything other than Arctic Silver. It's been shown over and over to be the BEST. And I say that coming from the much more demanding world (at least heatwise) of PC modding, CPU overclocking, silent computing, and the like! Crappy thermal junctions in that world destroy hundred dollar chips, it's that simple. I don't have enough cash to make those mistakes! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif

That article was really well done, and hammered home the point. Guess you get what you pay for.

The irony here is that the "expensive" Arctic Silver 3 can be had from multiple online stores for $5.78 or less. Pretty cheap insurance...

Thanks for the link, Jerry! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

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Acgtually for a while artic ceramique was kicking the crap outa AS3, I noticed a 3-4C difference when switching Probably closer to 3C on my Overclocked 1700+ Running 2400MHZ /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif , But I have not tested the new AS 5 or 6 or whateve its up to now, I have a huge syringe of ceramique though + its non conductive.

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OK, but can AS be used in place of AA adhesive when it is necessary to electrically isolate a Luxeon emitter's slug?

Jon

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[ QUOTE ]
StoneDog said:
OK, but can AS be used in place of AA adhesive when it is necessary to electrically isolate a Luxeon emitter's slug?

Jon

[/ QUOTE ]
No it is slightly conductive due to the silver in it...Although I find it dificult to trust on the adhesive to isolate things myself, if the metal touches in any part it will conduct, so from now on I will test everything I need to be isolated before I assume the adhesive is doing its job of isolation.

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StoneDog, I agree with Justintoxicated about the electrical isolation issue as far as not trusting the adhesive itself to do the job. There are just too many ways to go wrong. I'd slip a thin piece of mylar (suggested by Doug S) under anything I wanted electrically isolated. He actually mentioned his technique in another thread... he basically cuts strips of mylar to make incredibly short little standoffs to sit under the emitter slug (to use one example) so the metal slug won't contact the metal underneath it. You can safely use a nonconductive epoxy or thermal compound to fill the gap.

Justintoxicated, I didn't mean to pitch AS3 specifically. It's the best I've got on hand right now, but I know Arctic has got some other choices at this point. What I wanted to convey to people was simply that it doesn't pay to save maybe $1-2 buying an unknown thermal compound when you're trying to protect $10-20 emitters, or $100 CPUs. Thanks for the tip on the Arctic Ceramique!