How to apply Arctic Silver - The whetu way

whetu · 05-07-2003, 01:53 AM

What you need:

One loveglove and one tube of Arctic Silver (or a heat transfer compound of your choosing)

Phwoar! Spread eagle and prepare for examina... ummm... prepare for spreading compound.

For CPU's with IHS (Integrated Heat Spreader):

Squeeze a bit of your transfer compound onto your CPU. Athlon users should be aiming for a dot the size of a matchhead. This huge dollop would do 10-15 athlon cores easily.

Use your fingertip to spread the compound evenly, and to bring the layer down to your preferred thickness.

ummm that's my thigh.. moving on.

Ready to go! If you look carefully you can see the printing on the heatspreader showing through the layer of compound. This is what you should be aiming for. The coat here may look thick but dont be deceived: The crappy camera used cant do macro very well. A decent camera would show the text quite clearly.

For CPU's without IHS:

Apply a small amount of your heat transfer compound to your die, about the size of a matchstick head (as shown for comparison)

Spread evenly as per the above instructions.

One fresly applied layer of heat transfer compound

whetu · 05-07-2003, 02:35 PM

Afterwards:

When you're done, you'll have a bit of excess compound on your fingertip. Rub this onto your heatsink base and buff it off. This will fill any gaps and impurities in the surface of your heatsink base:

mmmppphh

Dont worry about putting too much on, so long as its say, paper thin, you'll be fine. The downwards pressure from your heatsink should push any excess outwards.

Why the latex glove? If you use bareskin you're putting oils and skinflakes and all other kinds of crap into your compound. It's also a royal pain in the butt to clean off your fingers. Business card methods are dandy but they're an extension of your hand.. a flawed tool that you have limited control of. The index finger on your hand is perfect, the latex glove just keeps the compound pure and your hand clean.

You can get latex gloves from the supermarket, the $2 shop, pharmacies and other medical supply places.. my mum's a nurse so I get them by the bagful for free

Gremlin · 05-07-2003, 02:39 PM

That must be handy

..

Nice to see someone else actually reads the AS application guide

If ya can't find gloves, use an old supermarket bag or something just makesure its clean and grease free. Everyone virtually always has these buggers just lying around and I've found them simple to use when applying AS.

Nother tip is if you screwup and need to clean your HS or CPU up just snag your mum/sisters/aunties nail polish remover and it shouldl wipe up AS quite nicely in my experience.

-DC- · 05-07-2003, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gremlin

Nother tip is if you screwup and need to clean your HS or CPU up just snag your mum/sisters/aunties nail polish remover and it shouldl wipe up AS quite nicely in my experience.

I just use Isopropyl Alcohol, which is be avaliable at your local chemist...

whetu · 05-07-2003, 04:32 PM

or meths, or turps, or petrol, or paint thinners, or carb cleaner or or or....

look the list of things you can clean up heat transfer compound with is endless... there's no point in everyone adding their 2c

o0steveo0o · 02-05-2007, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whetu

or meths, or turps, or petrol, or paint thinners, or carb cleaner or or or....

look the list of things you can clean up heat transfer compound with is endless... there's no point in everyone adding their 2c

Dont use turps, petrol, or paint thinners unless you remove all of the oil thats left behind with Iso. Just go and buy a can of CRC Contact Cleaner, usefull for lots of things.

-DC- · 05-07-2003, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by whetu
or meths, or turps, or petrol, or paint thinners, or carb cleaner or or or....

look the list of things you can clean up heat transfer compound with is endless... there's no point in everyone adding their 2c

sorry, its just that i thought sometimes meths leaves a slight color stain or whatever... anyway I guess i could be wrong

scuzzy · 05-07-2003, 05:36 PM

Doesn't the AS website say NOT to use nail polish remover because it contains cuticle conditioner etc?

Gremlin · 05-07-2003, 06:39 PM

Some probably does, the 3 bottles I just 'borrowed' have basically nothing but alcohol in them.

meowsqueak · 15-07-2003, 02:00 PM

nail polish remover is not alcohol-based - it's acetone - far more powerful stuff, and it will easily 'melt' through your rubber glove, credit card, eyes, etc.

You can pick up a small can of this wonderful solvent 100% (ish) pure from Mitre10 for about $12.

It's also great for getting that thermal wax interface stuff off heatsinks - I found it removed in seconds what took me 20 minutes to get rid of with isopropyl alcohol.

whetu · 09-08-2003, 02:49 PM

I recall reading something on dansdata about acetone just going through your skin and making its way into your bloodstream forever and a day. Not good and to be avoided if possible...

meowsqueak · 09-08-2003, 03:07 PM

Acetone
-----------

Highly Flammable

Explosive

Irritates eyes and respiratory tract.

Exposure can effect the central nervous system, liver, kidneys and gastrointestinal tract.

Long term exposure can effect the blood and bone marrow.

From http://www.tpchd.org/eh/CDL/chemicals.htm

whetu · 09-08-2003, 03:59 PM

thats the one... as for removing TIMS, use something softer than metal (wood, plastic) to scrape most of it off, and then a buff of even turps or meths deals with the residue in a couple of seconds...

dairyboy · 09-08-2003, 07:44 PM

Acetone in nailpolish remover. Hrm... no wonder my ex gf went mad and burst into flames, had weak bones, and farted all the time

One question on topic tho. what happens if your thermal paste touches the bridges on your athlon...thats bad right?

Gremlin · 09-08-2003, 10:39 PM

Quote:

nail polish remover is not alcohol-based

I don't think you'll find many nail polish removers with pure Acetone in it for just the reason you said

Acetone is actually found in the body in very small amounts naturally (diabetics usually have higher levels), its formed as part of the process of breaking down fats, and normally called Ketones I think (dimethyl ketone?)

I'm no mad scientist though, I'm sure sothers here know a lot more about these chemicals than me. The nail polish I'm looking at now which is what I use for cleaning everything (it's actually amazing what this stuff will clean) contains

Butyl Acetate
Ethyl Acetate
Isopropyl Alcohol
Butyrolactone
Dibutyl Adipate
Citrus Dulcis

Most of which I have no idea what they are

Gremlin · 09-08-2003, 10:45 PM

Quote:

One question on topic tho. what happens if your thermal paste touches the bridges on your athlon...thats bad right?

I'm of the understanding that most thermal pastes are non-conductive, so I don't think too much harm would be cuased if you did have some touching the bridges, though I'd personally clean it off anyway rather than chance it.

SilverPriest · 10-08-2003, 02:10 AM

Well, with my 1.33tbird, as2 somehow got all over the bridges, looked like it had splattered, honest to god no idea how it happened as i usually put f/a on...

Anyway, getting back to the topic at hand, it stopped my tbird from working properly.
Half an hour with meths and cotton buds restored it to perfect working order

mdak002 · 24-08-2003, 03:13 PM

WHy is it that after a few days of putting on the heatsink with arctic silver my temps go up........I followed all the directions and everything.

meowsqueak · 24-08-2003, 03:22 PM

...because it's heading into spring and generally getting warmer? Ambient temperature has a large effect on CPU temps (pretty much 1:1 increase).

Don't get too hung up on CPU temps. The BIOS readings from the sensors on the i2c bus etc. are rarely very precise. If your temperatures are under about 50C, there's nothing really to worry about, and you can get much higher than that before real problems start to occur.

whetu · 24-08-2003, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mdak002
WHy is it that after a few days of putting on the heatsink with arctic silver my temps go up........I followed all the directions and everything.

because it has a cure time where it goes great for a couple of days, then settles in... this is where a lot of thermal paste shoot outs are flawed - they're all done in the space of a day and dont prove much

the same holds true for watercooling - it takes a couple of weeks for an h20 rig to settle in, in which time the temps might rise upwards of 10c and settle in at the 30-35c mark

meowsqueak · 24-08-2003, 03:46 PM

I don't entirely trust it, but my BIOS regularly reports a CPU temperature of approximately 20C (and I'm water cooled). I actually doubt it's that low, however my radiator feels cold to the touch, so it isn't too high either. As such I'm a little skeptical of BIOS temp readings in general.

(for example, lm_sensors reports my normal-clocked XP1800 at 21C "motherboard" and 22C CPU, This agrees with Asus Probe in WinXP however not with the BIOS which is currently reporting 18C and 19C. On a really hot summers day in January it got up as far as 28C. Before I flashed my BIOS with a recent firmware upgrade, I wasn't getting sensible readings at all)

extremerigman · 24-08-2003, 06:19 PM

Is it recomended to apply a new coat of AC3 after a certain period of time?

Antallica · 24-08-2003, 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by extremerigman
Is it recomended to apply a new coat of AC3 after a certain period of time?

Yep, I tend to wait about 3-4 months before each reapply, or when they start getting a bit higher than normal.

Method · 13-09-2003, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by whetu
[ Business card methods are dandy but they're an extension of your hand.. a flawed tool that you have limited control of.

Only if your clumsy though

You can allways just youse your fingers. It's what i do

Make sure you are grou8nded though (hold on to your case or somthing) the last thing you want happening is your cpu getting fux0rd!

whetu · 13-09-2003, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Method
You can allways just youse your fingers. It's what i do Make sure you are grou8nded though (hold on to your case or somthing) the last thing you want happening is your cpu getting fux0rd!

read the first post again.. I cover why you dont use bare skin