Arctic Silver 5 (or AS5) is the best thermal compound on the market IMHO. It's basically an essential if you're installing a new CPU. This kit is everything you need to clean your heat sink, prepare the surface of the heatsink and your CPU, and ensure that your chip functions at the coolest temps possible.
If you apply the compound correctly, the result is always a 4-10c drop in CPU temperatures under load. You will not notice a huge difference at idle. The real gains in heat dissipation come when the CPU is being pushed. Also, don't trust the board maker's proprietary software to tell you what your temperatures are; download a good program like RealTemp 2.41 or Everest for free (use google to find them). Either will give you more accurate numbers than Asus PC Probe, or whatever software your board manufacturer supplies.
The instructions provided with this kit are minimal (small text on the side of the bottles) and could be confusing if you've never used thermal paste before, so here are some detailed instructions that will help you do it right. Here is the process:
1. Remove the old thermal compound. This is accomplished by using the remover (bottle 1). Apply a several drops of the cleaner to the top of the chip and let it soak for 20-30 seconds. You might have to reapply more drops of cleaner again depending on how much thermal compound was present on the chip to begin with, or how hard it's gotten over time. Wipe all the waste off with a lintless cloth or cotton swabs. You might have to do this several times. Make sure you get it as clean as you can before moving to step 2.
2. Apply the surface cleaner (Bottle 2). Apply several drops, and then work them over the entire surface of the chip or heatsink in a circular motion. Make sure there are no traces of the old compound. You can tell that the surface is perfectly clean when you can wipe it with a new q-tip and it comes away pure white.
3. Apply Arctic Silver 5. DO NOT USE TOO MUCH! If you do, it will squish outside the edge of the chip, get on your motherboard, the CPU locking mechanism, your hands, etc... It makes a real mess. Start with a small amount and add more if necessary. The idea here is to get a THIN, EVEN LAYER across the entire chip surface. A toothpick actually work's really well at spreading the paste around. You should not be able to see any part of the metal of the chip when you're done. Less is more in this instance; many people think they need to slather this stuff onto the chip, but trust me that does nothing but make a mess.
4. Install your heat sink and fan assembly. I recommend getting an aftermarket heat sink as those provided by Intel are notoriously poor. Zalman makes some great ones. Do NOT buy on that uses push pins to lock in place. You want one with screws and mounting bracket so that it is very securely attached to the motherboard and in turn, your CPU. This is probably equally important to applying the thermal compound correctly, because all the compound in the world won't help you if the heatsink isn't making solid contact with the chip's surface.
If you follow those steps, you will see a massive improvement in your core temps. Just remember that heat dissipation is achieved by the fans in your case and heatsinks, not the compound itelf. The compound simply allows for a much better transfer for heat from chip-->heatsink. I swear by Arctic Silver, and I promise you it works if you use it correctly. Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound 3.5 Grams with ArctiClean 60 ML Kit
Until very recently my Sony Vaio desktop with 3.2GHz P4 had CPU temps between 40C and 80C, very frequently exceeding 70C whenever the CPU was exercised heavily.
I searched Amazon for a cooling solution. I could not find with certainty any mechanical heatsink+fan that would properly attach to my mobo. Then I noticed the listings for thermal pastes and was intrigued that one of the offerings, Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound, averaged 5 stars from 17 customers, indicating either a great product or false info, but I've noticed that on Amazon, falsely inflated 5 star ratings by shills for the manufacturer tend to be negated over time by angry buyers who had negative experiences.
I tried the Arctic Silver 5 along with the ArtiClean kit. Nothing false about the 5 star rating. It's worked very well on my system. The highest CPU temp yet observed is 55C, and the CPU typically operates at 48-52C once warmed up.
Nathan Beauchamp states that Arctic Silver 5 comes with poor instructions. It's certainly true that the kit itself comes with virtually no documentation, and my initial look at the website found nothing. However, after some further digging I found the following link that gives authoritative directions -- http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm.
Quite frankly, I am amazed that a paste can have so much effect on cooling.'
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