Can I use Artic Silver 5 to repaste the GTX580?

I want to repaste the GTX580m, and i only have the Artic Silver 5 to do it. Can I make it with this thermal compound?

Any guide to do this?

Thanks!
Froddo!

 

Here's a guide: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/561599-m17x-r3-cpu-gpu-re-pasting-guide-w-pics.html. Had to go back a few pages, but a simple search would have saved you the hassle of this post

I don't see why you couldn't use that paste. Just make sure it's still in good condition and not dried up in the tube.

 

Personally, I would not recommend using a conductive paste, if you get some in the wrong place you could short circuit your laptop.

Arctic cooling MX-2 or MX-4 is just as good and non-conductive.

 

MX4 gets my vote.

 

For GPUs, I recommend not using anything that could be conductive. If you get any on the PCB or any surface mount components, you can fry it. I recommend ceramic based TIM for GPU's.

 

For the thousandth time, AS5 is NOT conductive, that's an urban legend. If people would actually read the instructions on the Arctic Cooling website and not just repeat what they pick up such non-sense wouldn't spread all over the interwebz.

AS5 is very slightly capacitive, that's quite a difference, but you definitely won't damage your GPU when applying it on the die.

So yeah, you can use it on your 580m, no need to worry.

 

worse that happens using on a slightly capacitive paste like AS5 is system instability...but you'd have to be really sloppy with the paste job.

Like svl7 stated, You can use it for sure...however, As5 is very old and only works well under the best contact conditions (between GPU/heatsink). I'd prefer to use something more modern and that offers a larger margin of error.

From my personal experience these are much better: PK-1, MX-4, OCZ Freeze

 

Hey Slick I've been trying to get my hands on some OCZ Freeze;can't find it anywhere,seems they don't make it anymore.

 

Any paste that is not conductive is by definition capacitive. A capacitor is two conductive materials with a thin nonconductive layer in between. ICD7, MX-4, and all the others are capacitive in this application if they are in fact insulators.

 

All I know is that I have seen AS5 kill computers because it will allow voltage to pass between traces, or whatever on a board. If you get a blop that connects two pins on a surface mount or something like that there is a high chance you will fry your card.

New pastes all the way, it is a $700+ GPU, it is not worth saving the $4 and using old and potentially dangerous paste.

 

This is what it states on the Arctic Silver website:

Not Electrically Conductive:
Arctic Silver 5 was formulated to conduct heat, not electricity.
(While much safer than electrically conductive silver and copper greases, Arctic Silver 5 should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. While it is not electrically conductive, the compound is very slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical paths.)

I would imagine that the wet part of many compounds may be conductive. I would think that the liquid part of these thermal compounds may be conductive. That part is necessary to allow us to apply it. Perhaps when a person puts way too much paste on the part, they have enough of that oozing onto the motherboard to short out some traces?

I think that AS5 is actually mostly ceramic particulate. I used it on a Xeon processor for the first time earlier this week. Several weeks ago I put MX-4 on my Alienware laptop. I really like how the AS5 applied to the processor at work the other day. I was thinking of repasting my laptop again with some of that AS5 I had left over.

The MX-4 was thinner and easier to apply. The AS5 was fairly thick but it spread nicely. I've used ICD7 in the past and it is really thick compared to these two compounds.

I think this has been stated many times. Any good paste will do well. You just need to make sure you apply it per the manufacturers instructions. You need to apply the correct amount in the correct way and they all perform within a degree or two of each other in the real world. There are some benchmarks out there that show the performance of various paste. Within the name brand popular pastes, the difference in efficiency looks to be within the margin of error for the method of measurement to me.

 

A sllightly capacitive paste will NOT short out your motherboard. Worse case, you'll get some instability. But you really need to mess up the paste job badly for this to happen

A slightly conductive paste will kill your motherboard

I have the same sentiments as Jody...no on ICD7, thumbsup on MX-4

 

Why no PK-1? that should get thumbs up too. Personally I still use ICD despite the disadvantages but it is still the best performing paste for me. PK-1 is almost just as good with no disadvantages so it gets a recommendation from me.

 

PK-1 is right at the top of the foodchain as far as I'm concerned and its the paste that I use. I recommended that on the first page of this thread...but MX-4 is almost as good

 

I think I have re-pasted my CPU about 10 times now with PK-1, it still looks as good as new. Definitely a plus when I plan to sell it in the future. It's really easy to work with too..

 

bro, honestly, you, me, widezu...several others...we should be getting commisions from prolimatech lol

PK-1 is the best paste...period. IC Diamond is way over-hyped...its a real pain to clean and its a real pain to apply. PLus the crystals in it scratch your CPU/GPU die. I just don't get why so many people are still hyping it up. Works great on a desktop CPU that has a metal lid on the CPU die...but i wouldn't recommend it on lidless laptop CPUs

 

Not Electrically Conductive:
Arctic Silver 5 was formulated to conduct heat, not electricity.
(While much safer than electrically conductive silver and copper greases, Arctic Silver 5 should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. While it is not electrically conductive, the compound is very slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical paths.)

 

When is the best time to repaste the cpu and gpu? I still have the stock paste, and according to you guys sounds like PK-1 is the best, I was leaning towards MX-4 but Id like to give PK-1 a shot.

 

if you're still running with the stock paste, the best time to paste is NOW lol...immediately...

PK-1 is awesome...if you can't get it, mx-4 is close...but anything is better than the stock goop on there right now

 

lol, How much usually is PK-1? Saw a 5gram on newegg $12.99. Also is this paste new or something there is only 2 reviews... Didnt know about pk1 until today, and whats the consistency of this tim.

 

PK-1 is a whole lot better than ICD 7 specially if you'll repaste later on (ICD 7 is a pain to clean off).

take note that if you plan to go the route of AS 5 that it also has a cure time between 50-200 hours before it stabilizes (which is usually a few degrees anyway).

personally you can't go wrong with PK-1 or MX-4 both are very easy to apply and clean and just have a few degrees between them in performance (so unless you're overclocking hard then it wouldn't really matter)