Has anyone done Arctic Silver 5 on the XPS M1530?

WORD!

"Due to the unique shape and sizes of the particles in Arctic Silver 5 conductive matrix, it will take a up to 200 hours and several thermal cycles to achieve maximum particle to particle thermal conduction and for the heatsink to CPU interface to reach maximum conductivity. (This period will be longer in a system without a fan on the heatsink or with a low speed fan on the heatsink.) On systems measuring actual internal core temperatures via the CPU's internal diode, the measured temperature will often drop 2C to 5C over this "break-in" period. This break-in will occur during the normal use of the computer as long as the computer is turned off from time to time and the interface is allowed to cool to room temperature. Once the break-in is complete, the computer can be left on if desired."

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

 

Cool

It's great stuff, I use it anywhere I have a heatsink contact surface in my house, audio power amps etc. Even put it between my soldering iron element and tip, makes the iron much hotter at lower settings. Makes some smoke first time you turn it on though...

One great tip is to lap the sink and processor so they are dead flat. Yes I lapped my C2D chip, the writing came off and some copper was exposed on the corners. Takes some nerves to grind away at your new $500 chip the first time but it was completely harmless, in fact it is good for it as it will run cooler and if you could hear my system (you can't!), it was worth it to me.

I use a small pane of glass on the workbench with wet and dry paper used wet, of varying grades, down to the finest you can get. Don't polish them though, you need some slight roughness for the particles to sit in. I first polished them with autosol and the sink and chip would stick together dry, just with air pressure. Then before assembly, I read that was bad so roughed up again with fine wet and dry.

Not sure how practical that is with a laptop, never tried it but probably will when I get mine.

 

Honestly Arctic Silver is great but there are other thermal compounds out there that perform equal to if not better than Artic Silver. My choice is Tuniq TX-2 which has no curing time and performs better also it is cheaper.
http://hardwarelogic.com/news/137/ARTICLE/2752/2008-03-03.html

 

Great article thanks but remember he didn't burn in the AS5. As he says at the end he thinks that's irrelevant but given my claimed 6 degree drop over a month of cpuburn and powering down, it would have outperformed the Tuniq TX-2 by 5 degrees in the load tests.

Worth thinking about.

I don't have shares in Arctis silver though, I'm sure there are plenty other excellent compounds out there as pointed out. But ultimately, AS5 seems to give the lowest temps if you want to go through all the burn in shenanigans.

Also, as he points out, they certainly know there stuff:

I don't know if AS5 is conductive or not, forget and didn't look, but that's a bunk argument. Who squirts their compound around all over the mother board anyway?

If you use it, remember to go for a mega thin but consistent layer. Keep trying till you get it right. I used a new business card.

 

One more thing, if you're going to flat the sink and chip, spread the paste. If you're not going to lap them, leave them as they came, then use a line or dollop.

 

The way you apply thermal paste depends on the manufacturers recommendation.

Also many reviews out there say the same thing even when AS5 cure that there are others that perform better or equal to it.

 

Manufacturers deal with the lowest common denominator. How many people flat the heatsink, and especially how many would flat a chip?

Only the very few who want the best possible performance and are willing to go to the trouble of getting it.

I bet not a single company recommends flatting a processor core but it's what you have to do to get the lowest possible temps. I bet few or none have actually done it anyway.

I was talking from my experience, where the best method of applying paste has been determined through experimenting and that's what I found. It made sense to me too. I applied paste in a thin layer, assembled the sink to the MB, took it off, and only about a third was making contact, the rest was untouched. Therefore, if you don't flat the sink and chip, a dollop will give more surface area, increasing performance of the paste.

After thorough flatting, the thinnest possible layer was applied, reassembled, took apart and checked. 100% coverage. A dollop would have left far more paste in between them, reducing performance.

Feel free to experiment for yourself, believe everything you read, or not care either way.

I do think it likely that other pastes may perform better, new stuffs coming out all the time.

I just haven't found any evidence for it. Haven't looked though. The one linked here did not burn in the AS5 at all, and it still was beaten by only a degree. In my experience there are more degrees to drop after burn in, that's all I'm saying.

If you can find a review where they CpuBurn for 12 hours, turn it off for 12 hours, repeat for a month, or something similar to burn in the AS5, as per the "manufacturers recommendation" and come up with a superior paste, I'd love to see it as I do believe it's possible.

 

Believe what you want but just because something is marketed as the best doesn't mean so.

 

Just because something appears to work best in a biased benchmark "doesn't mean so."

 

http://www.tuniq.com.tw/accessories/tx2.html

Scroll down for tons of reviews.

 

I understand lapping a heat sink but can you please explain what do you mean by flatting a chip? I hope you are not suggesting to sand the bare silicon

The term used among the overclockers is "lapping", and only the CPUs with a heat spreader are lapped, i.e. the heat spreader itself not the bare silicon. Laptop processors do not have heat spreader.

 

I second this, TX-2 is at least as good as AS-5, also based on my first-hand experience. I had lapped a E4500 and Thermaltake Big Typhoon, the temperatures were consistently 2C lower with TX-2 compared to AS-5 at 3.3GHz, 1.525v.

http://www.cluboverclocker.com/reviews/cpu_accessories/thermal_paste/tuniq/tx2/index.asp

 

AS-5 is old stuff now, there is a reason why companies come out with newer products and it sells

I personally use MX-2 paste and there was a temp drop from AS-5 that was on my build. (After the computer was built, it wasnt touch for nearly 6months) Id thats more then enough time for AS-5 to settle in and do its thing and yet MX-2 gave me better temps so i will never switch back to AS-5

 

Absolutely true.

 

Thanks for the clarification, I didn't know that notebook processors don't have a heat spreader.

Guess I won't be lapping the CPU!

The mating surface of the processors I've seen and used have a metal heat spreader on them, that's what I lapped flat.

Chips like the north bridge don't have the metal either, just bare silicon, I'm sure it would be a bad idea to lap that!

 

Was the AS5 burned in? for 200 hours?

 

I agree and think it likely something better is now available, hence:

I just haven't seen anything that beats AS5 after it's properly burned in.

As evidenced by the above. See that's not a good test, AS5 needs to be burned in, heat cycled, as mentioned. Leaving a computer turned off for 6 months doesn't really accomplish that!

I'm sure MX-2 gave better results off the bat, but in my personal experience AS5 gave about 6 degree drop after appropriate burn in.

Now I don't have any AS5 for sale, I have nothing vested in this and would love to see a better performing paste, I would use it for sure, I'm sure one probably exists, I just haven't seen a fait test comparing it to AS5.

I just want to be clear about how to get the most effective cooling with AS5, or any other paste, in case anyone reading is interested.

 

Guide has been posted.

 

Yes it was, much longer than 200 hours actually. I think, the application method of AS-5 makes a difference on the amount of temperature drop upon curing. I apply a small drop at the center of the IHS and I have applied it dozens of times on both AMD and Intel CPUs with many different heatsinks. I have never seen more than 2C temperature drop after curing period. Anyway, I don't use AS-5 anymore.

 

Interesting, thanks.

 

personally I perfer AS5 over anything. Ive tried a few brands with my desktop (AMD 64x2 4200+ processor) and AS5 runs much cooler then the others. My processor runs a 28 C idle and 38 load =]

 

Turning out to be a lot of good info in these threads.
Thanks for all your inputs!

 

Oh, another disadvantage of AS5 is that it can be misread easily as well

 

Don't be an A55!

 

................Where?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=236790

 

Can anyone who has applied AS5 (or any thermal paste, don't want to start a war here) to their M1530 comment on the temperature difference please? I'm considering doing this with my laptop, but I don't want to if there isn't a big difference.

 

Seems like a very good question to me!

 

I reseated a gpu fan with AS5 and over the past month my temps have dropped about 5-6 degrees to on idle and should prob check what they are on load now.. I agree that wasn't a fair test. If their temps dropped like ours have AS5 would have beat all of them big time.

 

Glad to hear I'm not the crazy conspiracy theorist I was starting to think I am.

Looking at all the evidence, it's clear that AS5 is by far the best if you're willing to follow the manufacturers recommendations on burning it in.

 

For those that have indeed applied it on their M1530 or other laptops that still under warranty, when/if the computer breaks down and needs to be replaced, whats steps are will you do prevent DELL from realizing that your technically broke the warranty?

Is the best way, before it is checked by DELL/technician, to just clean the chips that previously had Arctic Silver? If this is the correct measure, then, won't they notice that the original factory paste is gone?

-=--=-=-= I ask this because, after applying it on my Inspiron 6000, my temperature dropped by 12 on average and it keeps decreasing by a degree or so And since the M1530 is thinner and then will reach higher temps than the Inspiron (unless I am wrong), I'd love to apply Arctic Silver on my soon-to-arrive M1530, but I do not want to void my warranty, which is a 4 year long contract.

Any suggestion? Thanks so much for all your help and of course your time!!!

 

I really can't help, but I doubt they'd even notice unless they remove the CPU.

If they are going to remove the CPU, maybe try to replicate how it looked before somehow?

 

If the damage it's not related to the CPU, they won't see that you removed the heat sink. In other words: if you don't break the motherboard, I don't think there's any other chance for them to remove the heatsink from the CPU.

 

You can always buy "thermal pads" and reapply them if you gotta send it back to Dell.

Search for it on Ebay