Apply Arctic Silver 5 to your Inspiron 6000, will also work on other laptops!!!

UPDATE: I was a complete noob when I did this, way to much AS5 was used, and you only need to put it on either the CPU or the heatsink. While the temperatures drops I got were real, higher drops can probably be obtained by properly applying AS5. I would recommend going to AS5 website for applications. The pictures will still be useful to Inspiron 6000 owners as you can see what the inside of the notebook will actually look like apart.

Guide to Applying Arctic Silver 5 to the Dell Inspiron 6000

This guide will show the basic steps to applying Arctic Silver 5 to the Dell Inspiron 6000. The steps shown here can also be applied to other Dell models, as the configurations are similar. IF YOU DECIDE TO DO THIS, DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK, IT WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY! Sorry for the bad pics.

Some Quick notes about Arctic Silver 5
- It is a thermal paste, so keep in mind that it doesn’t harden or anything, it is a grease
- It gets more efficient at cooling with time
- The tube is much smaller than it looks
- The stuff isn’t really silver, they should call it arctic goo, it is more of a dark grey

Step 1
First, you need to pick up some Arctic Silver 5 (AS5) as well as the Arctic Silver Thermal material Remover & Surface Purifier Kit. I got mine from newegg.com for $20 with shipping, which may seem like a lot, but it is worth it.

Cleaning Kit from Newegg.com

Arctic Silver 5 from Newegg.com

Step 2
Follow the instruction on Dell’s website about how to take you Inspiron 6000 apart. The guides you want to follow are titled as follows: “Palm Rest”, “Video Card/Thermal-Cooling Assembly”, “MCH Heat Sink”, and “Microprocessor Thermal-Cooling Assembly”. Each guide will tell you how to remove the components. When you are done following all of these guides your laptop will look like this.



This chip to the left is the CPU, the chip to the right is the Memory Controller Hub, and the slot next to the MCH is the PCI-Express slot where the GPU was.

You also need to remove the cover off of the GPU, there are four screws on there that have need one of the star shaped screw drivers to open it. I didn’t have one so I just used a Phillips to get them started, and then pliers to finish taking them off. Once you do this, you will have access to the GPU and its memory. It will look like this.



The GPU is the little black box in the center of the board, the four boxes around the GPU are the memory.

Step 3
Remove Existing Thermal Pads and Prep Surfaces for application of AS5. Use the thermal material remover as directed on the following components: CPU, GPU and memory banks, MCH, MCH Heat Sink, CPU Heat Sink, and the GPU heatsink.


Remove the black material (thermal compound) from the CPU Heat Sink

 

Remove the blue material (thermal compound) from the MCH heatsink

Step 4
Use the thermal surface purifier indicated on the directions on all of the parts that you are going to put AS5 on. In other words, all of the surfaces you just removed thermal pads from. Here are some pictures of the clean surfaces.


MCH Heat Sink Purified


CPU Heat Sink Purified


GPU Heat Sink Purified

Step 5
Apply Arctic Silver 5 to the CPU, GPU and memory, MCH, as well as their corresponding heat sinks. Basically, follow the directions and apply the AS5 to all the surfaces you just purified. When you are done, this is what some of the components should look like with AS5 applied.


CPU Heat Sink with AS5

 

MCH Heat Sink with AS5


GPU Heat Sink with AS5: The two rectangles to the sides of the big square in the center are applied with AS5 for the memory banks.


GPU and Memory Banks with AS5 applied


CPU and MCH with AS5 applied.

I also decided to apply AS5 to the RAM. Really easy, follow the same procedures. Forgot to take pictures.

Step 6
Reassemble laptop and check out temperature drops! 

My Temperature Drops
After applying AS5 to my laptop, I have seen significant decreases in temperature which I think are worth while. Under light usage (web browser and media player open) The CPU has a drop of about 3 degrees C and the GPU has a drop of about 7 degrees C. Where it really changes though is during gaming. I have noted a CPU temp drop of 17 degrees C and a GPU temp drop of 9 degrees C! This is with a 414/315 overclock on the ATI x300. I will probably try to bump the clocks up when I get the chance. My 3DMark05 is almost 2000! I will post more on this as I do some more testing though. It should be noted that all of these temperatures were recorded while using a cooling pad as well. So now, under light usage I have temps of 30 degrees C and 45 degrees C for the CPU and GPU respectively. Under gaming they are 55 degrees C and 67 degrees C. I got these temps by playing Far Cry with water, environment, and texture details on high as well as 2X anisotropic filtering. I am very very pleased with the results. My FPS are between 35 – 200 depending on whether I am indoors or outdoors! Oh yea, and my RAM sees about a 1-2 degree temperature drop, not bad, worth it, I don’t know. It only takes a second to do.


Afterthoughts
This is not a difficult mod, although make sure you have a day to do it. It is a little bit tedious and must be done with caution. I would also recommend painting your laptop if you ever had though to do it while you have it all apart. I will have a painting guide coming soon. If you are going to do this mod, email me with any questions you have and look at Dell’s website to get an idea of what the insides of the computer will be like before you open it up. To me, this is a worthwhile mod, I would recommend it for anyone who is gaming with the x300 as you can squeeze some more performance out of it. I will update this in the future as I have more time to play around with some of the settings. Also, AS5 is supposed to work better after it has been in the comp for around 200 hours of use. Good luck and post any questions! 

 

Yea, let me know about any corrections and/or questions. Hope you like it!

 

Just so you know you could have used isopropyl alcohol (l used 70% and it worked fine) to remove the old thermal paste and you would have saved a few $.

 

Yea, I know, I just decided for a few bucks more I might as well order it too.

 

Here is a link that has pictures of my new painted laptop.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=1390318&posted=1#post1390318

 

I'm finally about to do this mod after taking a drill to one of the screws on my display cover that just would not come off. **** thing was rounding out with just a screwdriver.

Anyway, my question was about applying AS5 to your memory and what not. I wouldn't think that would be safe... I thought AS5 was just for processors and heatsinks (GPU heatsink as well).

PS Thanks for the guide. You weren't kidding about bad pictures though.

 

Since this can be used with all laptops, this thread has been moved to the hardware section of our forums.

 

Does that work as with the AS Purifier Kit??

 

Yeah, works fine. Acetone can be used too.

Couple of minor clarification (some more relevant than others)
First, it's PCI-Express, or PCI-E, not PCI-X. (PCI-X is an expansion slot for servers, and I highly doubt your notebook has one )

Second, one thing to always keep in mind when applying thermal paste is, it is not the thermal paste itself that helps you dissipate heat. More thermal paste does not equal better cooling.
The heatsink is by far the best heat conductor. Arctic Silver comes at a distant second place, with plain air right at the bottom of the scale.
This means the ideal case would be no arctic silver, just the heatsink tightly fitted onto the CPU. However, if you try that, there will be small air pockets between the two, and as I said, air is by far the worst at conducting heat. (There's a reason it's typically used for insulating windows and buildings)
So the goal is to use enough arctic silver to fill out any air pockets, *without* reducing the contact to the heatsink, which is still the best at conducting heat. In other words, lots of arctic silver is bad, and will give you *higher* temperatures.

I know you didn't say otherwise, but it's something people often don't realize, so I thought it was worth emphasizing a bit.

Oh yeah, and it's safe to put on memory modules too. No harm in it, but you might ask what the point is. If the heatsink also fits over the memory modules, then they should get a bit of AS too, for the same reasons. (We don't want air pockets there either).
But if they are not covered by a heatsink in any case, there's no point.

 

Yup, nice catch on that. I completely agree with you on the second point. Arctic Silver 5 is simply eliminating the air gap as well as material imperfections, not too mention the cheap thermal pads that vendors typically put in there notebooks.

 

Hi there!
I've already applied as you have directed. This is the first boot after the application. However, I'm not getting much decrease in temperature. Usually, cleaning out the dust from the fan and heatsink lowers the temperature to 36-38C range when idle. Now that I have replaced the thermal pads using isopropyl alcohol and applied AS5, the temperature varies between 39C at idle (3 degrees higher than previous post-cleaning temperature) and 58C (4 degrees higher than previous post-cleaning temperature).

This is strange considering that AS5 has lowered my desktop temperature by 5C or so in idle and 8C in load.

I noticed that the thermal pads I removed were quick thick and AS5 after application could not be as thick. Could the thickness account for bad heat transfer as possibly the heatsink is not properly in contact with the CPU/GPU (no way to verify that). Still, I have 196 hours more to check it to reach the 200 hours point.

Has anyone else had a similar problem like mine?

I'm using SpeedFan to monitor all temperatures.

Should I revert back to thermal pads if it doesn't work out?

- Anirban

 

Yea, I think the problem is that you have an air gap. I have seen online that some people will actually use a thin piece of copper to remove the gap. You may want to keep a close eye on your temps and don't make sure they ever get to high. If your temps are higher you ought to consider going back to thermal pads, or looking online about how people have used copper to help fill in the gap between the AS5 and heatsink. Hope that helps. Let me know if I can be any more help.

 

Its rained outside and the weather is considerably cooler now. CPU temperatures now at 36-38C range. (Same as pre-arctic silver times).

What is interesting to note is during regular low usage, the temperature fluctuates widely - shooting upto 54C for couple of seconds and very quickly falling back to early 40s. This seems to indicate that the heat is also escaping from somewhere quite fast.

I have now installed Notebook Hardware Control ( www.pbus-167.com) by which I can set a shutdown temperature which I have put at 65C.

Spybot S&D is a good stress test putting the machine at 59C.

Any idea where I can get thermal pads and/or copper plates online?

 

If the temperature fluctuates quickly, it might very well be pockets of air insulating the CPU. I'd take off the heatsink, clean heatsink and CPU very carefully, apply some AS, and carefully, paying extra attention, putting the heatsink back on. Make sure that everything is fitted absolutely 110% perfectly.

Generally, if there is a gap between heatsink and CPU, it's because the heatsink isn't fitted properly. In that case, reattaching it is a much better bet than looking for external stuff like copper plates or thermal pads or whatever else.

 

Yes this is true. What kind of a laptop are you doing this on? It may be worth a second look to make sure you got a flush fit.

 

I made that mistake a month or two ago with my desktop. Because I didn't pay enough attention when fitting the heatsink, I got temperatures jumping from 30 to 70 degrees, and back down to 30 in only a couple of seconds.

Turns out I'd been a bit too sloppy about the heatsink. Took it off again, cleaned everything, applied some AS, and fitted it carefully. Now all is well and I never get temps above 40.

 

Good info to know...I am going to be applying some AS5 to my desktop that I am building, I will ensure that I am extra careful!

 

Quick note:

Arctic Silver may be grey in color, but it's because it contains colloidal (suspended) silver particles that it's called Silver. Silver is very conductive of heat (and electricity, so be careful where you spread it)

 

I using the Inspiron 6000. Since yesterday, the temperature on idle has been about 36C constant and rising to 41-42C on opening Adobe Acrobat. One must also keep in mind that the room temperature here in Calcutta is about 32-34C. The HDD runs at about 38-43C.

I did clean the heatsinks. In fact, with the amount of dust it had gathered, I washed them with a mild liquid soap and kept them under a lamp for quite while (turning them around several times) so that it dried completely. I had done a similar thing with my desktop too a month back.

I applied AS5 on the chip surfaces which had a copper-toned mirror look after cleaning with iso-propyl alcohol (93% purity).
The heatsink area in contact was also cleaned with isopropyl alcohol.
The application was done with the edge of a blade.

Also, after installing the heat sink and screwing it down, I turned the CPU locking screw about 110 degrees towards "unlock" so that the CPU surface rubs a bit against the CPU heatsink. This should simulate the "slight twisting" that is necessary for a heatsink that is supposed to be mounted on a Pentium 4 in a regular desktop. (As stated in AS5 instruction website)
This twisting removed the air gaps in contact.

If the temperature fluctuations continue for 2 weeks or so, I shall be re-doing the CPU-heatsink with AS5 again.

In the meantime, if anyone had been or is being adventurous with a Dell notebook, please let us know.

 

Hi Guys!
Just re-applied AS5 on the CPU-heatsink after cleaning out the old stuff. Temperature seems to be the same. I'm convinced my last application of AS5 was fine. When I opened the heatsink, I found that the heatsink area where I had applied AS5 was grey and creamy, but where the chip was touching the heatsink, there hardly seemed to be any AS5 - like a grey colour which ran out. It seems that after the pressure from the mounting and the heat from the CPU, AS5 somehow seems to be shifting from the chip-sink contact surface.

Another reason I found for poor performance was that the sink surface originally had a thermal pad attached to it. However, after I removed it, the surface beneath was not a "specialised" contact surface of copper or what is usually seen on desktop heatsinks. The thermal compound was actually on some metallic strip and this strip was of vital importance in providing a heat transferable surface. Now, that the chip is in direct contact with the heatsink with some AS5 in between, for some reason the heat transfer is slow.

In light of the above observations, I would not suggest that the metallic surface on the heatsink be removed even though the black thermal compound can be cleaned and substituted with AS5.

Any one can think of some sort of solutions to this problem.

 

In that case, your stock system was apparently pretty good.

I think I've deciphered what you were saying, but... not totally sure? What do you mean by "a grey color which ran out"? It sounds like you're trying to put too much AS5 on the chip. You just want a very, very thin layer, just to fill the tiny gaps in the thermal contact area. It should look exactly like you described when it's done right. The pressure of the heatsing mounting pushing down on the chip is required for good thermal transfer.

What do you mean the metallic surface being removed? What metallic surface? There should be just your chip, a thermal pad, then the heatsink in a "standard" setup, and in a correct setup with AS5, it should be your chip, a very thin layer of AS5, most of which is squished out when you clamp the heatsink down, and the heatsink.

 

I guess one must listen to the adage "if it works, don't fix it".

The last post from me was from my former beautiful friend, The Inspiron 6000.

About 2 mins after I put in that post, the machine froze. After re-powering on, even the Dell logo from BIOS refused to come on. It has been like that that since.

I have taken the CPU and heatsink out and cleaned AGAIN. Put in fresh the AS5. No results.

Right now on powering on, CD drive makes it noise and fan turns, the power light remains on... thats about it.

Is it a case of burnt CPU? External VGA monitor yields no results.

In the original setup, I had a small metallic strip between stuck on the heatsink on which the black thermal compound was given. The metallic strip (looked and felt like thick chewing guim wrap) had the blacxk thermal compound all over (I believe the black is the thermal compound).
This metallic strip had a certain thickness which was never replaced by the AS5.

Anyway, when I again removed the heatsink today the 2nd time after the crash, I the chip surface had AS5 in some parts and seemed quite empty in a small patch. The heatsink looked like I had described it previously. If Pitabred says AS5 after being squished looks like that, I guess AS5 application was fine, though a bit thick.

All said and done, machine is now a dead unit.

Will call Tech Support tomorrow morning. My unit is on complete cover, but will be open it up and say my warranty is completely void? Any way I can get them to replace without additional charges?

Please advise. Anyone.

Depressed.

 

Perhaps it's not the CPU that overheated but the GPU? Did you replace the heatsink paste on the GPU as well? Is it an all-in-one cooling system as is common in those machines? If you un-stick a thermal-pad, you HAVE to replace the heatsink compound. Thermal pads are a one-time-use thing.

I don't know if they'll replace it without any additional charges. That's unfortunately one of the problems you can run into when doing mods yourself. If it's screwed up, you will probably have to pay to fix it.

That being said, you may try to just "ignore" it and see what happens with the repair. Plead ignorance.

 

Okay, I'm back in action.
The Dell technicial came today morning and replaced the motherboard. The machine started working fine again. I don't know how the motherboard was affected. He noticed the AS5, but did not say anything. His concept was the AS5 could not have damaged the motherboard in any way. I did not press for further attention.

His put the old heatsinks with AS5 and put them back without even touching or examining it.

Strangely, I'm still getting a bad deja vu from experiencing sudden lockdowns which restores itself after a few seconds. The CPU temperature does not rise much during this. All other temperatures are more or less normal. I'm not keen on further examination.

Can I get sample temperature measurements from people with Inspiron 6000? I'm using SpeedFan 4.29 to see the values. Ambient room temperature here is 32C.

 

I will try to get you some temperature within the next couple of days. Do you want light load, heavy load, gaming temperatures, or all of the above?

 

For me it works:

Before: 75 in games, now 61.
I couldn't apply it to my GPU though. I have an MXM removable ati x700 128MB graphic card, and the heatsink needs thermo pads in order to rache GPU and memory chips. But I applied a very small amount of AS5 on heatsink and GPU and memory, and then put thermopads in between. Temp went down for a degree or so.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

OK, here are some temps under light load for a few hours.

CPU = 31C
GPU = 46C
RAM = 35C
HD = 36C

I will get some gaming temps up here when I get the chance to plaly something for a bit. lately I have been gaming on my desktop since it beats the heck out of my x300.

 

CPU-50's to 60's with AS5 depending on applications (any other T7200 owners have temp readouts?)

I'm waiting for AG5...yes, arctic gold

 

Where did you get your alcohol? I've only been able to find 70%, but I wouldn't mind something in the 90's percentile in purity.

 

You can get it at most pharmacys, but often they keep it behind the counter. I use 99%, it give a much better clean than 70%.

 

I won't do it as a mod, but i'll certainly use some when I upgrade to a Pentium-M!

I also used some (alongside clearing the crap out of the cooling system) on my friend's Packard Bell iGo 4000 and the temps went way down. Great stuff!

 

Hi!
Sorry guys for not checking in earlier. Had been busy and not checked this page in ages. Thanks mark for the temperature readings.
I have finally had my CPU heatsink replaced from Dell. It seems AS5 on the CPU heatsink was probably not a good idea. Though the minimun temperature was cooler, the temperature fluctuation was too high. Any game was pushing the temperature to 60-70C range. Spybot always pushed it to 65C; lowest was during idle at 34-35C. Now with a new heatsink and no AS5 on it, the temperature is about 36-38C again. With Spybot, its 42-44C; on stress tests, it does not cross 60C. So I suggest to everyone not to use AS5 on the CPU heatsink atleast.

Now, why is this happening. Well, I dunno really, but I have an idea.
The CPU heatsink has a metal strip attached to it and its surface area is about 1 sq. inch and that can transfer heat to a wider cross section on the heatsink body. The moment AS5 is applied on the surface directly without this strip, the heat transfer is better, but there is no immediate absorpstion. I guess the metal piece acts like a "heat buffer". Luckily, Dell didn't void my warranty. But no more AS5 on my laptops. Keeping the HSF area free of dust is a really effective method of keeping the temperature cool.

Regarding iso-propyl alcohol, when cleaning the laptop body and LCD (not CPU surface) I prefer to mix a little with distilled water (used for car batteries) as high purity alcohol can stain the plastic and screen.
I bought my alcohol from Duane Reade when I visited the US. Its not sold over the counter here in India.

 

Sounds more like the heatsink just hadn't been fitted properly. If there's any pockets of air between CPU and heatsink, you will get these temperature fluctuations.

Not sure what metal strip you're talking about, but heat transfer is not actually better with thermal paste like AS. As I said earlier in this thread, the heatsink itself is far better at transferring heat. The reason thermal paste is used is not that it's better at transferring heat than the heatsink is, but simply that it's better than air. In other words, the goal with thermal paste is to have enough to fill out air pockets that would be there otherwise, and *nothing* else. It shouldn't be a layer thick enough to actually reduce the contact to the heatsink, but should (ideally) only cover the small imperfections on the surface where air might otherwise get stuck.

Your "symptoms" sound exactly like what you'd get if the heatsink wasn't fitted properly, or if you used too much AS5. Both reduces the ability to dissipate heat quickly, so the CPU temperature will rise quickly under load.

 

I'm new to this now months old thread, but the first thing that immediately jumped out at me right off the bat from the OP's pictures:

He used way too much AS. Way way waaaayyyy too much.

Applying Artic Silver (or any thermal compound/grease/paste/etc) is a fine art, and Artic Silver provides quite possibly the best instructions on how to do it at their website.

The layer should be on one part only, i.e. the CPU core, and not the CPU and the CPU heatsink. Or the RAM, and not the RAM and the RAMsinks, if you use them, etc. Same for the GPU core: just the GPU core and not the GPU core and th GPU heatsink.

The other issue is the amount, which is the most important aspect of applying thermal compound/grease/paste/etc:

The proper amount should leave a barely translucent layer on the surface. So thin you can almost see through it. The idea of a thermal compound/grease/paste/etc is to transfer the heat efficiently, and that's done by applying an incredibly thin layer you can practically see through.

It's not about thickness, it's about thermal conductivity and that means the thinner the better. If you've got a thick gooey layer that looks caked on, you're screwing yourself for thermal conductivity: the thicker layer actually holds onto the very heat it's supposed to be transferring away to the heatsink.

Again, I know I'm late to this "party" so that's enough for now. Suffice to say, the proper amount of thermal compound/grease/paste/etc when applied will leave a barely transparent (meaning it's still thick enough to not see through completely) and usually the best way to do it is with a razor blade. Apply a dab to the surface of the core or chip, then use a razor blade to smooth it out, scraping off the excess, and leaving it totally flat and even thinner than a single sheet of notebook paper.

All this info is at Artic Silver's website if you take the time to look. They created the best thermal compound on the planet, so wouldn't they know the best way to apply it and use it?

I think so...

bb

 

Good observation. Guess we were all too dazzled by the presence of so much silver to notice.

 

Well, I'm usually nimble with my fingers and I did use a blade to apply when I first applied AS. On the second occasion, I cleaned it out and reapplied. Possible, I went wrong on both counts. But its *very tricky*.
Jalf, the metal strip I was talking about is a metal strip on the lower side of the heat sink which has a black thermal powder (?) on it. This is the part that the CPU comes in contact with when the heatsink is mounted.

 

This is a great place to buy arctic silver 5 and the cleaning kit. The prices are lower than new egg and if you spend $100.00 you can get $5.00 back if you use the coupon code giantxmas and google checkout. There is a limit of 5 arctic silver per customer though....

Arctic Silver 5:

http://gamegiants.net/product_info.php?products_id=251

Arctic Clean:

http://gamegiants.net/product_info.php?products_id=259

 

have you ever ordered from them? are they reliable? i like to stick with newegg.com and zzf becuase I have had good experiences.

 

One thing before doing the artic silver Make sure both cpu/gpu are touching if not use a thermal pad.

 

Yup, if the CPU/GPU/whatever aren't touching the heatsink, you are going to have nice temperature increases and potentially problems. Great point!

 

Okay, I know this is an old thread but still....

Can anyone explain why you should only apply it on "the CPU core, and not the CPU and the CPU heatsink" or his other examples? If this is the correct approach, can anyone give what part I should apply it on for optimal temperature results?

I tried looking at the website but they (at least from what I have seen) only give instructions on applying to the "Thermal Compound"

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

and NOT the RAM or GPU parts?

I found these guides,

http://nfn15037.tripod.com/

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread11362.html

is that the correct amount of application?

I want to learn

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

 

You only want a thin layer of arctic silver, it acts as a heat conductor, pulling the heat away from the processor. If the amount of arctic silver applied is too thick, less heat can be drawn into the processor, cause no metal paste is 100% conductive.
You do not want to apply arctic silver to your gpu because the core and the memory chips usually have thermal pads on them. These pads are different thicknesses, so tha the heatsink sits flat on top of the gpu. If you remove the thermal pads, and apply a thin layer of arctic silver, their will be an air gap between the memory chips and the heatsink, which results in much higher memory temperatures, since metal has better cooling potential than air.

You only want to use a little dab, so that their is no air bubbles between the core of the processor and the heatsink.
Use a credit-card/indexcard to make the AS5 nice and smooth on the top of the processor. This way all air bubbles are alleviated from the paste.

I hope this helps you understand thermal paste

K-TRON

 

Thanks for such a great explanation, last thing, so in conclusion:

Only apply a thin layer on the "Thermal Compound" and nothing extra?

Does the "Therman Compound" mean the "CPU Heat Sink" or the "MCH Heat Sink"?

THANKS!!

My warranty has been over for a few months now, so I am "free" to do this.

 

Yes, only apply a thin layer of thermal compund (tc = arctic silver 5) to the cpu core. The little part which comes in direct contact with the heatsink. Usually a small rectangle in the center of the processor.

Before applying AS5, make sure to clean any existing paste on the cpu and heatsink with some tissues soaked in rubbing alcohol. Then wait for the alcohol to evaporate before applying new paste.

You can apply compound to the chipset if you want.

If your chipset has a thermal pad, do not remove the pad and replace it with AS5. The AS5 is not thick enough to make contact between the chipset height and the heatsink.

Good luck

K-TRON

 

AHH, I see, so the original poster's step of AS5 application on the "CPU Heat Sink" is uncessary.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2409&d=1148155565
Found this:
"In light of the above observations, I would not suggest that the metallic surface on the heatsink be removed even though the black thermal compound can be cleaned and substituted with AS5."

Only apply what is listed in the official instructions.

Thanks K-TRON for taking the time and helping me out!

 

Hey, thanks a lot for the post. I went ahead and tried it today. I had trouble with the screws on the video card but I ended up able to use a small philips screwdriver on it. My computer (dell inspiron) (about 2 years old now) was starting to have heating problems (it was running way to hot, even just idle. fan on high all the time) So I opened it up and cleaned out the dust (there was a lot) and applied the arctic silver 5 like you said. Well, I'm monitoring the fans and temperature now and it is at least back to where it was when I first bought it (at idle), and under pressure it stays much cooler than it ever has. So thanks a lot for the post!

 

Rindill Please avoid reviving dead threads (6 months or older) Cheers