Does Artic Silver help?

I am ordering a NP9280 from Xotic PC and it says it comes with Artic Silver on the CPU and the GPU. Does Artic Silver really help and what exactly does it do?

 

Yes, it does help because it dissipates more effectively the heat from your CPU/GPU, especially if you game a lot having Arctic Silver 5 on the machine would keep temperatures cooler than standard/cheap grease OEM manufacturers use, although I believe Arctic Silver 5 needs to be reapplied overtime vs other greases that last longer without gaining more degrees (Arctic Cooling MX-2 ) is one of those up to 8 years of same performance.

 

Ah yes, TIM. Otherwise known as Thermal Interface Material, thermal grease comes in a variety of different compositions and consistencies. All manufacturers have their own highly secretive methods in which they produce this sticky, messy stuff. However, nearly all thermal compounds on the market today, which include greases, pastes, or thermal pads utilize suspended particles to more readily increase heat transferring properties.

Some manufacturers, such as Arctic Silver, include particles of silver in their grease, while others choose to use ceramics or zinc-oxide compounds in their thermal compounds instead. The idea is to increase the thermal conductivity between a CPU’s integrated heat spreader (IHS) and the cooling apparatus that is cooling the processor (your heatsink). Thermal conductivity is achieved by using small amounts of thermal grease to act as a medium in which the IHS and the cooling apparatus surfaces contact each other and transfer heat.

In order to efficiently transfer heat, we must first understand why it is important that thermal grease is applied in the first place. If you have ever seen the surface of the moon in NASA photographs, you know that it is filled with deep craters, valleys, dips and other inconsistencies. The same is true for the metal heatsink slug that covers the CPU, and the metal slug (usually made of copper) that is on the bottom of heatsink/fan (HSF) assemblies.

These irregularities in the metal can cause serious problems if not properly addressed. That is where the Thermal Interface Material comes into play. When a heatsink/fan assembly is installed on top of the CPU’s IHS, there exist tiny, microscopic voids between the two surfaces of metal. These voids are filled with oxygen, which, as we all know, is extremely poor at conducting and transferring heat.

Therefore, TIM is used to fill the voids where air exists in order to allow the two metal surfaces to conduct heat more efficiently. This leads to a much lower heat signature, which is important in today’s computing world where high temperatures are often the limiting factor when designing and implementing new technology like processors and other integrated circuits.

Now, to answer your question, yes, Arctic Silver does help, but your mileage may vary with your computing habits, ie. overclocking which can significantly increase your CPU's heat signature. Therefore, a higher quality TIM compound (like AS5) is better able to transfer that heat than the stock TIM that would ordinarily come with your notebook.

 

It doesn't in my case. Temperature is no different than stock thermal paste.

 

Yeah the difference between Arctic Silver 5 and the usual stuff they use (which is usually very good actually) is really minimal. Lots of these OEMs use stuff like Shin Etsu paste which is extremely effective. Sometimes they use crappy pads, but that is rare with modern power hog CPUs.

The most important thing is that they DO use some sort of thermal interface material. And they most certainly all do use it where it's needed.

So AS5 is mostly a marketing gimmick IMO. It sounds cool and the enthusiast community generally goes crazy over the stuff.

 

I changed the paste on my notebook when I first got it and I went down 10C.
but I used coolermaster paste.

Basically if the paste is applied corectly then any paste will do.

 

Nothing can replace a good undervolting. Thermal paste is negligible when you know that. As said any paste will do a correct job if applied correctly.