to AS-5 or not to AS-5 that is my question.

the idle temperature of my celeron-m 1.6 420 is between 55-64c at which point the fan cut in and the temperature goes down to 55c.

my question is what is the chance that their is a thermal pad on my processor, and would it be worth it replacing it with some actic silver 5.

also ebay has some kits with AS-5 and AS-cleaning liquid which is supposed to dissolve the old themal pad, is it worth the extra money.



thanks.

John.

 

Its very likely that there is no thermal pad, and there is paste between the processor and the cooling system. In that case, AS5 will really help out to decrease temperatures. To clean the old thermal interface, just use some isopropyl alcohol. A kit is better though, as it contains all the neccesery stuff you need.

 

Applying AS5 is almost always a good thing, what can be better than a cooler running CPU?

 

A cooler running GPU

 

There is no need for a cleaning kit. Just use some 90%+ isopropyl. I would not use the 70% stuff, as it can leave a residue.

One caution, if your machine is under warranty, you might want to hold off on the AS until after the warranty expires.

 

so their is a good chance that their is thermal paste under the heatsink not a thermal pad.

as thermal pads can be a pain to remove without scraching the heatsink.

I read on the arctic silver website that isopropyl alchol will not dissolve a thermal pad at all, and that is why i asked about the special AS cleaning fluid and that is supposed to dissolve the thermal pad.

but if their is only thermal compound then great.

thanks.

John.

 

Its most likely to be a paste because most manufacturers use that because of its effectiveness. Its a lot better than a pad. Thermal pads are often used on graphics core and memory, because their is a bit of variation in the height of the core and the memory chips.