Arctic Silver

How much would you owners of laptops with arctic silver say it helps the heat? Also, is it only for the processor?

 

It definitely helps shaving off around 4 degrees depending on the application, and no it can also be used on the gpu.

Pretty much anything that has a heatsink you can put a5 on.

 

Basically, they use some conductive gel to glue any heatsink-fan apparatus onto processors(cpu, gpu)... and arctic silver conducts a helluva lot better than the generic paste they would use otherwise.

I'm annoyed that notebook dealers will charge like ~$20-40 for arctic silver, when it probably only costs under a dollar for how much arctic silver compound they'll need to use--and its not like there is any extra labor between applying generic paste vs arctic silver.

 

You are paying for then to scrape that thermal tape/pad off the heatsink that is normally there by default (and scrape it well! Because it can ruin a flush fitting between the components if done poorly) before applying the after-market thermal paste/grease. It can also mean that they might be compensating for order inventory of parts that don't come with that horrible pre-installed crap. Maybe the fee help's to offset that. I'm not sure about everywhere in the USA, but as a notebook specializing technician in the NW and MidWest I've commonly held job's that paid me roughly $25-$30/h, and you are paying for that time plus any hardware fee's involved.

Depending on the location, there are also special law's for the required disposal of that stuff when in volume.. Most of the time this means you have to pay some service contract to handle the waste properly.

Not saying the price is fair, or unfair...

Just giving everyone a little detail so it doesn't sound quite and simple as you stated it

 

What pyro mentioned above touched on what I believe is the key to the AS5 application prices...labor. Bottom line is that somebody has to scrape off the old stuff, clean the area well and apply the AS5 properly (which is a messy job).

Certain resellers will offer AS5 application incentives if you search around. I think I know of at least two.

 

I have been applying thermal compound for years.

I found AS5 not the easiest to apply it`s rather thick and hard to spread thinly.

I bought some ZALMAN ZM-STG1, it comes in a small bottle with a brush for easy application, it`s applied extremely thin to both the heatsink and the core and the brush makes this easy.

I find the thermal results comparable to AS5 and a lot easier to apply.

regards

John.

 

I bought some thermal stuff from Geil (not sure if they are still around) that was made with gold... pricey stuff... but it came in syringes that made it super easy to put on... used that stuff for years and I still have more of the little syringes... Seems the same as AS5 for what it does..

 

AS5 should not be spread as the older Arctic Silver solutions needed to be.

The trick is not applying it anymore, you just use the syringe to apply the proper amount (the trick here is not applying too much) and it will spread itself.

The cost is in the preparation, and for some reason the technicians who custom build these laptops insist on being paid I know the DIY people do not value their time the same way people who do it for a living do, and that is why the cost of preparation is hard to understand for them.

Chrisyano is right though, if you don't like the price just ask your reseller if they can give you a special discount for it...you might be surprised at how low they will go...