is xoticpc's arctic silver 5 option worth it?

I've been recently getting into the world of notebooks as I'm gogni to need one for college this coming fall.

To make things short, I looked into buying some notebooks from xoticpc.com; and found that they have an option, when u go to buy it/customize it, that you can add "Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound" for an extra 37 dollars.


I was wondering if anyone has ever bought from xoticpc and opened up their laptop to make sure that compound was placed correctly and if they think that its worth the extra 37 dollars?


PS - the reason I'm worried is that i recently heard some rumor about how MacBook (Pros?) were overheating due to over-application of similiar thermal compounds.

 

If you are not comfortable doing on your own then yes I think letting them do is a good idea. I would trust them to apply correctly.

 

$37 sounds ridiculous. I have seen sights that will add it for like $3. If its a custom laptop their going to be assembling anyway, so why charge $37 more for a different tiny drop of paste?

I wouldnt pay anyone to take it apart and reassemble it if it is just to change the paste.

 

Well if you don't want/feel like you could take apart your laptop and do it yourself I think it is worth while to have good thermal compoud on your componets.

 

Thanks for the input guys, i guess i'll go ahead and let them put it on if I buy from them. to be honest 37 dollars isnt that much in the face of a ~$2000 notebook, and i guess i can always get a replacement if they mess up the application of the paste.

 

have you considered ordering by phone? some companies give discounts for such things if you call it in........

 

What notebook do you want 2 buy? Many laptiops at Xotic come with Artic Silver

 

yes last time i looked the artic silver was standard on the 7393 unless im wrong

 

Yeah. AS5 standard on the Sager NP5793!

 

Standard, not 37$. Maybe it`s that way if you want to AS5 your laptop which did not come from them.

 

ooh, good call on the standardizing of the AS5. I didnt kno that. Guess i'll have to go check up on that a bit more.

Thanks for all the help guys!

 

Related question...I bought my Clevo M570RU-U (i.e. NP5793) from R&J Tech. Is it worth the $5 and little bit of time to put in Arctic Silver? Feel pretty comfortable taking electronics apart. Just wondering since I've read of some notebooks having worse cooling problems after people put in thermal compounds (e.g. Alienware M15x...although presumably taking out compound that was already in there). I have no problems with temps right now (but have not really stressed the system yet).

 

Using a higher-grade thermal compound than you currently have will always be worthwhile if you're going to be stressing the system (even just normal stress with no OC'ing). I haven't gone and read through any of the _Dell-related posts you've referred to (hey, like most people I'm inherently lazy and no link was provided ), so I'm going to use the vast powers of pure speculation and say that many, if not most, of the problems you referred to are more likely the result of not properly applying the new thermal compound.

Basically, properly applying new thermal compound is a bit like putting on a new head gasket in a high-performance engine. You have to be very meticulous about cleaning off every single last bit of the old compound, and removing any residue that might be inside the pores of the metal on the CPU and the heatsink, and then you have to be equally meticulous about making sure that the new stuff is applied as smoothly and evenly as possible, and with the greatest maximum coverage and no overspill.

That's very difficult to do (I've tried it a time or two - both gaskets and CPUs) and probably the biggest problem is going to be leaving too much residue from the old compound, especially little solid particles, or not getting proper coverage when putting on the new. Basically, anything that gets in the way of full contact between CPU and heatsink is going to cause problems, and in an extreme case might cause localized hotspots on the CPU that could do damage even if the overall temp reading is within normal range.

As a simplistic analogy, think of the old fairytale of the princess and the pea -

your CPU is a princess and even the slightest bit of leftover from the old compound is one giant pea (ok, ok, for the macho types, it's Xena the warrior-princess

feel better now? )

 

hehe...Thanks. Like the graphics Appreciate the info.

 

I did it on my thinkpad, it was fun.

 

I wouldn't recommend taking anything apart that may still have a warranty.

Sometimes things just aren't as good as they were the second time you put it together.

Unless there is a sympton, don't fix what aint broke.

If someone tries to spread the paste with their finger it will probably cause a failure, because the little bit of oil on your finger might fry it. Spreading with a little tool may be hard to get it even, although it doesnt have to be perfect. The paste is just to provide the conductivity between the cpu die and the heatsink, because the two metal surfaces won't be perfectly flat, so the paste provides greater surface area of conductivity. I usually put plastic over my finger and spread it, after cleaning each surface with acetone.

So is AS5 really better than the white thermal grease stuff people may use. Maybe negligibly better, the cooling aperatus itself is more important. The only reason I would do it is if they were using a little heat pad/sticker thingy. I never understood those and must assume no one would keep using them.