Heatsink Thermal Compounds Review

http://www.slcentral.com/thermal-compound/page4.php

Conclusion

From our observation, there was only a slight difference in performance between the Arctic Silver 5 and Arctic Silver 3. The AS5 cooled about 2oC-3oC better than the AS3. The AS3 was pretty much on par with the OCZ Ultra II (the AS3 cooling 1oC better than the Ultra II during Load state while the Ultra II cooled 1oC better against AS3 during Idle state).

I think 2oC-3oC is a huge difference. It makes it worth switching from AS3 to AS5.

I agree. We all work so hard to keep our temps down that any decrease is a good thing.

I've been happy with the AS3 so far, but I will definitely switch to AS5 when I upgrade my HSF.

Thanks for the heads up.Nice to see the facts.THE FANMAN

at first glance, it looks to say 20-30 degrees difference, but upon looking at the review, i see it is 2-3 degrees diference. that is not a huge difference to me, but, if i run out of arctic silver 3, i'll glady buy a tube of arctic silver 5...i just don't see a need to switch to it, for those who already have some decent thermal grease/paste.


i have read a few threads here, and elsewhere where some folks are having trouble with arctic silver 5. one thread i remember, seems like everything this guy did, still yielded about 20 degrees or more hotter cpu temps with AS5. several folks attempted to help, and i assumed the AS5 had nothing to do with this, ....i think the user was either mounting the heatsink way off it's mark, or too little, or too much AS5. he had confirmed that he checked that, and tried more, and tried less, and tried everyhting possible, but anyways, the point is that somehow...several folks have been getting terrible results, which is inconsistent with the average.

personally, i would try it, and i think it would work out great, but, i'm sure each of the unlucky ones had the same expectations.

there was a member here with a similar problem involving a heatsink upgrade. he replaced the slk-800 with an slk-900, and temps soared. he tried everything, including cleaning everything extremely well, and being extra careful not to touch the clean surfaces, and using the perfect amount of thermal paste on it, and in the end, it seems nothing solved the problem until i sent him some AS3, and some fine sandpaper to lap it. at stock, the heatsink should have worked, and lapping usually helps a little, but in his situation, lapping was a difference between night and day. he was also using the stock thermal grease that came with his slk-900 before the AS3.


i don't think the isolated cases of AS5 problems were the fault of AS5, but i thought it might be worth mentioning here. i mentioned the heatsink problem as well, as the symptoms were very similar to those who assumed their AS5 was at fault.



SSS, nice read there....