Arctic Alumina Review

[AntmanMike]

Arctic Alumina

on Friday, I received a package via UPS 3 day special. It was labeled Nevin House. Arctic Silver. When I opened it, It contained the standard review package for arctic silver products. Only this time, it wasn't Arctic Silver. Enter Arctic Alumina. Unlike its big brother, Arctic Silver 2, this contains NO silver and NO silicon. This makes it non conductive. I tested the non conductiveness of it by using the Adhesive on the RamSinks of a Prophet 3. I made sure some Alumina went over onto the pins. I turned it on, and it worked fine. NO CONDUCTIVENESS. Next, I tested it on an Apple G3. Before i put on the adhesive, it was running at around 185F. Afterwards, i let it set (I was using a stock Pentium 4 heatsink on it), it was running at 175F. I am about to test it and.... 167F. It is a 233mhz G3 running at 280.1mhz. I also tested it on my Pentium 4 1.7 using a Swiftech MC462-A as the cooler. The Pentium for had a custom IHS mod. This means i removed the IHS (the metal thing) on top of the core of a P4. I will discuss my custom one later. I rushed on the IHS mod, and cracked the core. DO NOT RUSH ON MODS. The pre temps on non IHS mod was 104F, using a ASA - ASII mixture (Arctic Silver Adhesive - Arctic Silver 2). When i cleaned them, and applied Arctic Alumina, the temperature plummeted to 97F. I had spilled excess Alumina on certain parts. I was scared. I didnt want anything on it, and in the past, Arctic Silver products were almost impossible to remove. I took an Isopropyl swab, and wiped it up. It came right off! Very easy cleaning.

G3
Pre - 185F
Post - 167F

P4
Pre - 104F
Post - 97F

Prophet 3
Was able to increase clock rates to astounding levels, such as Core @ 280 (default is 200), RAMDAC @ 440 (standard 350).

I am not saying that all people will receive such benefits. Hardware differences such as "Lemon" CPUs, and other things, could degrade performance. Some people could get many mhz higher than me, while others would get about half what i received. This page should not be used as exact reference.

Also, when the Arctic Alumina is out, it will be cheaper than ASII. It does come in smaller containers, though, but it is still cheaper per gram. Supposedly, it is because Aluminahas less useless stuff in it, meaning you need less to use it.

Arctic Alumina:
Ease of Use: 9 out of 10
Performance: 10 out of 10
Improvements: 10 out of 10
Cost: 9 out of 10

10 out of 10
TWEAKNET AWARD FOR SUPERIORITY
Another great product from Arctic Silver.

[AntmanMike]

Just trying to keep this at the top

[adamtekh]

let me help u keep it @ the top ;)

sounds like a good thing :D :beer:

[Silversinksam]

Bump this baby to the top cause Nevin over at Arctic Silver is not only a great innovator, but he's a really nice guy to boot.






http://www.arcticsilver.com/images/aa_comp_med.jpg






-PS my avatar cannot be used without my direct express written permission submitted in triplicate, and the cost to rent it is 50,000 grasshopper legs per use.-


:p

[AntmanMike]

Do you really use a Silver Heatsink? I was thinking of going to the Metal shop and having them make me a silver swiftech mC 462

[AntmanMike]

It fell into page 2 so i thought i should bump it up. bump.

[flounder43]

Originally posted by AntmanMike
YOU MAY NOT USE THIS REVIEW FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT CONSENT FROM BOTH ARCTIC SILVER AND TWEAKNET. THEY CAN BE CONTACTED AT www.arcticsilver.com AND ERFAntmanMike@hotmail.com!!

-DO NOT USE WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION-



Hmmm, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it...

BTW, don't use the preceding comment without permission...LOL

[AntmanMike]

People seem to need this so *bump*

[Thelemac]

Using our webspace to host your review without letting anybody else use it is completely against our forum policy. Either remove the disclaimer or remove the review.

If you care to have your review published, send it to Joe or Ed and they'll either link to it or publish it on the front page. Otherwise keep it as a personal experience.

Thanks.

[AntmanMike]

Sorry. Disclaimer removed.

[adamtekh]

testy :beer:

[Thelemac]

Originally posted by AntmanMike
Sorry. Disclaimer removed.

Thank you very much. :)

[nihili]

The testiness is a good idea. As a personal experience, this is mildly interesting. As a review it's completely lame. The testing methodology is full of holes, the data is incomplete, the testing apparatus was non-standard etc., etc., etc.. I'm not saying that Artic Alumina is a bad product. Frankly I have no idea. But the considerations advanced in the "review" certainly don't show that it is. Frankly it looks more like someone hot to become a famous reviewer. This is also consistent with the fact that the reviewer has bumped the review 3 times himself.

Bogus reviews irritate me.

nihili

[AntmanMike]

What do you mean "Bogus"?

[Crash893]

there just saying sometimes it looks chessy if you get to much into a review

it sounds like your trying to sell something (witch we know your not)

mostly if you post something here

A) let others bump it
B) make sure its free for every one to use

and the bogus that nihili was refering to was the lack of scientific methods to test your new stuff

not that we dont belive you just it could have been a little better documented.


Dont take any of this negativly anytime someone wants to share what theyve leanred with the rest of us thats cool in my book
keep up the good work
and you should talk to skip and the others about mabey doing a review for the front page

[AntmanMike]

I shoulda had Nevin send me some original Arctic Silver for comparison. Sorry.

[Crash893]

i dont think there is anything to be sorry about

just ever post has some dos and donts
and i guess your learning them

[AntmanMike]

I wonder if using a Peltier and a Heatsink would work for temp tests.

[nihili]

Originally posted by AntmanMike
What do you mean "Bogus"?

I mean that the point of a review is to systematically evaluate a product in order to present substantiated facts to potential users of the product. Your anecdote doesn't even come close to doing that. Hence, as a review, it's bogus. All that can be legitimately concluded from your review is that you like reviewing stuff, and that you like Artic Alumina. But nothing in your review goes beyond cheerleading. Specifically:


Unlike its big brother, Arctic Silver 2, this contains NO silver and NO silicon. This makes it non conductive.


The fact that something contains netiher silver nor silcone does not mean that it is non conductive. Copper wire contains neither and is highly conductive. Given that Arctic Alumina's name suggests the presence of aluminum which *IS* conductive, you need to do more than simply point out that it doesn't have silver. Further, Silicon is itself non-conductive. So it's not clear why leaving it out would make something less conductive. It's pretty clear that whoever wrote this either didn't understand much about conductivity or wasn't thinkng clearly when they wrote it. In either case it calls in to question the reliability of the opinions expressed in the review.


I tested the non conductiveness of it by using the Adhesive on the RamSinks of a Prophet 3. I made sure some Alumina went over onto the pins. I turned it on, and it worked fine. NO CONDUCTIVENESS.


This is not a reliable test for conductivity. Use a multimeter. Since we have no way of knowing how much "went over onto the pins" or even which pins it went over on to, this provides zero useful information. Further the constant reference to Arctic Alumina as and adhesive shows either that the reviewer does not understand the product he is reviewing or is being careless. In either case the legitimacy of the review is further tainted.


Next, I tested it on an Apple G3. Before i put on the adhesive, it was running at around 185F. Afterwards, i let it set (I was using a stock Pentium 4 heatsink on it), it was running at 175F. I am about to test it and.... 167F. It is a 233mhz G3 running at 280.1mhz.


This is completely muddled. First the G3 is not a cpu that most peopl in this forum have experience with, hence it's not a good cpu to use for review purposes. We have no way of assessing how the G3's performance will indicate the performance of and AMD or Intel cpu. Second, it's entirely unclear what you did. Did the G3 have any thermal transfer paterial beforehand? How much Arctic ALumina did you apply? We also don't know what the load conditions were under which you tested it in each case. Further you cite 3 different temps. What are they supposed to represent? You make it sound as if there is a sudden and mysterious 10 degree drop. Third, a 20 degree drop is incredible. Particularly given your laxness and apparent lack of understanding, the best explanation is probably that you had the heatsink on wrong before. Nothing you say allows us to rule out this explanation. In short, there is no useful information here.


I also tested it on my Pentium 4 1.7 using a Swiftech MC462-A as the cooler. The Pentium for had a custom IHS mod. This means i removed the IHS (the metal thing) on top of the core of a P4. I will discuss my custom one later. I rushed on the IHS mod, and cracked the core. DO NOT RUSH ON MODS. The pre temps on non IHS mod was 104F, using a ASA - ASII mixture (Arctic Silver Adhesive - Arctic Silver 2). When i cleaned them, and applied Arctic Alumina, the temperature plummeted to 97F.


Here you use a modded chip. So again it's unclear how this information can be applied to stock chips. It's unclear whether the chip you used for the test was the one with the cracked core. If so, that further reduces the reliability of your results. In any case it shows that you are prone to rushing through things carelessly, something we already expected from the tone of the review. You were using a mixture before, so we can't really evaluate the comparative performanc of AA as we don't know the properties of the mixture you had before. Further, why were you using an adhesive before? That makes me suspiscious that you may not have had adequate pressure before, and calls into question how much of the performance increase is due to AA. Also given your general carelessness I'm beginning to wonder whether in either case the thermal transfer material was correctly applied. Since you don't say how you applied it, I have no way of knowing. Again we don't know the conditions under which you tested. Again, this part contains exactly zero useful information.


I had spilled excess Alumina on certain parts. I was scared. I didnt want anything on it, and in the past, Arctic Silver products were almost impossible to remove. I took an Isopropyl swab, and wiped it up. It came right off! Very easy cleaning.


Here at least we have some interesting information. AA can be cleaned up with Isopropyl. That's good to know. Of course it also reinforces the general sense that the reviewer is careless and hurried and doesn't do a good job of applying thermal compound.


G3
Pre - 185F
Post - 167F

P4
Pre - 104F
Post - 97F

Prophet 3
Was able to increase clock rates to astounding levels, such as Core @ 280 (default is 200), RAMDAC @ 440 (standard 350).


I've already pointed out that the two cpus are nonstandard and hence not appropriate for review purposes. But where did the prophet 3 come from? you don't mention it anywhere else. And here you only give overclocking results, not thermal results. Since we don't know what you did, there's no way to assess these results. WHat system are you useing? what were the conditions of the testS? What were the pre and post test conditions? Once more there is absolutely no useful information here.

aying that all people will receive such benefits. Hardware differences such as "Lemon" CPUs, and other things, could degrade performance. Some people could get many mhz higher than me, while others would get about half what i received. This page should not be used as exact reference.

It's nice that you include a disclaimer, particularly given the appalling lack of information in your review. But I have to wonder what the basis for your claim that "Some people would get about half what I received". I suspect it's just carelessness on your part. If so it further taints the credibility of the review.


Also, when the Arctic Alumina is out, it will be cheaper than ASII. It does come in smaller containers, though, but it is still cheaper per gram. Supposedly, it is because Aluminahas less useless stuff in it, meaning you need less to use it.


So is it the company that says that AA has less "useless stuff" in it than ASII? Or is that just your guess? If so what is it based on? Also, does the documentation state that you need to use less? Or did perhaps the company decide to use smaller containers for other reasons?


Arctic Alumina:
Ease of Use: 9 out of 10
Performance: 10 out of 10
Improvements: 10 out of 10
Cost: 9 out of 10

10 out of 10
TWEAKNET AWARD FOR SUPERIORITY
Another great product from Arctic Silver.


Why only a 9 out of 10 on cost? You don't say how much it will cost, only that it will be cheaper that ASII. Do you know how much it will cost or are you just throwing numbers about so that you can give it an award? Also, why only a 9 out of 10 for ease of use. You only mention positive things about its ease of use.

Frankly the most promising piece of information from this review is that AA is from the makers of ASII. Other than that and the bit about Isopropryl, this review is devoid of anything approaching useful information. It appears uniformed, careless, and hurried. The reviewer comes across as someone who has netither the knowledge, skills, or equipment appropriate to doing this sort of review. This impression is further supported by the reviewer's repeated self promotion and claims that "other people need" his review.

That's what I mean by a bogus review. As personal anecdote this is interesting. But as a review it's about as bad as it could possibly be.

nihili

[Colin]

Originally posted by nihili


The fact that something contains netiher silver nor silcone does not mean that it is non conductive. Copper wire contains neither and is highly conductive. Given that Arctic Alumina's name suggests the presence of aluminum which *IS* conductive, you need to do more than simply point out that it doesn't have silver. Further, Silicon is itself non-conductive. So it's not clear why leaving it out would make something less conductive. It's pretty clear that whoever wrote this either didn't understand much about conductivity or wasn't thinkng clearly when they wrote it. In either case it calls in to question the reliability of the opinions expressed in the review.

This is not a reliable test for conductivity. Use a multimeter. Since we have no way of knowing how much "went over onto the pins" or even which pins it went over on to, this provides zero useful information. Further the constant reference to Arctic Alumina as and adhesive shows either that the reviewer does not understand the product he is reviewing or is being careless. In either case the legitimacy of the review is further tainted.

Even Arctic Silver will not show any conductivity with a multimeter. Applying thermal goop to bridge the pins on ram or a video card is a very good test. The reason is, if the goop is slightly capacitive, even 1 to 2 Pico Farads, it will allow the pins to talk to each other at high frequencies and may cause a malfunction. Note that a malfunction caused by Arctic Silver can be reversed by simply cleaning the compound off the effected component. A slightly capacitive, nonconductive thermal compound cannot kill a video card, ram, etc. because it cannot pass DC. A conductive thermal grease like the Chemtrontics can kill components if used improperly.

This is completely muddled. First the G3 is not a cpu that most peopl in this forum have experience with, hence it's not a good cpu to use for review purposes. We have no way of assessing how the G3's performance will indicate the performance of and AMD or Intel cpu. Second, it's entirely unclear what you did. Did the G3 have any thermal transfer paterial beforehand? How much Arctic ALumina did you apply? We also don't know what the load conditions were under which you tested it in each case. Further you cite 3 different temps. What are they supposed to represent? You make it sound as if there is a sudden and mysterious 10 degree drop. Third, a 20 degree drop is incredible. Particularly given your laxness and apparent lack of understanding, the best explanation is probably that you had the heatsink on wrong before. Nothing you say allows us to rule out this explanation. In short, there is no useful information here.

I found the G3 information very interesting. First, they run dang hot. Second, because there is so much heat we see an 18 F drop in temps. Very impressive.

[AntmanMike]

First off: I stated the P4 was modded AFTER the tests. This means the temperatures are completely correct. I rushed on the mod because i wanted to see if you could rush on my version of the mod. I found you cant. Also, I stated its non conductive, because it ISN't conductive. It doesnt have silicon because silicon lowers the thermal effectiveness of the compound as a whole.

[Silversinksam]

Originally posted by AntmanMike
Do you really use a Silver Heatsink? I was thinking of going to the Metal shop and having them make me a silver swiftech mC 462


Antman,

What I do is take the silver stock that comes to me in plates of 6" x 10" x 1/8" and cut to the desired size and bond the plates to heatsinks or ramsinks with Arctic Silver adhesive and sometimes if its a large HSF I countersink a few copper screws to maintain proper pressure. I just sold my One of a kind Swiftech Mc1001 with silver base to someone here.
Its not cost effective to make the whole HSF out of silver as the base made out of silver does a decent job but Copper is so close to the thermal conductivity of Silver this mod is not for everyone.