Alpha 8045 and Artic silver II

[CJHawke]

This is step #2 in the Application Instructions for Artic silver II:

2. ONLY Arctic Silver II should be between the processor core and the heatsink.
Remove any thermal pads or other interface material from the heatsink before applying the Arctic Silver.
Never use any oil or petroleum based cleaners (WD-40, citrus based cleaners and many automotive degreasers) on the base of a heatsink. The oil, which is engineered to not evaporate, will fill in the microscopic valleys in the metal and significantly reduce the effectiveness of any subsequently applied thermal compound.
If your heatsink has a thermal 'pad' mounted on it, this pad must be removed before using Arctic Silver II. Thermal pads are made with paraffin wax that melts once it gets hot. When it melts, it will fill in the microscopic valleys in the heatsink with wax. To minimize the permanent contamination of the mounting surface with wax, the thermal pad should be removed before it is used and melted. Never use heat or hot water to remove the pad, the heat will melt the wax into the heatsink.


I don't understand this is. I have to remove the thermal pad (gold color pad underneath the Alpha 8045)? It's a pain trying to take it off. Anyone here uses the Alpha 8045 and the artic silver II? Tell me what did you guys do. Did you take the pad off or just leave it. If you did leave it, do you have any problem now?

Thank you

[nihili]

Originally posted by CJHawke
This is step #2 in the Application Instructions for Artic silver II:

2. ONLY Arctic Silver II should be between the processor core and the heatsink.
Remove any thermal pads or other interface material from the heatsink before applying the Arctic Silver.
Never use any oil or petroleum based cleaners (WD-40, citrus based cleaners and many automotive degreasers) on the base of a heatsink. The oil, which is engineered to not evaporate, will fill in the microscopic valleys in the metal and significantly reduce the effectiveness of any subsequently applied thermal compound.
If your heatsink has a thermal 'pad' mounted on it, this pad must be removed before using Arctic Silver II. Thermal pads are made with paraffin wax that melts once it gets hot. When it melts, it will fill in the microscopic valleys in the heatsink with wax. To minimize the permanent contamination of the mounting surface with wax, the thermal pad should be removed before it is used and melted. Never use heat or hot water to remove the pad, the heat will melt the wax into the heatsink.


I don't understand this is. I have to remove the thermal pad (gold color pad underneath the Alpha 8045)? It's a pain trying to take it off. Anyone here uses the Alpha 8045 and the artic silver II? Tell me what did you guys do. Did you take the pad off or just leave it. If you did leave it, do you have any problem now?

Thank you

Mine didn't have one

nihili

[nikhsub1]

Thermal pads suck. Take it off with a razor blade and then clean the surface with rubbing alcohol. That is really weird that it came with the pad attached.

[CJHawke]

Take a look at this link....Notice the gold piece underneath the heatsink. That's what I have. Is that a thermal pad? I just want to make sure. Heatsink (http://2cooltek.safeshopper.com/32/274.htm?412)

[Nevin]

CJHawke,

The "gold" colored part is a copper insert in the base of the heatsink. It is not a thermal pad, it IS the heatsink. DO NOT TRY TO REMOVE IT!

The heatsink shown on the Arctic Silver instructions also has a copper insert. Just tint the bottom of the heatsink per the instructions, put a paper thin layer of compound on the core and mount the heatsink. You will be good to go.

Nevin House
Arctic Silver, Inc.

[ButcherUK]

Wow, you read these forums nevin, great! :)
On the subject of AS2, ever considered using finely ground synthetic diamond as a thermal material (something like the grinding paste you can get). As diamond is a better conductor than silver it should be better...

[AntmanMike]

People keep reccomending diamond to you Nevin! Anyways, if he uses diamond, it will scratch up your CPU, your heatsink, and his manufacturing equipment. I think Nevin should start making all silver heatsinks, with Arctic Alumina or Arctic Silver II compound included. These would be so sweet.

And hes got more posts than me :(

[Sonny]

Originally posted by Nevin
Nevin House
Arctic Silver, Inc.

Good save! I started to use your product since I started with puters last March & I'm really happy with the product. One suggestion though:D Why not have a "screw" plunger so we can meter out the ASII eaiser? More control = less waste:beer: If you start to make silver heatsinks I'll be happy in to help with the design.

[ButcherUK]

Originally posted by AntmanMike
Anyways, if he uses diamond, it will scratch up your CPU, your heatsink, and his manufacturing equipment.
How often do you move your heatsink, we're talking small diamond here, like 1 micron not like rough grit. It's not like heatsinks move at all really and at the size particles you'd need for paste it'd probably help lap it flatter ;)
As for manuf equipment, obviously it'd require different equipment to silver, stuff designed for working with diamond.

[Nevin]

Originally posted by ButcherUK
How often do you move your heatsink, we're talking small diamond here, like 1 micron not like rough grit. It's not like heatsinks move at all really and at the size particles you'd need for paste it'd probably help lap it flatter ;)
As for manuf equipment, obviously it'd require different equipment to silver, stuff designed for working with diamond.
While the thermal conductivity of diamond is very high, there are other physical characteristics that make it a poor choice for a thermal compound. Microscopic diamond particles have spikes and sharp edges so the physical contact from one particle to the next is extremely small. The heat travels very well through a particle, but does not transfer well to the next particle. When you are talking about 50 to 100 particles to make up 1/1000 of an inch, this lack of particle-to-particle conduction is a major problem.

Also, diamond has a great affinity for diamond. Once the compound sits for a few hours, it forms clumps as the diamond particles bunch together. A very bad thing in a thermal compound.

And finally, the wands on high-speed homogenizers are about $1800 each. The bearings on the wand are submersed in the compound being mixed. The highly abrasive diamond particles ruin the bearings each time a batch is mixed. That's a loss of $1800 per 400cc of compound.

Given all this, I have mixed up several test batches of diamond compound.

They all suck.

Nevin

[ButcherUK]

Thanks for the info, guess there won't be any artic diamond then, I'll stick with my AS2 :)