Possible heat spreader idea

[Voodoo Rufus]

I just had an idea for making a fixed spreader to protect AMD cores.

Since Arctic Silver epoxy isn't very conductive electrically, it may be possible to smother the core with the stuff to cover it completely, then when it dries sand it smooth like lapping.

Anyone tried this or know if it might work?

[Hoot]

It's not a bad idea, but I think you would want to use Arctic Alumina Epoxy instead to reduce the stray capacitance it will introduce when it contacts the exposed components on the top of the substrate. I'm surprised I have not read of someone doing this already. About the only other issue that comes to mind is how it will endure exposure to solvents when you remove your heatsink and clean the core before re-applying whatever thermal grease you use. I always clean off my core with a fairly strong solvent, but a milder one would suffice since I would not have to clean off the substrate anymore. For me, getting stray AS off of the substrate was always the tougher job, especially on Tbirds with that matte finish ceramic. Given the unknown impact of the stray capacitance on exposed circuitry on the substrate, you would probably want to do this with a less favorite CPU first.

Hoot