Thermal Paste

I've been wondering about this for a long time. Has anybody tried blending Ceramique and Artic Silver 5? I know its kind of a stupid question but maybe it might produce better results?(who knows?? )

-1cem4n

1cem4n said:

...I know its kind of a stupid question...

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The only stupid question is a question that wasn't asked for fear of it being stupid.


Please ask any and all questions here. We are all here to learn something.
I wish I could help you out, but unfortunately cooling is not one my areas of expertise. Good luck!

Matt

I think I read about someone trying this somewhere. I just can't remember where. It was nearly a year ago.

Anyways, from memory the effect of mixing the two thermal pastes on cooling was negative. Each thermal paste on its own did better than a combination of the two.

Yes I beleive Nevin from Arctic Siver discussed this a few moths ago.Try a search under AS5 or ceramique.Something like that.

no need too search as5 is for cpu and it will conduct electricity ceramique is non conductive used for memory chips ect

mixing will not help enough too bother for cpu

I was of the undertanding the Ceramique is actually a non conductive paste for use with CPU's whilst Arctic Silver make thermal pads for use with memory chips.

Ceramique is sometimes better than AS5 depending on the surface of the heatsink base.

outhouse said:

no need too search as5 is for cpu and it will conduct electricity ceramique is non conductive used for memory chips ect

mixing will not help enough too bother for cpu

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Actually Ceramique will work better on a cpu than AS5 for a certain percentage of people according to Nevin. Mixing it is another story.I found myself getting better results with Ceramique on certain cpu's/heatsinks myself.Others AS5 seems to be slightly better.It really depends.

Edit: mjw21a, Yes your right.

mjw21a said:

I was of the undertanding the Ceramique is actually a non conductive paste for use with CPU's whilst Arctic Silver make thermal pads for use with memory chips.

Ceramique is sometimes better than AS5 depending on the surface of the heatsink base.

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Arctic Silver 5 is a silver based general purpose high performance thermal paste, Arctic Silver 5 is slightly capacitive as is any metal based TIM.

Ceramique is a ceramic based TIM that's not capacitive. there are many cpu die sizes and factors and it is possible to see a positive benefit if you could blend the two in the proper amounts for a specific application. What the proper amount is? I can't say, and its possible blending may not help, it could hinder the end result.
An example of applications I'll mention Shin Etsu chemical, they make many types of thermal paste, each one is designed for a specific application. What Arctic Silver inc did was to create a high performance tim that is designed as an all in one solution.



PS Arctic Silver doesn't make thermal pads

My memory might be playing tricks on me again..... I thought that once upon a time, in a far away land..... AS made some thermal pads. I havent seen them sold anywhere for about a year now though. Once applied you could never remove the darn thing.....

does it work?

Probably not. The one case I read where someone tried i performance from what each TIM was capable of on its own. I've only ever seen one person try mixing it though.

mjw21a said:

My memory might be playing tricks on me again..... I thought that once upon a time, in a far away land..... AS made some thermal pads. I havent seen them sold anywhere for about a year now though. Once applied you could never remove the darn thing.....

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Arctic Silver inc have never made available to the public a thermal pad, ever. They have however done some R&D to see if a viable high performance thermal pad is plausible, but they have never released a thermal pad product to the public. They send me unreleased products because they know I will tell them if a new product sucks, as I don't suck up to any manufacturer. If I get a eval product that has been released, I usually buy it from a vendor as well to test both for consistancy. Many review sites usually only test a 'cherry picked' product, I refuse to ever fall into that scenario...

PS: What you are referring to is either Alumina Thermal adhesive or Arctic Silver thermal adhesive. I can be removed if your real careful and use the freezer trick

outhouse said:

no need too search as5 is for cpu and it will conduct electricity ceramique is non conductive used for memory chips ect

mixing will not help enough too bother for cpu

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no. Neither paste is conductive. AS5 is capacitive, and ceramique isn't. and AS5 can be used for anything ceramique can be used for. Neither can be used for memory chips unless the memory sink has a mounting method.

Arctic Silver Adhesive will hold things to memory chips, as well as Arctic Alumina Adhesive.

The only stupid question is a question that wasn't asked for fear of it being stupid.

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Ditto.

Not sure but I think Nevin said in that thread a few months back mixing would be OK.
Far as I know both AS5 and Ceramique share the same additives.

Silversinksam said:

Arctic Silver inc have never made available to the public a thermal pad, ever. They have however done some R&D to see if a viable high performance thermal pad is plausible, but they have never released a thermal pad product to the public. They send me unreleased products because they know I will tell them if a new product sucks, as I don't suck up to any manufacturer. If I get a eval product that has been released, I usually buy it from a vendor as well to test both for consistancy. Many review sites usually only test a 'cherry picked' product, I refuse to ever fall into that scenario...

PS: What you are referring to is either Alumina Thermal adhesive or Arctic Silver thermal adhesive. I can be removed if your real careful and use the freezer trick

Click to expand...

Yep. I guess my memory is playing up again. Too much beer and tequila.....

There is no problem mixing Ceramique and AS5 as the suspension fluids are compatible. In some cases the mixed product may work better than either product by itself, but in most cases the performance would fall somewhere between AS5 and CMQ.

If you do mix, don't restrict yourself to 50-50. Try 70-30 or even 80-20 mixes to find what works best in your particular thermal joint. Keep in mind that the mix that works best for your current CPU and heatsink will not necessarily be the best or even good for a different CPU or heatsink.

As to the pad question; Arctic Silver has never manufactured a thermal pad for retail sale. Several years ago we developed and considered introducing a silver-ceramic-wax-oil based product that would be preformed into small balls matched to the size of the thermal joint. You just set the thermal ball on the center of the CPU and mounted the heatsink. The first time the computer was turned-on; the thermal ball melted and did a pretty good job of wetting the surfaces and achieving a minimum bond line. Now that most CPU's have larger contact areas with the heatsink than the P3 and Athlon did, this may be a product we need to start working with again. While it would probably not be what an overclocker is looking for, it would be very efficient in a production environment.

Nevin House
Arctic Silver, Inc.