The trick is to use very little arctic silver 3
HERE'S WHAT NEVIN(creator and inventor of Arctic Silver E-mailed me
Sam,
A thermal compound should not create a layer between the two mating
surfaces, it should allow the mating surfaces to come into the same
physical contact as if there were no compound and just fill up the
microscopic imperfections in the surfaces.
This is what AS3 does much better than our earlier silver products. It gets
out of the way.
The visible silver layer that AS and AS2 left on top of the core could be a
couple of thousands thick if the clip did not apply enough pressure. They
made up for the layer with conductivity 20+ times higher than conventional
compounds. So you had technically too thick a layer, but the extremely high
conductivity compensated for the extra thickness.
AS3 contains boron nitride in addition to silver particles. The boron
nitride is not only thermally conductive, but is as slippery as Teflon.
When the two mating surfaces are pressed together, the addition of boron
nitride helps the compound move much more efficiently out of the joint.
Only enough compound remains to fill the microscopic imperfections, not
create its own distinct layer. With a lapped heatsink, there should not be
enough compound left in the thermal joint to be visible.
Some people have reported the compound actually running down the chip. For
there to be enough compound to run down the chip, there would have had to
be 20 or 30 times more compound applied than is needed. It is difficult to
impress on people how little compound is needed. If you do not consider the
amount required to tint the base of the heatsink then rub off, our standard
3 gram tube (1cc) is enough compound to cover over 100 AMD sized cores with
a visible initial layer for a rough heatsink base and over 200 AMD sized
cores with a translucent layer for a polished heatsink base. The fact that
many people on forums say that there is only enough to do 5 to 10 CPUs
should be a clue about how they are applying the compound.
Nevin
