Ingredients of thermal paste

[Ivy]

One of my boards has been delivered inside a package which was contaminated with thermal paste by the manufacturer. The board itself seems clean but package was dirty at 2 spots (white grease). Nonethless i was cleaning all the sinks and other stuff which can possibly be touched with a weak vinegar acid.

Of course i tried not to touch it but there can still be invisible traces, although the board usualy isnt touched with bare fingers (if so, hands are cleaned after). Package will be thrown away but thats not a matter since i dont usualy store packages of MBs. Its only needed for RMA (so they generally are thrown away in a few years).

Now i dont know how safe it is to the skin. Because when i used the NH-C12P paste i saw a warning message "do not touch it with your skin" or something like that. I got in mind "that must be kinda strong chemicals or metals, else there wont be such a warning". So the safety level of thermal paste is very questionable.

Reality is i dont know whats exactly inside, so i cant tell how safe it is.

But the only possible ingridients i do worry is "beryllium oxide" its a very harmful ceramic compound and even in very small doses able to be hazardous to the body, even the skin itself is not safe! But thats the only ingridient i truly feel that it is to dangerous to use, or even to store inside someones home in any condition. Its considered same level of poison such as mercury (both is T+ according to EU), and that one is considered one of the most dangerous metals.

The other possible ingridients i do consider safe to the body (skin), as long as any kind of visible traces has been cleaned from the skin immediately.

So i simply dont know the current condition and how safe it really is, and i wish do know. The golden answer to the holy question simply is, do they still use beryllium oxyde, even by knowing its high potential to be harmful (compared to any other ingridients its significantly more dangerous). Compared to Pb (lead) beryllium oxyde is still way more dangerous because lead is not toxic to the skin, it may only harm when ingested. Although nowadays most boards are lead free, but its not the most dangerous material used in computer manufacturing.

I could send the stuff to the labor for chemical analysis, but thats pricy for some infos a manufacturer is able to hand out for free.

 

[voodoo do'er]

some tim is safe to touch some is not.
the stuff I use will eat your skin and suck the air out of you lungs.

it used to be made up of silicon, but now adays it can be made of all sorts of things
just be sure to clean up after you get it on you.

 

[Robert17]

Did you attempt to contact the manufacturer for an MSDS?

 

[voodoo do'er]

Did you attempt to contact the manufacturer for an MSDS?

this.

 

[Ivy]

Generally the difference from worst to highest grade TIM is like 3-4 C, for non "extreme OC" users, its simply not worth it and a "safe TIM" with weaker capability is the much better choice for most of the users. Although, a good TIM may stay fluid even when 5 years had passed, and a bad TIM may get hardened and lose its functionality over time.

However: The difference between a "safe" and "unsafe" TIM could be close to none because there is actually safe materials out there with comparable thermal capability in most cases.


But thats not the stuff i want to know, i want to know its safety. So i should contact manufacturer for a MSDS? Whats the infos i will get as an example?

 

[\dev\goat]

Safety report just came in:

You're gonna be fine.

 

[dtrunk]

that or u might die in 3 - 4 days...

(did u wash up with soap and warm water? several times? how do u feel? any irritation on the fingers hands?)

 

[voodoo do'er]

Safety report just came in:

You're gonna be fine.

but you don't know what he is using for tim.
from his post I'm going to say it was the old silicon type. witch is ok to get on your skin if you clean it off afterwords

if he has the stuff I use he may get cancer or die.
that stuff is nice, but its not at all safe. ( some form of liquid medal like mercury or gallium)

 

[Ivy]

Gallium should be safe but mercury have to be avoided at all cost. Liquid metal is to expensive for manufacturers so its not used at all. The only viable risk could be the use of beryllium oxyde. So do me a favor and make some more investigation first before posting such "skin eating stuff".

Although, some humans (mainly older generation) got amalgam inside theyr mouth and thats a combo of silver and mercury. Those people are still alive. So its hard to say "how safe" but not matter, its never good to expose the body to anything like that. Its not always critical to the health but there can be small health penaltys such as allergies. Funnily enough its a increasing issue nowadays. Im sure its because of all the unclean stuff people get in touch with (especially contaminated food). In some food such as fishes there is even a small amount of mercury inside because the sea is contaminated already. Thats not caused by nature because mercury is a very rare metal with low risk of being able to naturaly contaminate the sea. The stuff was done by the industry... sadly.

Anyway, not making a romance here, just wanted to know safety of TIM.

For those comedians who think i will die soon: I didnt touch the stuff, at least not the visible stuff. So im unlikely gonna meet the heaven prematurely. Anyway, several months has already passed, so its not a new case at all. But so far i was unable to find out precise infos regarding that matter and i still would like to know the details regarding this issue. In theory nearly any board could be "contaminated" in a invisible way (no need to be visible...in term the stuff is visible thats actually a case of luck because avoidable). The true safety level is only achieved by not using harmful material at all.

In term of fish, we think its safe because nothing can be seen, but truth is a bit different. Same could be the case for a board, contamination isnt always visible, only the truly big stuff. So im not panicking, just want to know more precise details and how to avoid "bad material".

 

[Knufire]

Generally the difference from worst to highest grade TIM is like 3-4 C, for non "extreme OC" users, its simply not worth it and a "safe TIM" with weaker capability is the much better choice for most of the users. Although, a good TIM may stay fluid even when 5 years had passed, and a bad TIM may get hardened and lose its functionality over time.

However: The difference between a "safe" and "unsafe" TIM could be close to none because there is actually safe materials out there with comparable thermal capability in most cases.


But thats not the stuff i want to know, i want to know its safety. So i should contact manufacturer for a MSDS? Whats the infos i will get as an example?

MSDS is a material safety data sheet, it should have any dangers of the material (flammable, explosive, poisonous, radioactive, etc) and what to do if you touch or consume it, etc. It's a standard piece of information that they really should have available to you.

 

[voodoo do'er]

Gallium should be safe but mercury have to be avoided at all cost.

Well IDK if it's mercury or gallium, it could be anything.
I can't recall what it was, I'd have to find the packing it came in

 

[Ivy]

MSDS is a material safety data sheet, it should have any dangers of the material (flammable, explosive, poisonous, radioactive, etc) and what to do if you touch or consume it, etc. It's a standard piece of information that they really should have available to you.

Poisonous is not accurate at all. Almost anything can be considered poisonous when the amount is meet. Thats just to less infos.

Someone once drank water and died... just had to be more than the body is capable to handle. Some people die because of sugar,... when body is sick its totaly possible. So we have everything and nothing to be poisonous. What i truly need is accurate infos.

On Gigabyte Boards there is always standart description with low meaning. Such as "wash your hands when handling it", that could mean everything and still nothing. Its a standart text which is generally used on almost any piece of hardware. But its useless to evaluate the precise number of "risky condition". I dont think there is any manufacturer telling us "not to wash the hands when handling it" because boards are not food and nothing to touch food with (in that case the hands could touch the food after). The board is Pb free but not free of chemicals.

I truly need concrete stuff, not those standart descriptions.

 

[larrymoencurly]

I noticed that almost every product containing oil, except cosmetics and food, comes with a warning against skin contact, and in the case of silicone-free thermal paste that may be partially due to the use of types of oil that cause itching.

What color is your thermal paste? If it's dark grey, maybe it's 3M #TCG-2035 or similar, which is at least 90% diamond powder by weight:

http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawebserver?66666UuZjcFSLXTtmxTy48T_EVuQEcuZgVs6EVs6E666666--

I've seen dark grey compound on heatsinks included with Intel CPUs. Hmm....

 

[Soulcatcher668]

Generally they are safe.

MSDS for AS 5

The websites for all TIMS will list the MSDS.

 

[EarthDog]

Safety report just came in:

You're gonna be fine.

LOL, this.

Ivy, I went ahead and googled "Crank it up man! [/QUOTE]You sir... update the 3d11 thread at TPU! "]MSDS Arctic Silver 5" for you... I'd imagine you can google the rest.

I truly need concrete stuff, not those standart descriptions.

MSDS sheets man... Otherwise, we(I) have no idea wth you are talking about...

Generally they are safe.

MSDS for AS 5

The websites for all TIMS will list the MSDS.

Ha, yes.. this ^^

 

[Ivy]

Just dunno why you think that there is arctic silver inside? It could be any kind of TIM.

Color is white, so its probably ceramic based (not metal). Related board is a Gigabyte GA-X58A-OC.

As i told, i only worry beryllium oxide... other stuff is safe as long as invisible. Of course contact with eye is never safe, almost nothing is safe when coming into contact with eyes because they are to sensitive. But all i wanted to know is the safety level for skin (most common risk).

Whats the MSDS for Noctua NT-H1?

LOL, this.

... I'd imagine you can google the rest.
^^

Nope. I see nothing from the stuff i wish to know. Else i would never have asked.

 

[EarthDog]

You dont know why people (as I never mentioned what its made of, and dont care frankly) think there is arctic silver paste inside the arctic silver tube? Are you kidding and trying to mess with me or did I misunderstand yet another post of yours? What does a motherboard have to do with this? Im so lost...

As far as what is in the other paste... look it up. We showed you where to find the information.

MSDS should give you plenty of information to determine if chemical X is "safety level for skin".

 

[Ivy]

On a motherboard thermal paste is used by the manufacturer, thats why it can get dirty... seriously... (!).

I know what kind of chemicals are safe or not, i do need to know the ingridients, check out the title of the topic.

 

[EarthDog]

Usually thermal PADS are used on motherboard vrms, but on the pch or nb you see paste. You will need to email the mfg to see what paste they use then look at the msds.

Seriously.

Email the mfg but chances are they wont share their mixture outside of what you cam find on the msds which is whyyouare pointed there..

I also doubt any paste is harmful to the skin when used properly.

 

[Ivy]

mfg?! Manufacturer? Keyboard issue?

I cant even check the MSDS from Noctua NT-H1 why should i be able to check a random one?