Peltier and arctic silver question

[occool]

Hey guys,
Can I use thermal grease on peltier (I got arctic silver II). I would apply it in small amount between water block - peltier - cold plate. I've done it before but I'm not sure if it is needed or recommended. Thanks for help.

 

[Bender]

You must use thermal greas or your temps will be horrible. Put more in the center of the pelt since peltiers are usually concave. Using a lot of clamping force will also help temps. Pelts can take 300 lbs or more of clamping force so don't be afraid to tighten the bolts as much as possible.

 

[RoadWarrior]

Pelts can take 300 lbs or more of clamping force so don't be afraid to tighten the bolts as much as possible.

But CPUs can't, be careful!

 

[occool]

Thanks,
That's what I thought but I wasn't sure.

 

[Bender]

Pelts work best with that much clamping force thats why blocks like the maze2-1 have a seperate clamping system. Occool what kind of block are you using?

 

[occool]

I'm using Maze 2 from Danger Den

 

[zoopa_man]

I just finished installing my new 156w pelt and DD maze block with the built in cold plate. I lapped my block flat and both sides of the cold plate flatt. Then covered the pelt with my Artic Silver 2. I then put the screws in as tight as I could get them with out striping the screws. It's a great setup and works well to clamp down really tight. I also put some AS2 on the cpu heat spreader of my celeron chip and clamped her down snug...but not bone crushing tight.

What I did after that was put some silicone sorounding the pelt and then went to town water proofing my motherboard for condensation. I put silicone around the socket base. put die-electric grease in the socket holes. and used neoprine foam to cover all that. I also put some silicone and a small piece of foam around the back of the cpu socket on the back of the motherboard. I'm now waiting for my silicone to totaly dry before i fire it up.

Soon as i fire her up i'll post on here all my results. Hoping to get a few more MHZ out of her and much cooler temps....It's spring here in NY and summer is on it's way..I expect a lot more people will be going pelt in the weeks/mohth to come.

 

[It_The_Cow]

Monitor how the ASII reacts, especially between the TEC and waterblock. Some people experience ASII foiling where the silver forms a thin layer of "foil." Needless to say, it degrades performance heavily. It usually takes a couple months for it to be visible

 

[occool]

Hey It_The_Cow do you know of any links I could read up about this effect ?

 

[Colin]

The foiling issue is limited to a few individuals. Dealers like Danger Den, Swiftech and of course Arctic Silver rarely hear of the problem. I don't believe there is anything formal published on the net.

If you are concerned about foiling, use Arctic Alumina.

 

[zoopa_man]

I had some foiling occur on two separate setups that i've had running.

I had a Danger Den Maze 1 copper water block and a copper cold plate. on all the copper surfaces where the 80w peltier was in contact with AS2 and copper I had foiling occur. what it did was create a silver coating accrost the copper and on the peltier. Why no one knows. For both setups that it happend on the first time my setup was put together for a good year. The second time only for maybe 7 months and it wasn't as heavy as the first time. So it takes a period of time for the foiling to occur.

I'm going to keep an eye on my setup...if my temps slowly start to go up I'll take my block off and check for the foiling on my copper / peltier contact areas. As colin said...only a few of us have had this problem and others have had no problems at all.