Read!! The Truth About Artic Silver!!

[Excelsior]

The Truth About Artic Silver™

As many of you know earlier last month AMD stated that if you used any thermal compound other than Shin Etsu G 749 that is supplied your warrantees will be void. Go here to read an in depth article on that.



Anyways I was sitting here earlier today... I had my multi-meter and my AS3 (artic silver 3) sitting right here. I just decided to try stuff out thinking it would be a good conductor of electricity... Because AMD seems to be worried about shorts and such... I was astonished at the results...

First of all I took the AS3 I had in my 3 gram tube.



I put the AS3 on the multi-meter because the housing was plastic and since plastic does not conduct any electricity it would not skew any results.

Firstly I show the multi-meter set to show conductivity and I had nothing connected. The analog dial is at the very left indicating there is nothing conductive, and there isn't anything since nothing is touching.

I then did a test by putting a steel knife on it and putting the contacts to the knife. The dial is at the VERY right off the scales showing conductivity.

now in front of the AS3 I put the two contacts again not touching anything showing there is no conductivity on the multi-meter.

I rubbed the contacts in the as3 and made sure there was a bridge connecting the two contacts made out of AS3. There was absolutely no conductivity shown.

Don't believe me? Don't take my word for it. Fish out your multi-meter, put it to detect OHMs and put a stretch of AS3 on there. Try it and you will find the same results as me. Now i am jut saying these things because the way AMD stated it it made it seem like as3 was HIGHLY conductive. A lot of people seemed to be mislead and though that if there was one drip of as3 on thier cpu in one place it shouldnt be that it was certain death for the cpu. The main reason for this is just to clear up confusion on how conductive as3 really was.


sorry about the poor image quality.. i just dug my cam up from the back of my periphrial graveyard.

 

[Kendan]

I thought it was slightly capacitive.

OK I went to the source: http://www.arcticsilver.com/as3.htm

this is on theat page:

Negligible electrical conductivity.
Arctic Silver 3 was formulated to conduct heat, not electricity. It is only electrically conductive in a thin layer under extreme compression.
(While much safer than electrically conductive silver and copper greases, Arctic Silver 3 should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. The compound is slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridged two close-proximity electrical paths.)

 

[Excelsior]

Humm...

Well i tried another test... i seared as3 on my bridges of an ollld tbird just to see what would happen... not a damn thing...

It must be EXTREMELY neligable because i did more tests and used a razor thin coat and the needle doesent move at all... if this is what is happening with a 9 V battery behind an analog meter i am doubting that a cpu runing at 1.6 v will do ANYTHING at all... just pondering... AMD made it seem like the stuff was lethal

 

[Korndog]

uh... so my 2 cpu's and graphic card just happened to misteriously short after accidently getting AS3 between two connections???
erm... i'll stick to my alumia thank you very much

 

[Excelsior]

uh... so my 2 cpu's and graphic card just happened to misteriously short after accidently getting AS3 between two connections???
erm... i'll stick to my alumia thank you very much

how do you mis apply as3 that many times? Even i'm not that clumsy!(okay yes i am but that is not the point)

the main point i aws trying to get across is that i think AMD SERIOUSLY over reacted to people using other than shin etsu.

I expected to see the meter at least move a bit, at least then i would say, "okay it's pretty conductive i understand amd's reaction." However when the meter did NOT move at ALL i was kind ashocked.

 

[BigMofo]

I think it was last year when i had a tnt2 m64, i was trying to do some moding with it. I put lots of artic sivler 2 on the memory chips and the artic silver totally got all of the chip and the pins connection, all 8 chips. yet the card wasnt screw up.

 

[Kenski]

Had an 800 /bird chip lying in a drawer for 12months or more, presumed dead after chipping the corner off the core (Hsf testing once too often) before I threw it away I cleaned of the old As3 and tried it in an old Kt7, booted first go and ran fine, tried it again with As3, dead, cleaned again and with generic goop booted first go ran fine and still runs fine now in a Folding box.
So there is some reaction between circuit traces which are very close together.

 

[IFMU]

Odd finding. I figured it had at least some conductive properties due to some history. My brother used a ton... and I do mean a ton of MY AS3 on his AXP1800. It wouldnt boot. The only thing that was different, was he applied way too much AS3. Enough to cover nearly the core and about twice that area around the core. Never booted up again... Figured it was due to AS3 overflow and shortage... Hmm... might have to get that cpu again, play with it, get it cleaned up and retested.....?

 

[Cheesy Peas]

umm, isnt AMD sayin it voids your warranty because of the possibility of the silver particles getting into the die of the processor? thats what i read. Not about it being conductive/capacitive.

 

[Deadphishy]

well, AS3 if it's very thin can still conduct. thats how i shorted one of the memory chips on my video-card. depends on how close the two connections are

 

[room101]

Unfortunately its not as easy to put an instument at one point and another to verify is something is conductive or not.

If u put those ends at each side of a tree u would not get any result but still trees are leathal conductors if lightning strikes them.

Of course we talk about differnt types of electrical power but still the principle is there, considering how little it takes for a chip to fry.

Also AS3 is a greas compound and grease attract dirt and that could have been the issue when u fried your components.

Its supposed to be used in a closed enviroment much like distilled water add enough "dust" n "dirt" to it and soon enough it will most likely become conductive.

Suffice to say a different kind of measuring is required to compleately verify if AS3 is conductive or not!

 

[emericanchaos]

^^ i agree with your logic but if the AS3 grease picks up dirt than it's not the AS3 conducting the electricity it's the dust and dirt in the AS3. like distilled water, it's the dust in the water that's ruining it.

 

[Nevin]

At this point, it is important to understand the difference between conductive and capacitive.

While a few metal-based compounds like Circuitwirks are conductive, Arctic Silver 3 and most other metal-based compounds are only capacitive. A capacitive compound will conduct very high frequencies like the MHz signals on memory or video card leads, but it will not conduct low frequencies or DC. So if it bridges two or more leads carrying high frequency information, it can allow crosstalk between those leads, however, it will not conduct the DC current that actually powers the memory chip or video card.

Ceramic-based compounds are neither conductive nor capacitive.

Nevin House
Arctic Silver, Inc.

 

[Korndog]

okey, it was tested at room temp.. has anyone tried it when its heated??
i think i'll try it today

 

[CrazyP]

i remember someone else experimenting with as3 and a multimeter. he also found that while it was wet is wasnt very conductive. do the test while its set in/dry is a different story

 

[start]

Hi guys, interesting subject.

I dont see how it can do any damage if you are sensible and careful... how do you get it all over your pins? thats not sensible!

Nevin, someone said about silver particles getting into the die...can you explain this?

 

[Korndog]

suckers

tested it on a ceramic plate with a 100watt soldering gun.
took a few seconds to start conducting, just about the same for my processors

 

[Cheesy Peas]

well, theres ya truth!!

 

[start]

hehe

Just be careful with the stuff and I dont see the problem.

How is AMD gonna know you used it (AS3) anyway? If you fry it, just wash it off and send it back to them

 

[Cheesy Peas]

hehe

Just be careful with the stuff and I dont see the problem.

How is AMD gonna know you used it (AS3) anyway? If you fry it, just wash it off and send it back to them

Not an Ethical Overclocker then?