Thermal grease drying up?

[Sniper564]

Hi,
Ive asked this question before but now I have talked to my friends and they said thermal grease will dry up. Im thinking about go with thermal tape if thermal grease does dry up.
Please someone tell me if it does dry up.
Thanks

 

[Phil]

the default stuff intel puts on does dry up after a while, but when I say a while I mean a couple of years, could quality stuff will take even longer and Artic Silver will stay slightly viscous for ages, if you are getting into overclocking then you are more then likely going to be changing the layer before it drys up

 

[OpenFriday]

My radio shack compound has been going strong for 6+ months. I just added a new fresh layer the other day. You will more than likley change it more than 2x a year. My old p-75 had shack compound on it to and had been running fine with it for 1 year+ with no apparent drying. I think if you change it at least once every few months/weeks you'll be fine.

 

[Sniper564]

Is there any good kind of thermal tape or pad?
Thanks

 

[OpenFriday]

Sniper564 (Apr 11, 2001 05:08 p.m.):
Is there any good kind of thermal tape or pad?
Thanks

Good thermal tape/pad is kinda an oxymoron. I personally use the shack's compound. Why not its cheap, decent and readily availible.

Many use arctic silver with good results. Ive never seen or heard much else about anything else. If you go with arctic silver or the shack's you'll do fine.

 

[The masterless newbie]

IMHO, I just don't trust the thermal conductivity of thermal tape. One of the purposes of a thermal compound is to fill in microscoping pits and holes in between the heatsink and cpu die. Failing to fill these pits w/ a thermal medium would result in air holes, and we know that air is one of the best insulators of heat. Now, they say that thermal tape is a phase change compound which is changes from some kind of gel/suspension to something more like a solid. Even in its gel state, and i've seen alot of thermal tape, it doesn't seem able to fill these microscopic gaps. In fact some studies show that it is only marginally better than sticking your heatsink straight onto the cpu without any type of compound. In short, I feel that the time taken to reapply thermal grease is worth the peace of mind that you're protecting your chip w/ a good thermally conductive compound. Check out this site for more info:
[url="http://"http://www.cooling-electronics.com/Resources/EC_Articles/SEP96/sep96_01.htm]Thermal Interface Materials[/url]

-RoninX74

 

[Sniper564]

Thanks everyone but I do not want to have to keep reapplying the thermal grease.

 

[Colin]

Sniper564 (Apr 11, 2001 06:28 p.m.):
Thanks everyone but I do not want to have to keep reapplying the thermal grease.

Then use Artic Silver.

 

[William]

Sniper564 (Apr 11, 2001 06:28 p.m.):
Thanks everyone but I do not want to have to keep reapplying the thermal grease.

like colin said, use a decent compound that won't dry up. Why can't you replace once or twice a year. It is not a big deal, and you will get much better performance with it than with the tape.

 

[batboy]

Let me put it very simply... thermal tape SUCKS! Arctic Silver...GOOD!

 

[OpenFriday]

I believe i saw a review of thermal tape vs. some no name brand compound, well in short the no name brand compound i think kept the oc'ed proc 6C cooler than the thermal tape. Just dosent make much sence to me, even for video cards as i use shacks compound with superglue.

(im a big fan of the shacks compound as its easy on the pocket book)

 

[TT120]

You will end up changing your processor/heatsink/system before just about ANY thermal paste dries up anyway so it's really not an issue. The life expetency of a computer is about 2 years and even less if you plan on upgrading.

 

[batboy]

OpenFriday is correct. The Radio Crack thermal paste is a good budget alternative to Arctic Silver.

 

[Sniper564]

Ok, thanks but what I need to know is will Artic Silver 2 dry up?
Thanks so much everyone

 

[most deaf]

ed up an old 7100 mac from 93 with thermal grease on it, only the out side had dryed up, you don't need to worry

 

[Phil]

Sniper564 (Apr 12, 2001 06:51 a.m.):
Ok, thanks but what I need to know is will Artic Silver 2 dry up?
Thanks so much everyone

Artic silver would take years to dry up, and even if it did go dry it would leave the silver in the right place (in all the microsopic gaps) so it would probabally cool better than with the grease element in it

 

[William]

OpenFriday (Apr 11, 2001 07:22 p.m.):
I believe i saw a review of thermal tape vs. some no name brand compound, well in short the no name brand compound i think kept the oc'ed proc 6C cooler than the thermal tape. Just dosent make much sence to me, even for video cards as i use shacks compound with superglue.

(im a big fan of the shacks compound as its easy on the pocket book)

yes it is, no as good as ASII, but for the price, its great!!!!

 

[bdf24]

As far as using the normal Heat goop on my cpu. It all depends how much I'm playing around with my cpu. If I start moving it around after its been runnig for a while or after I last applied the goop, It seems to break the bond. Then I will have to go back in and put new stuff on. But most of the time if I leave it alone it stays ok for a few months (which I cant seem to do hehehe).

 

[The Stickie]

let me put it very simple:

I used the default thermal pad that came with my HSF (There was no need to change it they stated; it was the best on the market)
I got some artic silver II applied it, and had a 15°C CPU temp drop...