Thermal paste shock resistance

[nosilverman]

Hi, I was thinking of replacing the thermal pad in my laptop with thermal paste to lower temps a bit. I have both AS5 and Ceramique. I know AS5 should run a bit cooler, but because this is a laptop, the paste has to be able to withstand a lot of shock. Which paste would do better, or does it not matter? I will use a slightly thicker than normal layer to help keep good contact.

-Noah

 

[Silversinksam]

Either would be suitable, just note a thicker layer of paste isn't better. Use a thin layer of either paste, as a thick layer will impede performance.

 

[Agent_Mull]

any shock that would mess up the paste, probably would destroy the laptop too.

 

[nosilverman]

Thanks guys, I guess I will just use AS5 like I normally would. I will be glad to rid the world of one more thermal pad.

-Noah

 

[Silversinksam]

You know I was thinking of something last night, this is going to be wacky advise so hold onto your chair. If the Laptop is not a state of the art unit, say a PIII 933 and nearing the end of its life, you could use Arctic Silver Adhesive or Arctic Alumina Adhesive/ This will be permenent, but if you drop your laptop on a regular basis, or use it in a 'rough' envirement, this is an option I normally wouldnt recommend, but it is an option that will keep the heatsink on. To prove how strong Arctic Silver Adhesive is, I have a HEAVY heatsink under the carriage of my Subaru SVX, its been stuck there for close to 2 years. In FEB (The 2 year point) I will be doing a small Arctic Silver Adhesive review showing just how strong this product is.

PS whats with your forum name,I didnt even notice it last night

 

[nosilverman]

Interesting idea about the adhesive. If i have trouble from the as5, i will try it. the laptop is a little old, 1.2ghz p3. My highschool has a laptop program, so everyone has the same one (dell latitude C400.)

So far I have gotten off the heatsink (i have never removed so many screws in my life, lol). I was surprized to see that dell hadent even tried to make it flat, the metal had a visable texture to it. Maybe that works better with pads (i saw the same thing on the heatsink for my ti4600 when i was adding it to my watercooling loop, it also had a pad.) Anyway, i will lapp it to 600 grit.

About my name, it is the e-mail name issued by my school (short for Noah Silverman) and I just used it because I couldnt think of somthing better

 

[Silversinksam]

Noah,

I called Arctic Silver and spoke to them about this and both Arctic Silver 5 and Ceramique will be suitable, they mentioned Ceramique would be the better of the two due to the paste being semi sticky in nature, but either like I mentioned will do the job.

I mentioned to them I threw out to you advise on using Thermal adhesive and he laughed at me and told me I was a goofball giving out advise like that, but in the end he conceded it would be a good option, albeit a permenent method of affixing the heatsink

 

[nosilverman]

Silversinksam, thanks a lot, you have been a great help. Its good to know that the guys at AS say its okay. I guess i will use the Ceramique then as the temp difference is very small and it was doing okay oh the pad, just got a bit hot. It is true that the Ceramique is quite sticky. I will see if i can finish up tonight and say what happened. Laptops are hard to work with because they use tons of tiny screws, and often there are screws that look the same, but are not. Now i can be the only geek in the school with a lapped heatsink in his laptop

Thanks a lot!
-Noah