Artic Silver

[silverbullet555]

I have a tube of artic silver which I have had for a few years (3-4 years). As long as it does not dry up (which it hasn't) does it go bad? If not, is there a significant reason to buy a newer version?

 

[fixxxer0]

It can seperate somewhat, but if it was stored face down it should be fine. I doubt shaking will help...

They seperate less in a refrigdge, for your future reference, I know its too late now. However, even with seperation, its still usually fine.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Yep, the orginal AS seperates when stored for long periods, and it drys up in use after some time. Messy and capacitive as well, I hated that crap, one of the worst T.I.Ms I ever used.

 

[ggjb]

And that stuff is relatively cheap, no need to say that money is an issue.

 

[pm]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
Yep, the orginal AS seperates when stored for long periods, and it drys up in use after some time. Messy and capacitive as well, I hated that crap, one of the worst T.I.Ms I ever used.

It does separate when stored in the tube for a long time and it does tend to dry a bit when left out for a while. It is messy too.

But capacitive? To what? The ground plane? Isn't that a good thing?

And as far as it being one of the worst TIM's, it can be a pain to clean up (believe me, I know), but it's got the best thermal properties that I have personally measured. We are using it almost exclusively in the testing labs in my group. Sometimes when we are doing a quick test, we use some zinc oxide based stuff that cleans up a bit easier, but for serious testing, it's AS.

 

[silverbullet555]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I might buy a new tube just to have.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: pm

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
Yep, the orginal AS seperates when stored for long periods, and it drys up in use after some time. Messy and capacitive as well, I hated that crap, one of the worst T.I.Ms I ever used.

It does separate when stored in the tube for a long time and it does tend to dry a bit when left out for a while. It is messy too.

But capacitive? To what? The ground plane? Isn't that a good thing?

And as far as it being one of the worst TIM's, it can be a pain to clean up (believe me, I know), but it's got the best thermal properties that I have personally measured. We are using it almost exclusively in the testing labs in my group. Sometimes when we are doing a quick test, we use some zinc oxide based stuff that cleans up a bit easier, but for serious testing, it's AS.

Are you using the original AS? as I understand it, it is bad to get it on the exposed bridges of a non-lidded CPU because it is capacitive, and there have been some who have reported issues arising from this occuring. A few even claim it killed the CPU when running it with AS covering bridges *shorted?*. If you haven't tried Ceramique' you should give it a go. It can cause T.I.M lock with lidded CPUs though so it is good to remove it immediately after turning the system off while still warm, and not apply too much of course. It is uberEZ to apply and clean up and works great and it's neither conductive or capacitive. I have found it to be the best price per application and ease of use and clean up T.I.M of all I've tried.

I also use CoolerMaster Premium and have used Shin-etsu variants. Some Shin-etsu T.I.M.s come stock on AMD retail coolers and can be used even aftermarket without voiding the AMD warranty. CoolerMaster Premium is shin-etsu based and works very well too. It and S-E are much higher cost per application however, and it takes awhile to get used to the application technique which is far more difficult than AS1-5 or Ceramique'. Obviously personal preference plays a role, and the messiness alone turned me off of silver based t.i.m. Honestly, temps never seem to vary more than 1-2c regardless of which I use so I tend to purchase/base preference on how easy they are to work with and clean up, and that makes Ceramique' #1 IMHO.

 

[silverbullet555]

I looked at the tube I have and it is original AS. I haven't had any problems, but I think I will buy another tube of something else probably AS5 as I can get it locally and won't need to wait for it to arrive. I am hoping to get some work done on the computer this weekend as we will be snowed in.

 

[dguy6789]

I have used both Ceramique and AS5. My experience is, the ceramique is a good bit thicker, while the as5 is easier to spread. The AS5 does perform a nice portion better than ceramique tho. Go for the AS5, it is the best performing T.I.M. on the market.