Is Thermal Grease conductive?

[phatboi]

hi, guys, i'm getting together everything i need to overclock my Athlon XP 1600+. so far this is what i have, some thermal grease, a rear window defogger kit, tape, and a knife. that's all you need i think. the rear window defogger kit comes with some highly conductive paint, that's why i'm using it, only thing you can find to use in my area. i'm using thermal grease b/c i think it's a lot easier to use than the superglue. i can just spread it on and wipe away the excess. what i need to know is, is thermal grease conductive? and is there a difference btw thermal grease and thermal compound? i thought they were the same thing. thanks.

 

[ColdFlare]

well from the infomation you gave us, we dont know what brand of thermal grease it is there fore we can not tel you if its conductive or not. you might look at the ingredients if there is any metallic compounds it maybe conductive like arctic silver which contains silver.

 

[JokerF15]

Actually Artic Silver is not really Electrically conductive.

quote from articsilver.com regarding as2:



<< Arctic Silver II was formulated to conduct heat, not electricity. It is only electrically conductive in a thin layer under extreme compression. >>



Most thermal compound or grease should be fine, but like ColdFlare mentioned to know exactly you would have to know the brand and what materials are put into it.

Go with Artic Silver 2 or Artic Alumina (not silicone based so won't dry out afteer 2-3months use).

-JokerF15

 

[phatboi]

 

[phatboi]

sorry about that guys, i'm going to either use the generic stuff that came with my Soyo Dragon+ mobo or some generic stuff that i ordered from hardcorecooling.com. the thread i read said the generic stuff works just fine. just don't use Artic Silver II cuz it may be conductive b/c of the silver. thanks for the replies. if i'm successful i'll post how high i can manage to set the multiplier and how fast i manage to get it. i want to get it to perform at least as well as an XP 1800+.

 

[ColdFlare]

thats correct, my arctic silver became conductive and my mobo wouldnt boot until i cleaned it off, oh well just gotta be more careful not to get the stuff everywhere. never hurts to be safe.

 

[MrThompson]

phatboi - If you want a conductive grease, the Chemtronics Silver goop is the stuff to get. If it were my CPU, I would use conductive silver ink. It's a lot neater than grease.

ColdFlare - Arctic Silver did not become conductive. It's capacitance, even though it's only between 1 and 2 Pico Farads is what kept your motherboard from booting. If it was conductive, it would have passed DC and your board would be dead.

 

[ColdFlare]

well there is a little burn mark but mobo stlil functioning after 2 days of down time, it just came back alive, no idea.

 

[CStroman]

I killed my GF2MX with AS2.

 

[phatboi]

MrThompson- thanks for the tip. but i'm not lookin' into buyin' conductive grease, i'm using the grease to fill in the pits btw the L1 bridges. i've heard it's easier to use than superglue. and Chemtronics makes some great stuff. i've already looked at a few of their products. The have a conductive micro tipped pen also, but it's about $15 plus shipping. i just went out to AutoZone and picked up a rear window defogger kit($6). i'm gonna mix it and then dip a needle in there and draw the lines. i would have loved to use the pen but i'm just impatient to wait for shipping. but that's what i would have done was to go with the pen.i figure this method is a lot easier than taping. i have pretty stable hands. i just wanted to make sure that the cheap thermal grease i'm goin' to use is not conductive. it's made by SilMore. so i don't think it is. thanks for all the advice.

 

[ColdFlare]

you are using grease to fill the pits? thats kinda hard, since the grease isnt solid your conductive ink can get everywhere. i think you should use super glue, or crazy glue, or anything that is adhesive and drys up into a solid. then you can go over it with conductive ink and pair up the bridges.

 

[phatboi]

yeah, i read a "how to" article at 3dspotlight and they used thermal grease/compound. it worked fine for him so i was thinkin' bout using the same thing. i'd just rather fill it with grease, let it settle for a while and then carefully add the conductive lacquer/ink to it. i dunno how it'll work out yet but if it doesn't i'll just try the glue method. reason i don't like the idea of the glue is b/c i'd have to scrap off the excess, i'd rather wipe off excess grease than scrape off excess glue off my processor. thanks for the heads up tho.

 

[JokerF15]

It's easy to fill pits with grease. You tape off the ends of the l1's, exposing only the pits. Then put the grease on top of the pits. Let it sit for a bit. Use a paper towel or napkin to wipe off hte grease, it stays in the pits. then put loctite or other conductive stuff to paint the bridges.


Worked perfect for me =). super glue works also, just gotta be careful.

-JokerF15

 

[Richardito]

<< I killed my GF2MX with AS2. >>


Yep, you are not the first to encounter that problem. It is unbelievable, but still some people in this forum disregard that as just 'rumors' and not as fact.

 

[phatboi]

well, i tried the grease and actually i don't like that idea. tried the superglue. and that doesn't work bad at all. the reason i didn't like the grease was b/c i couldn't get very good lines. and i was sure if all the pits would be full. i got some cheapo superglue and used that. being careful i laid down the tape really well. then used the blunt end of my blade to make sure no glue would seep under it. after letting it sit, scraping off the excess with my knife was easier than i thought. made it flat and then was just careful about laying the tape and putting on the loctite defogger kit for the bridges. i think it turned out well. i'm waiting on some artic silver II to come in and then i'm going to put it in my Soyo Dragon+. let's see if i can get it to hit 1.75 or 1.8. but thanks for all the tips guys. if you wanna see how my chip turned out, just ask and i'll post a pic.