Arctic Silver 5 Extensive Review

Thermal Compounds by jmke @ 2003-12-14

Arctic Silver 5 compared to its older brother AS3 and Coolermaster Premium (Shin Etsu). How does it perform? We test it on an Intel system, letting each compound "burn in" for 3 days.

Introduction

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Introduction:

When looking for the best performing cooling solution for your CPU some people go to the extreme, lapping their heatsinks and installing very loud fans. To further improve the contact between the CPU's core and the heatsink manufactures have been using thermal compound. The standard white goop will suffice if you are an average PC user, but when you are pushing your system to the edge by overclocking it, then every degree °C counts.

Several companies have been developing compounds for this purpose the last couple of years. Today will be looking at the latest advancements in this area by Arctic Silver and Coolermaster.

Compounds tested:

  • Arctic Silver 5
  • Arctic Silver 3
  • Coolermaster Premium (Shin Etsu)
  • Generic white thermal goop


    Test setup:

    JMke's Test Setup
    CPU Pentium 4 "C" at 2400Mhz
    Mainboard Asus P4C800
    Cooling Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu
    Memory 1 * 512Mb PC3700 Corsair
    Video ATI Radeon 9700 Pro



    Testing conditions:

    The test system was placed in an open-case environment, not ventilated, with the motherboard temp sensor hitting ~30°C during testing. To obtain the results the difference between the motherboard & CPU temperature, the sensors output readings were recorded during a period of 3 days for each paste. During which the CPU was under 100% load. The system was shut down twice during those 3 days as was suggested by the optimal implementation instructions for Arctic Silver 5.

    This break-in will occur during the normal use of the computer as long as the computer is turned off from time to time and the interface is allowed to cool to room temperature. Once the break-in is complete, the computer can be left on if desired.


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    Anyone buying thermal compounds other then the generic goop can call himself an enthusiast. Most of you have lapped your heatsink, and some might have even flatted the IHS of your P4. I lapped the IHS and the heatsink to provide a real-life environment for these compounds to be tested in.

    On to the installation & application of each thermal paste ->

    • Application: AS5

    Installation & Application: Arctic Silver 5

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    I first set of to find out if there was a difference in the way the thermal paste was applied on the CPU. Arctic Silver suggests the following method:

    On an Intel P4 type CPU with a large metal heat spreader, put a small amount of Arctic Silver onto the center of the heat spreader as shown in the photo.

    Before
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    Our testing has shown that this method minimizes the possibility of air bubbles and voids in the thermal interface between the heat spreader and the heatsink. Since the vast majority of the heat from the core travels directly through the heat spreader, it is more important to have a good interface directly above the actual CPU core than it is to have the heat spreader covered with compound from corner to corner.

    After
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    So I applied it this way, putting a little bit more compound then suggested:

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    However, I found no difference in performance between using the "dot-in-the-middle" method and "spreading-out" method. But it sure makes application on the P4 very easy. If you are using an AMD you still need to spread it out manually.

    All the "extra" compound is pushed out of the heatsink-CPU sandwich!

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    Application: AS3/CM/Generic

    Installation & Application: Arctic Silver3

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    Application was as straightforward as with AS5

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    Installation & Application: Generic Goop

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    Installation & Application: Coolermaster Premium (Shin Etsu)

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    The installation instructions suggest the use of the included "bankcard" to spread out the compound, I found it very difficult to get an evenly applied result. So in the end I used the same "dot-in-the-middle" method and it worked perfectly

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    Results and Conclusion

    Results and Conclusion:

    I measured temperature every other minute during a 3 day period for each compound. In the graph below you will see the daily averages with the CPU at 100% load. The “MaxD3” value is the maximum temperature reached on the 3rd day.

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    The only results that stand out are those from the Generic compound, all others perform almost identical under these "ideal" conditions.



    Conclusion

    If you are looking for the edge and you’re still using the generic goop, then you have to get yourself some special thermal compound, that much is clear. The deciding factor for your purchase will be the price and availability. Arctic Silver 5 takes the top spot for providing the best thermal conductivity, but is very closely followed by both Coolermaster Premium and the older Arctic Silver 3.

    If you still have some AS3 lying around then you don't have to run out to get the latest, but if you are in need for some new compound then Arctic Silver 5 and Coolermaster Premium won't disappoint you.

    The last deciding factor is the easiness of application, again Arctic Silver 5 is preferred, and ultimately becomes the ideal choice for the overclocking enthusiast.


    I would like to thank Arctic Silver, ANO Int and Loveno for helping us out with the thermal compounds in this roundup.

    Madshrimps (c)


    Madshrimps (c)


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