Heatsink/Processor Interface Material

[BarryMurphy]

I have taken an Athlon XP 3000+ (333Mhz) with Thermaltake Volcano 10 heatsink and fan off a Gigabyte GA-7VA motherboard intending to attach it permanently to a Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2 Rev 1.0 motherboard. The interface surfaces were covered in a white paste, which I cleaned off. The parts were used when I acquired them, so I do not know whether the thermal material was applied by the OEM or a previous owner. I will not be overclocking the CPU.

In

http://www.amd.com's

System Building Guide is a tutorial, "Processor and Heatsink Installation Video" (

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/DownloadableAssets/section5-high.wmv),

which states the following:
"Use a thermal pad for long-term production installations..."
"Thermal grease is only recommended for development, test and validation purposes. In a production environment, thermal grease may disperse over time, leaving no interface material between the heatsink and processor. Only use thermal grease when the heatsink needs to be replaced multiple times over a short period."

Concerned about being left with "no interface material between the heatsink and processor" I visited all the computer supplies stores in my city (Wellington, New Zealand) asking for thermal pads but they only had thermal paste and none of the sales staff to whom I spoke had heard of thermal pads.

I decided to look into this subject and all information I obtained, for example

http://www.heatsink-guide.com/compound.htm,

indicated that thermal compound is as good, if not better than thermal pads.

This is all rather confusing. Am I best advised to adhere strictly to AMD's dictum and place an order for pads, which might take weeks to arrive, or is paste really just as effective? And if so, then why would AMD make such an overstatement with regard to thermal grease?

 

[dakota81]

The statement is made for the very unlikely situation where they can deny a warranty return because of thermal grease evaporating. But really that only applies to the most cheapest of thermal greases in the most rarest of conditions. Grab some Arctic Silver 5 or Ceramique or whatever and you'll be pleased with the results. That stuff lasts for many upon many upon many years without any issues.

 

[mikeguava]

I second that - Artic Silver 5 (or Ceramique) would be the best choice - but any quality thermal paste should do. I personally prefer it over a thermal pad by far.

Mike

 

[micker377]

Thermal pads" often come with new heatsinks (your Thermaltake came with one originally), and are a one time use. Easy to apply on the assembly line to ship out. If you ever have to work on the CPU (change heatsink and fan for better cooling), you're out of luck. There's no such thing as "permanent"! Fans freeze, CPU's need upgrading, etc. Use grease like the rest of the real world.

 

[paparazi]

The whole issue of thermal pads/heatsink paste boils down to the fact that a high percentage of socket A CPU's (Athlon/Duron/Sempron) are damaged by incorrect application of heat transfer materials and more importantly incorrect fitment of the heatsink itself.
AMD have so many returns that they apply a fairly strict policy to limit the number of RMA's on their products.
It is true that a genuine thermal pad (phase changing, one use) is said to have greater service life than basic white silicon paste but as others have said, if you buy a quality metal particle paste like AS5, not only is the heat transfer improved but it's service cycle is sufficient so as not to worry about such issues you mentioned earlier.
In my experience all machines need at least yearly blow outs and fans in particular need checking for wear and correct operation.
The heatsink can become partially blocked by dust debri effecting it's cooling efficiency so regular cleaning is essencial.
Remember correct fitment on a socket A is:
Recess in the base of the heatsink positioned so it is over the raised can box of the CPU socket.
1 to two rice grains in quantity of quality paste applied to the small rectangular core of the CPU, it is also good practice to "wet" the heatsink base with an almost translucent amount of paste in the small area where the CPU will touch.
Arctic Silver have a good reference on their site for proper application method.
Martin

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