Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

[rhomanski]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

When I got the Thermaltake water cooler a few months ago it already had paste applied. Spread out all over the bottom. When I do output transistors, I always cover the whole backside of the transistor. I don't think it matters whether it's spread or put in a blob. Just so it covers the whole contact point when mechanically fastened.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

You're exagerrating the importance of burn-in... it's really not rocket science... the paste needs to heat up just like it would heat up normally...
Just don't run occt or cpu benchmarks for 24 hours in a row or something stupid like that.

Don't worry about running OCCT or any other benchmarking programs.
We are talking about a temperature difference of 30°C if using a "normal" heatsink.
Not a problem in any way, actually just good because it allows the paste to creep out, the hotter it gets...
What they mean with the "burn in" period is that when that time has passed the paste will have settled and offer maybe 1 or 2°C lower temps than before it had settled completely.

[Sparkey55]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

You're exagerrating the importance of burn-in... it's really not rocket science... the paste needs to heat up just like it would heat up normally...
Just don't run occt or cpu benchmarks for 24 hours in a row or something stupid like that.

In the normal state, it's a paste and as it heats up it goes liquid and enters those microscopic imperfections in the metal, trapping whatever air atoms (or whatever) are still in the middle. So basically, you no longer have air between both metal surfaces.

You should know but just in case someone stumbles on this post in the future...

Just apply the solder paste the proper way... clean both surfaces with isopropyl alcohol (or regular sanitary alcohol), dry the surfaces, put less than pea sized drop of paste in the center (or a thin line if the die is very big) and press the heatsink on top of that drop.
As you press, the drop flattens and pushes the air between cpu and heatsink out.

Don't put paste and spread it over the whole surface and then apply the heatsink.. if you do that you just trap a bit of air between paste and heatsink.

It doesn't have to cover the whole chip die and overflow, as the paste gets hot and more "liquidy" it spreads by itself under the heatsink.

Basically what this guy says : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hNgF...ature=youtu.be

Yeah, Do not spread the paste out in thin layer, very bad. Always apply the paste in globule form at center of core and let the heatsink spread it. A lot of people are misinformed about this.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

^ I take it you meant thermal paste not solder paste... I'll edit in a fix if you want.

Noted on not needing to cover. Never knew that... Duh. Noted.

Orderign some AS5 then.

edit: getting it in bulk: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100008

Since I'll be redoing a lot over time (when laptops are due for cleaning, V2's CPU's could use a redo as well.). I figure it doesn't expire that quickly so it's probably good to have around.

[mariushm]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

You're exagerrating the importance of burn-in... it's really not rocket science... the paste needs to heat up just like it would heat up normally...
Just don't run occt or cpu benchmarks for 24 hours in a row or something stupid like that.

In the normal state, it's a paste and as it heats up it goes liquid and enters those microscopic imperfections in the metal, trapping whatever air atoms (or whatever) are still in the middle. So basically, you no longer have air between both metal surfaces.

You should know but just in case someone stumbles on this post in the future...

Just apply the thermal paste the proper way... clean both surfaces with isopropyl alcohol (or regular sanitary alcohol), dry the surfaces, put less than pea sized drop of paste in the center (or a thin line if the die is very big) and press the heatsink on top of that drop.
As you press, the drop flattens and pushes the air between cpu and heatsink out.

Don't put paste and spread it over the whole surface and then apply the heatsink.. if you do that you just trap a bit of air between paste and heatsink.

It doesn't have to cover the whole chip die and overflow, as the paste gets hot and more "liquidy" it spreads by itself under the heatsink.

Basically what this guy says : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hNgF...ature=youtu.be

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

You have to use the system, the heat is what burns it in. Just no heavy lifting for 200 hours.

What if simply tuning it on is heavy use? Or so it seems to be...

[rhomanski]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

You have to use the system, the heat is what burns it in. Just no heavy lifting for 200 hours.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

my main concern with a burn in period is not being able to use the system for 200 Hours... is that the case?

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

I remember one company that had a warning on every model of paste they made saying that it must be reapplied every 12 months. I can't remember what brand that was now, and I don't see any that has that warning now.

I'm not surprised if it's the run-of-the-mill white stuff!
Unfortunately, the RadioShack stuff likes to fade away after some months of use.

Took socket 462 heatsinks off more than once, IIRC, to see it disappeared from the Athlon!

No such bull with Arctic Silver 5.

[Sparkey55]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

I remember one company that had a warning on every model of paste they made saying that it must be reapplied every 12 months. I can't remember what brand that was now, and I don't see any that has that warning now.

I never had good luck with Ceramique. It worked fine for a year, and then the temperatures started increasing. I'd rather not take the heatsink off that often.

I am using a computer right now that has Ceramique in use with a Athlon XP 2600+ used every day almost 24/7 for over a year now and no temp problems at all in that time. Do you clean out the dust bunnies often?

[shovenose]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

Use whatever the OEMs (HP, Dell, eMachines/Acer/Gateway, Lenovo, Toshiba, etc) use because most people run their ten year old PCs and have never reapplied the TIM nor even know what the heck it is LOL...

Alright, maybe I'm kidding, a little bit, maybe not?

[lti]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

I remember one company that had a warning on every model of paste they made saying that it must be reapplied every 12 months. I can't remember what brand that was now, and I don't see any that has that warning now.

I never had good luck with Ceramique. It worked fine for a year, and then the temperatures started increasing. I'd rather not take the heatsink off that often.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

All TIMs have some burn-in period, whether from 5 minutes to 5 days. The microscopic gaps need time to get filled in at normal conditions. You should read some NASA or Mil-Standard Qualification data sheets for further understanding.

I see.

[c_hegge]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

I always use AS5, and it seems to do great.

As far as the furmark temps, I once did it to a passive 8500GT with a somewhat small heatsink (Thanks ASUS!). It maxed out at 105*C. You could just about cook eggs on it at that temp.

[Sparkey55]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

Done some looking, not as sold on AS5... there's some 200 hour burn-in period on that stuff, and that's almost a deal breaker, as the tests I've read show it's not bad (but far from the best) when fresh.

This stuff any good?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835426020

All TIMs have some burn-in period, whether from 5 minutes to 5 days. The microscopic gaps need time to get filled in at normal conditions. You should read some NASA or Mil-Standard Qualification data sheets for further understanding.

[mariushm]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

I don't know, looks like generic paste to me. If it was any good, it would list the specs on it.
The gelid site lists it as 8.5W/mK which isn't anything special.

Look for pastes that have better thermal conductivity, for example the Prolimatech pastes are advertised at 10.2w/mK
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835242024

But then again, Tuniq TX-4 is recommended by a lot of sites as a good general paste and it's only rated as 6.3w/mK.

It makes a lot of difference how thin the paste is applied and so on...

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

Done some looking, not as sold on AS5... there's some 200 hour burn-in period on that stuff, and that's almost a deal breaker, as the tests I've read show it's not bad (but far from the best) when fresh.

This stuff any good?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835426020

[shovenose]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

AS5 is a bit old at this point but still excellent and it seems to have come down in price a tiny bit.

The differences between all of the really good pastes including AS5 are like 1-3C so just find one you like an use it AS5 would be my recommendation that said.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

Furmark pushes a GPU to it's absolute limits. What cooler is on the card? I use to have an 8600GT with the dinky stock cooler. Heated up like crazy. Put on a big ol' cooler and it never got over 40C after that.

Stock cooler for an 8600GTS (it's a bit bigger than a GT IIRC). My only worry about swapping is that if you look, there is only one slot of space between GPUs. Kinda tight.

Yeah Furmark pushes them pretty hard. Were the fans actually at 100% or were they lower? I've seen some stupid video cards that even when getting up to 90C+ only went to 80-90% fan speed

100% @ 90C or so.

If you are talking about TIM, I use ArcticSilver Ceramique. Never had a problem.

I heard ceramique was junk and AS5 was a better choice... but I'm open to ideas.

[Sparkey55]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V3.5

decided to furmark it... and when the GPU's got to 100C, I killed furmark.

Uh oh...

When I redid the heatsinks, I used this for the GPU die:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...oductId=154389

I take it that's not good enough... What is suggested to fix this?

If you are talking about TIM, I use ArcticSilver Ceramique. Never had a problem.