Techaddicts.net-Arctic Silver 5 Review

Review by: Jose

Date: March 28, 2004

Provided by: Arctic Silver, Inc.

Arctic Silver is a brand well known to overclockers. Through years of improvement, the Arctic Silver 5 is the newest addition to the Arctic Silver family. Our expectations are high with the Arctic Silver 5, as the previous versions were (and still are) excellent.

People use Arctic Silver because those few degrees make a difference using air-cooling, water-cooling, peltier cooling or when using phase change cooling when overclocking.

Let's look at the manufacturer specifications (taken from www.arcticsilver.com):

Extended Temperature Limits:
Peak: –50°C to >180°C Long-Term: –50°C to 130°C

Performance:
3 to 12 degrees centigrade lower CPU full load core temperatures than standard thermal compounds or thermal pads when measured with a calibrated thermal diode imbedded in the CPU core.

Coverage Area:
Arctic Silver 5 is sold in 3.5 gram and 12 gram tubes. The 3.5 gram tube contains enough compound to cover at least 15 to 25 small CPU cores, or 6 to 10 large CPU cores, or 2 to 5 heat plates. At a layer 0.003" thick, the 3.5 gram tube will cover approximately 16 square inches

As you can see from these specifications, you can use the Artic Silver 5 from temperatures of -50 C. for phase change cooling, to 130 C., which is well, more than enough for air-cooling solutions which run at much lower temperatures than 130 C. obviously, where processor death is imminent.

The Arctic Silver 5 replaces the Arctic Silver 3 thermal compound. The reason that there was never was Arctic Silver 4, is that in Japan, four means "shi" which means death. This is also true for other Asian cultures. Let's move on to the details and installation.

The Arctic Silver 5 comes in new packaging, the same one used in the Ceramique thermal compound. The Arctic Silver 3 pictured below comes in a 3 gram syringe, while the Arctic Silver 5 now comes in 3.5 gram syringes, which means that you will cover several more processors.

Arctic Silver 3 syringe (above) and Arctic Silver 3 syringe (below) with a dab of the compound

The Arctic Silver 5 has a thicker viscosity, compared to the Arctic Silver 3. The Arctic Silver 5 feels more like a solid than Arctic Silver 3. Below you can see that oil separated on the paper from the Arctic Silver 5. This is since Arctic Silver 5 is made of "polysynthetic oils" and not with any silicone. Both thermal compounds are very different chemically, which is interesting. It shows that the Arctic Silver 5 is a large change, rather than just making it a "little" better. Another good thing about Arctic Silver 5 is the viscosity which is "thicker than molasses". This makes it good for leaving the thermal compound over time, since it would not tend to be "squeezed out" of the core, but instead it would set it and not move, which is a good thing.

Installation of the Arctic Silver thermal compound is not complicated, though it is not a cake walk. The Arctic Silver site offers specific instructions that everyone should read. For instance, on the AMD Athlon XP's, you don't just put it on the processor. It will explain how a dab is placed first on the base of the heatsink, rubbed in circular motion. Then the core of the processor has to be cleaned with alcohol so that the core is free from debris. Then a small portion of the compound from the dab of the base of the heatsink is placed on the core, and spread into a thin layer for example with a credit card. This is just a summary of how to place the compound on the processor/heatsink on an Athlon processor, please read the instructions for specific details here.

The installation went well. One note I will make is that it takes several days for the compound to fully cure in, so in the meantime a drop of a few degrees might be seen. Therefore, we waited for the cure period and then tested to get the temperature results.

The CoolerMaster Jet 7 is used in the testing, see the review here. The Abit NF7 has an under the socket thermistor, which will report the temperatures. Prime95 is used to get the processor to load conditions. Here are the results:

As you can see, the Arctic Silver 5 dropped the temperatures 1-2 C over the already excellent Arctic Silver 3. The Arctic Silver 5 has a thicker viscosity, so it's better for long term use. Overall, the Arctic Silver 5 gets a 10/10. Editor's Choice!.

-More thermal compound in syringe (Arctic Silver 5- 3.5g, Arctic Silver 3- 3.0g)