[plug] [OT] Tech rant

[Kev]

My 2 penneth worth ...

Ben Jensz wrote:

> I put artic silver on the heatsink of my P4 and its pretty hard to get 
> the CPU and heatsink apart (it keeps the temp 4-5 degrees cooler than 
> the thermal contact on the heatsink by default though).  I actually let 
> the CPU run for a while to get it warm to soften up the thermal paste a 
> bit to get the heatsink off... but it still was hard.... I did it by 
> moving the heatsink sideways as to not rip the CPU out of the socket by 
> pulling it upwards.  Carefully of course..

For cost effectiveness you couldn't go past just some ordinary ol' 
garden variety non-(electrically)conductive silicon heat sink compound 
from Tricky Dick's or Jaycar or similar.  I used to use the Berylium 
based stuff till I learned what Be does to a human.

I get a >5 degreee drop in operating temp with that stuff.  I actually 
went to the trouble of testing it on several AMD processors here at home 
earlier this year.

Another thing which will give a measureable difference is painting your 
heat sink matte black.  Because of the relatively low temps involved 
(<100 C) you don't need any special heat resistant paint.

The best gain (or should that be loss?) however is gained by simply 
keeping it all clean.  ie, keep all the dust and dirt out of the heat 
sink fins.

> If they did use something like artic silver thermal epoxy... good luck, 
> that stuff bonds exceptionally well.  I've used it before to stick a new 
> heatsink + fan onto a graphics card before, did not budge at all.. you'd 
> rip the GPU off of the card before you'd separate the heatsink from the 
> GPU.

I've come across this too.  Take the previous advice and give up. 
You'll destroy the chip first.

Cheers
Kev Downes