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Thermal compound is necessary to create a reliable transfer of heat from your computer's processor to its heatsink to keep your CPU from overheating. Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound does this with three unique shapes and sizes of pure silver particles to maximize particle-to-particle contact area and thermal transfer. It's optimized for use between modern high-power CPUs and high-performance heatsinks or water-cooling solutions. This 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.
Note: This is an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) version, which includes the product, but nothing else. They are packaged generically and are best suited for system builders who don't require documentation or bundled accessories.
Arctic Silver 5 uses three unique shapes and sizes of pure silver particles to maximize particle-to-particle contact area and thermal transfer.
Arctic Silver 5 contains over 88% thermally conductive filler by weight. In addition to micronized silver, Arctic Silver 5 also contains sub-micron zinc oxide, aluminum oxide and boron nitride particles. These thermally-enhanced ceramic particles improve the compound's performance and long-term stability.
The exclusive mixture of advanced polysynthetic oils (No silicone is included) work together to provide three distinctive functional phases. Firstly, it will be applied to the CPU easily through a push of the plunger of the syringe. Then the compound thins out to enhance the filling of the microscopic valleys and ensure the best physical contact between the heatsink and the CPU core. Finally the compound thickens slightly over the next 50 to 200 hours of use to its final consistency designed for long-term stability.
Arctic Silver 5 was formulated to conduct heat, not electricity.
(While much safer than electrically conductive silver and copper greases, Arctic Silver 5 should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. While it is not electrically conductive, the compound is very slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical paths.)
Arctic Silver 5 will not separate, run, migrate, or bleed.
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.
A 3.5 gram syringe 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 syringe will cover approximately 16 square inches.
Important Reminder
Due to the unique shapse and sizes of the particles in Arctic Silver 5's conductive matrix, it will take up to 200 hours and several thermal cycles to achieve maximum particle to particle thermal conduction and for the heatsink to CPU interface to reach maximum conductivity (This period will be longer in a system without a fan on the heatsink or with a low speed fan on the heatsink.). On systems measuring actual internal core temperatures via the CPU's internal diode, the measured temperature will often drop 2 to 5°C over this "break-in" period. 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.
Caution
We do not recommend using Arctic Silver 5 on the older slot type Intel Xeon processors with large multiple square inch CPU to heatsink interfaces. The huge contact area and large gaps between the processor and the heatsink require a thermal pad or thick mesh-reinforced paste. Arctic Silver 5 can be used on socket type Xeons without a problem.
* This should not be confused with conventional phase change pads that are pre-attached to many heatsinks. Those pads melt each time they get hot then re-solidify when they cool. The viscosity changes that Arctic Silver 5 goes through are much more subtle and ultimately much more effective.