Arctic Silver 5
Intel Dual Core with
Heatspreader Instructions

1. Initial Precautions
2. Technical Precautions
3. Break-in Period
4. Application Instructions
5. Storage of Arctic Silver 5
6. Removal from Hardware
7. Removal from Self

3) Break-In Period
Due to the unique shape and sizes of the particles in Arctic Silver 5 conductive matrix, it will take a 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 2C to 5C 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.
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4) Application Instructions

Important Reminder
Even though Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound is specifically engineered for high electrical resistance, you should keep the compound away from processor, memory, and motherboard traces and pins. There is a possibility that dust or metal particles and/or shavings carried by airflow inside the computer case could contaminate the compound and increase its electrical conductivity.

Heatsink Preparation
If your heatsink has a thermal 'pad' mounted on it, this pad must be removed before using Arctic Silver 5. If your heatsink has thermal interface material applied to it, it must be removed first. After the pad or thermal interface material is removed, ONLY Arctic Silver 5 will be between the CPU heatspreader and the heatsink.

Thermal pads are made with paraffin wax that melts once it gets hot. When it melts, it fills in the microscopic valleys in the heatsink with wax. To minimize permanent contamination of the heatsink mounting surface with wax, the thermal pad should be removed before it is used and melted. Never use heat or hot water to remove the pad, as heat will melt the wax into the heatsink. Take care not to scratch the surface of the heatsink when removing the pad, a plastic tool is recommended in the removal of thermal pads or other thermal interface material. You can then optimally remove the remnants of the wax or other thermal interface material by using ArctiClean 1 and 2. You can adequately clean the remnants with a xylene based cleaner, (Goof Off and some carburetor cleaners) or high-purity isopropyl alcohol. If you use Goof off or xylene based cleaners always follow up with a cleaning of high-purity isopropyl alcohol afterwards.

NEVER use any oil or petroleum based cleaners (WD-40, citrus oil based cleaners and many automotive degreasers) on the base of a heatsink. The oil, which is engineered to not evaporate, will fill in the microscopic valleys in the metal and significantly reduce the effectiveness of any subsequently applied thermal compound.

CPU Preparation:
As you may know the heatspreader is the raised square in the center of the CPU and is highlighted in red and is covering the dual core in the photo at left.



New CPU’s generally do not have thermal interface material applied to them from the factory, so cleaning the surface is not required but is recommended. To optimally clean the CPU heatspreader surface use ArctiClean steps 1 and 2 or adequately by using a low residual solvent (high-purity isopropyl alcohol) and a LINT FREE cloth (a lens cleaning cloth or a coffee filter). If another thermal compound was previously applied to the CPU heatspreader you MUST clean the surface first. To optimally clean the surface use ArctiClean steps 1 and 2 or adequately by using a low residual solvent (high-purity isopropyl alcohol) and a LINT FREE cloth (a lens cleaning cloth or a coffee filter). Important: Keep the surfaces free of foreign materials and do NOT touch the surfaces, a hair, piece of lint, and even dead skin cells can significantly affect the thermal interfaces performance. In addition, oils from your fingers can adversely affect the performance by preventing the micronized silver fill from directly contacting the metal surfaces. (Fingerprints can be as thick as 0.005")

Applying Arctic Silver 5:



Carefully apply Arctic Silver 5 directly to the heatspreader of the CPU. Only apply thermal compound to the top of the actual CPU heatspreader. Put a very thin line in close proximity to the center of the heatspreader as depicted in red, like the photo at left. Be CAREFUL to apply the thermal compound in the CORRECT DIRECTION. To apply a line in the correct direction, do the following: Make sure to orient your CPU heatspreader with the triangle mark on the chip pointing down and to the left. You can see the yellow arrow on the photo pointing to this triangle mark. The red line in the photo depicts the amount and size of Arctic Silver 5 you will be using. Note the bottom photo at left. This is an Intel Dual Core processor as well but with the heatspreader removed. Notice the elongated chip and how the line of thermal compound will vertically cross the dual core chip when properly applied.

Finishing the Application:
RECHECK to make sure no foreign contaminants are present on either the bottom of the heatsink or the top of the CPU heatspreader. Mount the heatsink on the CPU per the heatsink instructions. Be sure to lower the heatsink straight down onto the CPU.
Once the heatsink is properly mounted, grasp the heatsink and very gently twist it slightly clockwise and counterclockwise one time each if possible (Just one or two degrees or so). Please note that some heatsinks cannot be twisted once mounted. However, our testing has shown that this method minimizes the possibility of air bubbles and voids in the thermal interface between the heat spreader and the heatsink. Since the vast majority of the heat from the core travels directly through the heat spreader, it is more important to have a good interface directly above the actual CPU core than it is to have the heat spreader covered with compound from corner to corner. Happy cooling.

Seeing that diagram may explain why my temps have been a tad wierd, I'll be sure to use that method when my Tuniq Tower arrives.

I've been using the articlean stuff too, best thing about it by far is the citrus smell. I tend to go through a hell of a lot more of part 1 (remover) than the part 2 (purifier).