Does Arctic Silver 5 expire?

Ghot said:

I use this stuff. It never goes bad. It's made out of the same stuff as Hostess Twinkies.


ZALMAN ZM-STG2 Thermal Greases - Newegg.com

Why do you like it? What is it like?

TV2 said:

Why do you like it? What is it like?

It's greasy. It doesn't dry (cure)... ever.

That's what I recall about AS5. The last fan I pulled was on for about 8 years and it was still greasy. I wiped most of it off the parts with a tissue, then cleaned everything completely with alcohol.

I'll let you know how it did from 2013 in a few weeks.

A tip: no matter what product is used I've found it best to put a dollop about the size of a pencil eraser in the center of the CPU and let the clamping down of the heatsink spread out the paste, eliminates the possibility of air pockets no matter how small,

"Do not try this at home." (for the civilians)

I squeeze out some grease, then I use my finger and smear the paste completely on the parts in a thin even layer.
Painting, not frosting a cake!

Finger cleans up easily with alcohol.

Catnip said:

I use an old credit card to spread things around.

It seems only fitting. I paid a whopping sum for my computer, I might as well use a monetary instrument to do the maintenance.

Yep. Credit card spread is a great method.
Need a spare credit card....

Ghot said:

Gotta love the SPREAD method. Notice that none of the others cover the entire die.

The other thing to keep in mind when doing this is that you don't want to impede the metal on metal contact between the 2 parts.
Adding too much thermal compound can be a problem.
All you are trying to do is fill the microscopic "holes" in the metal surface.

It seems that some people think the compound is the main component that conducts the heat from processor to fan sink. This is not true. Metal - silver and copper particularly - have far greater conductive properties than any compound (even arctic silver and the like). It is the metal to metal contact that does the heavy lifting here.

The metal surfaces of the processor heat shield and the cooler's heat sink seem to be smooth by feel and to the naked eye. But seen under a microscope the surfaces are rough and look like mountain ranges.
When the two surfaces contact it is only the peaks of those mountains that truly make contact. The valleys are just empty air. And that air in this case acts more like an insulator than a conductor.
This is the job or thermal compound: fill those gaps with a more conductible material than the air.
But nothing comes close to the thermal transference of metal, so too much compound actually reduces the effectiveness.

I can bore you with a bunch of science articles on this if you'd like!

Easy on the compound folks!