Arctic Silver 5 Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Paste 3.5g

by Arctic Silver

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3.2 x 2.8 x 2.2 inches ; 0.6 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B0002VFXFE
• Item model number: Arctic Silver
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (541 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #1 in Industrial & Scientific > Industrial Electrical > Thermal Management Products > Computer Heatsinks
  • #1 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Computer Components > Fans & Cooling > Heatsinks

Product Description

Arctic Silver 5 premium thermal compound with 99.9% pure micronized silver is specifically designed to maximize the thermal conductivity between today's high-powered processors and high-performance cooling assemblies. Arctic Silver 5 uses three unique shapes and sizes of near-pure silver particles to maximize particle-to-particle contact area and thermal transfer. It can reduce CPU core temperatures by up to 50°F over standard silicone thermal pastes. Controlled triple phase viscosity allows Arctic Silver 5 to fill over time microscopic valleys and gaps in CPU and heatsink surfaces. One 3.5g tube can cover up to 25 CPU cores.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

365 of 371 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best thermal compound on the market December 21, 2008

By Nathan Beauchamp TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Arctic Silver 5 is the best thermal compound on the market. There are other types that might be better for specific purposes (Arctic Céramique for example), but for cooling a CPU, this is the best. I've used it extensively for quite a few computer builds as well as a few 'special projects' like replacing the thermal compound on an Asus Formula X48 mother board's Northbridge and Southbridge heatsinks.

The results are always a 4-10c drop in CPU temperatures under load. You will not notice a huge difference at idle. The real gains in heat dissipation come when the CPU is being pushed. Also, don't trust the board makers proprietary software to tell you what your temperatures are; download a good program like RealTemp 2.41 or Everest for free (use google to find them). Either will give you more accurate numbers than Asus PC Probe, or whatever software your board manufacturer supplies.

There are some saying Arctic Silver 5 didn't lower their temperatures. That is almost certainly because they're using it incorrectly, which I can understand since the instructions provided are minimally useful. So for those of you who are not familiar with applying thermal paste, here is the process:

1. Remove the old thermal compound. This is accomplished by using Isopropyl alcohol to dissolve and loosen the old thermal paste. I recommend purchasing an ArctiClean kit. For minimal cost it will give you the compound remover, as well as an excellent surface preparer. Apply a several drops of the cleaner to the top of the chip and let it soak for 20-30 seconds. You might have to reapply more drops of cleaner again depending on how much thermal compound was present on the chip to begin with.... Wipe all the waste off with a lintless cloth or cotton swabs.

2. Apply a surface cleaner. You can use more alcohol, or the surface preparer that comes in the arctic silver kit. Make sure there are no traces of the old compound: you can tell that the surface is perfectly clean when you can wipe it with a new q-tip and it comes away pure white.

3. Apply Arctic Silver 5. DO NOT USE TOO MUCH! If you do, it will squish outside the edge of the chip, get on your motherboard, the CPU locking mechanism, your hands, etc... It makes a real mess. Start with a small amount and add more if necessary. The idea here is to get a THIN, EVEN LAYER across the entire chip surface. A toothpick actually work's really well at spreading the paste around. You should not be able to see any part of the metal of the chip when you're done. Less is more in this instance; many people think they need to slather this stuff onto the chip, but trust me that does nothing but make a mess.

4. Install your heat sink and fan assembly. I recommend getting an aftermarket heat sink as those provided by Intel are notoriously poor. Zalman makes some great ones. Do NOT buy on that uses push pins to lock in place. You want one with screws and mounting bracket so that it is very securely attached to the motherboard and in turn, your CPU. This is probably equally important to applying the thermal compound correctly, because all the compound in the world won't help you if the heatsink isn't making solid contact with the chip's surface.

If you follow those steps, you will see a massive improvement in your core temps. Just remember that heat dissipation is achieved by the fans in your case and heatsinks, not the compound itelf. The compound simply allows for a much better transfer for heat from chip-->heatsink. I swear by Arctic Silver, and I promise you it works if you use it correctly. Read more ›

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wish computer manufacturers used this! July 14, 2010

By Jason Faulds

My girlfriend's Dell M1330 laptop (refurb) started an annoying habit of the fan ramping up to maximum level. After a lot of reading I updated the bios and video display drivers in hopes that that would rectify the issue and that the fan speed was a glitch. That didn't work. So I looked into making the machine cooler. She doesn't always use the laptop on a flat surface, so that could be part of the issue. I decided that a thermal grease change may help. So I did a lot of research online and speaking to a few computer techs I know. I decided to buy the Artic 5 and give it a try.

Luckily her computer was easy to work on. It was super-simple to get to her CPU. I cleaned off the old, grey paste that was on the chip (and then some). I used an alcohol pad like you would get from the hospital. I've seen some people say to use a higher purity alcohol 90%, but I used the 70% that was on the pad. Once all was clean on CPU and heat sink, I put a small drop of Artic 5 on the chip and spread it evenly with the tip of the product syringe (then wiped off the syringe before putting the cap back on). Put the laptop back together and fired it up. That was about 3 weeks ago and I have yet to hear the fan ramp up like it was doing before the grease change. The temperature on both cores of the CPU have gone down immensely!

I liked the performance so much, and had so much more grease left over, that I decided to do the job on my own laptop even thought I haven't had any cooling issues. I guess you'd call it preventative maintenance. I have a Dell Inspiron. The job was not even CLOSE to being as easy, but I got it done and have had no problems. My fan barely ever comes on, so I guess that's good.

This stuff really does what they say it does!

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great September 21, 2007

By William Rems

Amazon Verified Purchase

I was a little skeptical that it could drop my cpu temps... Not anymore it did as adertised.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Do not buy anything else March 3, 2012

By Paul Pearce

Amazon Verified Purchase

My Ps3 slim was turning off after 20-30 minutes of use.
Bought some arctic silver, stripped down the PS3, cleaned everything off and dobbed a tab in the middle of both chips.
Put it all back together and 6 hours later, PS3 still humming cool and nice.

Ive used "other" thermal solutions before and they just do not last like Arctic does. You also use alot less of it typically.

NOTE: why are there always a couple of screws left over when you put something back together ?

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I use it on every computer repair and new build December 14, 2011

By jjceo HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWER

Amazon Verified Purchase

I have tried other Thermal Interface Materials (TIM) and I went back to Artic Silver 5 thermal compound. It is simply the best and I have gotten the best results with it for many years. The product is ideal for CPUs, Northbridge, Southbridge and GPU components that are heat sinked. I have used it on desktop computers, laptops, servers, and Xbox 360's.

When using the product a little dab will do the trick. If you use too much it will squeeze out from under the heat sink and make a big mess. The proper amount is about 1 ˝ to 2 times the size of a grain of rice. If you look on the internet there are several guides on how to use the product including photos. Sometimes on a large CPU I spread the compound in a very thin and even layer with and old credit card like tool. On one rough heat sink assembly I had to work a drop of the compound into the surface with a credit card and this filled in the micro abrasions in the surface and improved the temperature drop by 4 degrees C. The key is that you want a thin and even layer of the compound on the entire top surface of the CPU so that all the micro flaws in the surfaces of the CPU and the heat sink are filled with the silver in the product to provide maximum thermal conductance of heat away from the CPU and into the heat sink assembly. Do not use to much compound, people tend to use too much or not enough and the science is to do it just right!

Before you apply the compound clean all the surfaces and make sure they have no oil, finger prints, or dust on them. Make sure you have removed the old thermal compound from the surfaces. Some old compounds get rock hard and can be difficult to clean. I have used Goo Gone and it is by far the best cleaning solution I have ever used.... Don't use too much and clean only the CPU and heat sink. Then wipe all surfaces dry and wipe again with an alcohol swab and a Q tip if necessary to clean up the old compound. Then give it a final wipe with Ľ of a coffee filter as they are fiber free paper and you should have a clean surface. These surfaces must be absolutely clean and even the oil from a fingerprint that you can't see can cause a problem.

Mount your heat sink and I like the aftermarket heat sink fan assemblies or water cooled blocks as they install with screws and you can make sure that the heat sink is firm and tight with the CPU. The factory supplied heat sinks with push pins bother me as I have seen many people swear they are tight and they are not. You will not get ideal cooling unless you do a professional job of installing these key components and you may damage your CPU.

The Artic Silver 5 compound has an aging time of around 200 hours and the temperature will improve by about 2 to 5 degrees after the aging process is done. To properly age the compound you should use your computer until it heats up (about one or two hours) and then shut it down and let it cool off and use it again. Do this multiple times. This heat and cool procedure sets the compound up properly and improves the thermal interface. Good luck and have fun! Read more ›