Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound 3.5 Grams with ArctiClean 60 ML Kit

by Arctic Silver 5

Product Details

• Item Weight: 3 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B001FVI91U
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (108 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #2 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Computer Accessories > Cleaning & Repair
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 10, 2008

Product Description

Includes 1 NEW 3.5g Tube of Arctic Silver 5 Premium Polysynthetic Silver Compound for cooling CPU or GPU. Each tube should provide about 20 applications. Also includes ArctiClean Kit Unique 2-Step Process:

ArctiClean 1 Thermal Material Remover quickly emulsifies and dissolves the existing thermal grease or pad from the CPU and/or heatsink so that it can easily be removed with a clean cloth or paper towel. A few drops of ArctiClean 2 Thermal Surface Purifier and some gentle wiping then removes the remaining residue and inhibits flash corrosion on copper or aluminum.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A necessity if you're replacing your CPU, December 21, 2008

By 

Nathan Beauchamp "ConsumerAdvocate" (Oak Park, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound 3.5 Grams with ArctiClean 60 ML Kit (Electronics)

Arctic Silver 5 (or AS5) is the best thermal compound on the market IMHO. It's basically an essential if you're installing a new CPU. This kit is everything you need to clean your heat sink, prepare the surface of the heatsink and your CPU, and ensure that your chip functions at the coolest temps possible.

If you apply the compound correctly, the result is 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 maker's 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.

The instructions provided with this kit are minimal (small text on the side of the bottles) and could be confusing if you've never used thermal paste before, so here are some detailed instructions that will help you do it right. Here is the process:

1. Remove the old thermal compound. This is accomplished by using the remover (bottle 1). 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, or how hard it's gotten over time. Wipe all the waste off with a lintless cloth or cotton swabs. You might have to do this several times. Make sure you get it as clean as you can before moving to step 2.

2. Apply the surface cleaner (Bottle 2). Apply several drops, and then work them over the entire surface of the chip or heatsink in a circular motion. 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.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth the money, June 3, 2010

By 

Leon Shen (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

Background:
I have an older computer than most of the reviewers here. It's a Dell XPS400 with a 3.2GHz Pentium-D dual-core processor. These CPUs were manufactured with the older 65ns fabs, which means they consume a lot of power and generate a lot of heat. It's showing it's age now, but it's still fast enough to run Windows 7 64-bit.

The Problem:
Lately, I've noticed that my computer was getting louder and louder. I would rationalize it because the weather is getting warmer and I was playing some CPU intensive games. Eventually, it got to the point where it sounded like a jet engine was keeping my girlfriend from sleeping. Being the cheapskate that I am, I would rather add better cooling than to simply buy a new computer system. It then dawned to me that the computer was nearly FOUR YEARS OLD and the thermal paste had probably dried out by now. Vacuuming out and reapplying the thermal grease would be my cheapest option.

The Product:
I haven't built a computer from scratch in a long time, but many years ago when I did, Arctic Silver was the product to get. I did some research and it appeared that it was still considered one of the best thermal paste applications around. I found it on Amazon for a good price and purchased the Arctic Silver kit (includes ArctiClean1, ArctiClean2, & Arctic Silver 5). I opened up my computer, cleaned off all the dust and followed the Arctic Silver instructions.

ArctiClean1 - dissolves and emulsifies the old thermal grease on your CPU and heatsink. If your computer came pre-built, the manufacturer most likely used way too much. I had to reapply around three times to make sure all the previous thermal grease was removed.

ArctiClean2 - removes and purified any residue left by ArctiClean1. It pretty much makes sure there's nothing in the way of the thermal grease and the CPU or heasink. I reapplied this around three times also.

Arctic Silver - it's been a while since I've had to apply thermal grease, but I do remember the most important rule. Do not overuse the grease! Use it sparingly as too much will be detrimental to its performance. Follow the instructions - [...].

The Result:
The break-in period for this product is 200 hours. I'm about 6 hours in, but I've already noticed a huge difference. While, the fan is still going, it's not nearly as loud as before. It definitely won't keep anyone from falling asleep anymore.

Recommendation:
This is a great product and I highly recommend getting the kit. It makes removing the previous thermal grease much easier and preps your heatsink and CPU way better than I could have using my own means. Highly recommended!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not sure my review is necessary, but..., January 26, 2010

By 

Unicorn (The Woods) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

Most people in the market have already heard of Arctic Silver; it's fair to say that Arctic Silver is to thermal paste what Kleenex is to facial tissues. In any case, this reputation is well-deserved, as the performance of this thermal paste is still top-notch.

I just built a budget gaming computer for $400 total based on a (now overclocked) Athlon II X3 425 and Radeon 4850 1 GB. I did not purchase an aftermarket cooler immediately, as I got the boxed version of the CPU. However, after overclocking to 3 GHz, I realized that replacement thermal paste and aftermarket cooling would be necessary. In keeping with the budget philosophy of my build, I chose to go with the Cooler Master Hyper TX3. Although the TX3 does come with its own tube of thermal paste, I figured I might as well get the AS5 kit, since I'd need to clean the CPU anyway.

In any case, the cooler and thermal paste did the trick. My CPU is now running at 3.36 GHz on stock voltages, up from 2.7 GHz. Temperatures are substantially cooler than the stock heatsink at stock clocks. Performance is up anywhere from 10-18% depending on benchmarks, and the total cost of the additional cooling is less than 10% of the build. I'd say that's a decent return on investment.