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The Thermal Paste Revolution

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the best-of-the-goop dept.

arhines writes "ZZZ is running an article about an interesting new thermal paste which surpasses even solder in thermal conductance by 33 percent. If this paste makes it to the market sometime soon, we'll all surely be thinking about putting it in our boxes. In fact, if use of the paste becomes commonplace, it may even give the semiconductor industry a little speed boost."

4 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. don't believe the hype? by BobTheLawyer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They seem to have just duplicated the inventor's press release - the article doesn't contain any independent evaluation of the substance whatsoever.

  2. Re:Hmmm. by silvaran · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think you misunderstood the statement. They may have compared the thermal conductance of this material to solder, but they're not looking to replace solder. Solder is made up of metals, so it's naturally a good conductor. But metal doesn't spread very well over microscopic cracks -- and no, you can't fill in the cracks with solder, because the metal will contract when it cools and be useless as a thermal paste. You wouldn't want to use a thermal paste as a solder, because thermal paste typically takes a very, very long time to dry when not exposed (ie: between a cpu and a heatsink).

    So it looks like CowboyNeal is saying if this new thermal paste can improve the effectiveness of a heatsink (and fan) by a reasonable amount, manufacturers will be able to push their clock speeds a little higher.

  3. Re:How adhesive is that paste? by aed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If possible, switch on the machine for a few minutes before removing the heatsink.
    This will heat the CPU and it will usually melt the thermal paste. It should now be easier to remove the heatsink from the cpu.

  4. Re: Actually... by AKnightCowboy · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Heating the CPU can easily damage it if you are not careful about how hot you let it get. So it is usually very dangerous for you to try to remove the substance from the CPU if you have not already done it several times (or don't mind wasting whatever you spend on that CPU when you need to go out and buy a new one).

    You know, that sounds like a major pain in the ass to save a few degrees. Maybe manufacturers should just make cooler CPUs instead of us needing industrial strength copper heatsinks and 19mm fans. I really miss the days when a heatsink and fan were optional on a CPU. I think my 386 was the last of that kind though. My 486DX2/66 ran fine after the fan on the heatsink failed though so the heatsink was good enough. Even most Pentium systems were just fine with a big heat sink and no fan. Nowadays all my Athlon systems sound like I'm at an airport with the 5 or 6 fans I need in my system to keep it cool.