Does Arctic Silver Degrade over time?

Running an Athlon XP 2000+ with the CoolMaster HHC-001 copper, heatpipe HSF with the Delta 7200 RPM fan.

Use Arctic Silver II and was applied and system built back in May of 2002.

Up until recently, my temps were:

CPU - 47 under full load
System - 33 - 34

A few days ago I noticed my system was

CPU 53 - 54 under full load
System 33-34

The fan is always running at full speed because I dont use the MB connector. Could the ASII need to be re-applied? I am adding more RAM tomorrow anyways so while I have it open, I will re-apply the ASII and see what happens.

Anyone else run into this?

No.:) So your current situation has me stumped.:(

It is possible. A fresh application will tell, be sure to clean all the old compound off with alcohol before re-application.

The heat transfer efficiency depends on the compound neatly filling in the voids in the metal-to-metal contact. Normally you wouldn't expect deterioration, but most heatsink mountings can allow the cooler to move, and if it did, vibration or similar cause, the continuity of the thermal compound could be broken. You would then get reduced heat transfer.

Keep us posted.

I have noticed when the fan blades get that lovely coating of dust over time that they tend to slow down noticeably, could that cause the temp increase? It is a pain to clean that stuff off....

Ah yes, forgot. As well as fan blades mentioned above, dust & fluff build-up in the cooler fins can block airflow considerably.

I agree...dust is the more likely culprit. AS products are actually supposed to get better at heat transfer over time, although I'm sure by now you've already reached that "mature" age.

4 years and counting so far and I have never reapplied AS1. Still is the same as it was orignally.

~Chris

I found that dust build up can increase temps. I hit my Athlon fan (Zalman 5001 cu) with compressed air about once a month or so. I also blast out the power supply.

I have not ever heard of Artic Silver breaking down. My guess is that wont be a problem.

I noticed the same problem here. I have the same setup...

AS2, AMD 2100+, and the Coolermaster Heatsink (the copper jobbie with the heat pipe)

The problem IS: Dust build up in the 4 corners. Give it a good blow off with some compressed air and you should be good to go. I have to do this about once per month, but after I do it there is a several degree drop... Just keep your computer clean.

I've noticed that the white goo turns solid and would appear to have a drop in it's ability to diplace heat but I haven't noticed this with arctic silver. Most of the time when I'm changing a fan or cpu with arctic silver on it, there's still enough good goo left that I don't need to add any.

OK, finally got around to taking my system apart to investigate whats going on.

First, I must note that I am very thankfull that my wife is a clean freak. I havent opened my system up in about 9 months. I have plenty of case fans circulating air in and out. There was literally ZERO dust in my case. There was a tiny amount on the chassis but there wasnt even a spec of dust on the components or cables.

There was very minimal dust on the HSF, definately not enought to restrict airflow.

So I put on one of the Zalman 3100+ HSF units. I had just recently put together almost an identical system to mine but with a comparable ASUS board and one of these Zalmans. Both comptuers are using Athlon XP2000+ chips. I have the same case & case fan config in both systems. The Zalman in the new system keeps the CPU at around 38-41 degrees C always.

So I decided to pick one up ($15.99) and put it in my system.

Still getting the same temp readings as before (51-53 degrees C). So I have come to the conclusion that there is probably something wrong with the temp sensor on my MB.

Anyone want to second this assesment for me?

I am going to keep the Zalman in either case. It is MUCH quiter then my HHC-001 with a Delta Fan and I think does a better job because the large fan on the Zalman also keeps a pretty powerful airflow onto my RAM as well!

Very possible that the sensors are not calibrated properly... I did a bios flash on my gigabyte board and the temps dropped by 10 degrees F !

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Originally posted by NooNoo
Very possible that the sensors are not calibrated properly... I did a bios flash on my gigabyte board and the temps dropped by 10 degrees F !

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Computers lie. It's a conspiracy! You saw the OSPF log. They want you to overheat and kill them so that they can evolve and eat us.

Bwahahaha :p

Quote:

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Due to the unique shape and sizes of the silver particles in Arctic Silver 3, it will take a minimum of 72 hours, and as many as 200 hours 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.) The CPU's temperature will drop as much as 2C to 5C over this "break-in" period.

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According to this, it get's better with time.

I would suspect things you don't realize are causing it. I know my temps are higher in the evening then the morning,

My apartment heats up during the day (Even though it's winter) and temp differences can be as much as 3-4 Degrees celcius. Also, proper wire routing inside the case can have a big effect on tempuratutres..

Quote:

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Originally posted by Matridom

My apartment heats up during the day (Even though it's winter) and temp differences can be as much as 3-4 Degrees celcius. Also, proper wire routing inside the case can have a big effect on tempuratutres..

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I pay $200/month in the winter to keep my house warm. When the summer comes, my air condition bill is $500-600/month to keep a house cool that has 1 and a half racks full of servers. If keeping the wiring inside the rack would make a difference, I'd definitely do it. But, I've tried and it doesn't.