Thermal Paste Interesting Question.

[thegreatone]

Hello poeple, after using thermal paste for the first time ever properly (in other words, not just to make pretty patterns) i noticed that my CPU temperature dropped ot 39'C Idle.
After a few days it dropped furthur to 38'C idle.
And now, its dropped to 36'C idle.
I have a very powerful Zalman air coller and heatsink that is at a constant 2600rpm.

My question is this, as the thermal paste gets more heat transfer in its life does it actually become more conductive of heat ? because mine seems to have done exactly that.

Also, what is the melting point of sellotape ? Its holding up under 100'C workloads here... Strange.

[si_the_geek]

I would assume (but am no expert on these things!) that the paste has a 'setting' period, whereby it does not come up to full 'strength' immediately. This is noticeable in a few things, especially glues of various kinds.

There is also one other thing to keep in mind, that is the ambient temperature (and humidity) of the surroundings of your PC - unless that is also being monitored (and is constant) you cannot be certain that the paste/fan etc are performing any differently to what they were before.

As for sellotape, I have no idea!! What are you using it for??

[thegreatone]

Well, i have a temp sensor on my power supply that usually read between 95 and 100'C (Yes Celcius, 208 Farenheight) I can't use metal screws on it because of the electrocution risk, so, believe it or not its held there with sellotape, not much of it mind, and it works a treat :) The fan runs at 2400rpm. As an exhaust.
I just didn't want molten sellotape thats all.

I have ambient temp's monitored as well, its aways at 39'C in my case after about 5 minutes of the PC running. Thats because my room is at the same temp all the time (gets anooying in winter though :( )

The setting period does actually sound feasable, so yeh, i think that may be correct.

[si_the_geek]

I would test my sellotape to find out, but the only thermometers I have are on my motherboard/HD :lol: As it has stayed for a while, the only problem I see is a gradual stretching over time - but I wouldn't want to trust it myself (if it breaks, your PSU could potentially fall onto other components).

I'm surprised your case doesn't have a bracket of some kind to hold the PSU in place, but I guess you may have changed from the expected size of PSU (or the case is an odd one!).

[thegreatone]

No no no, i think i explained wrong, i'm holding a fan onto my PSU. With sellotape, just it gets upto 95 - 100'C Daily, so i was wondering whether it would hold out.

I went to the sellotape website and tried getting an email address i could contact, surely they should know ? But i couldn't find an email address, lol.

[si_the_geek]

Ah, thats not so worrying then!

You may be able to find plastic screws to fix it on (at a DIY or electronics store), otherwise I guess just wait and see if the sellotape lasts.

[thegreatone]

Of course plastic screws why didn't i think of that... lol.
Down to Maplins electronics tomorrow then ;)

Still, the sellotape seems to be lasting :)
Still curious about its melting point though... hmmm... Anyone ?

[dglienna]

I've seen a HP HSF a month ago, and it came with a piece of thermal tape attached to it. I asked about it, and was told that thermal paste isn't used anymore, as people were using the wrong amounts, and it wasn't effective.

If there isn't a gray piece of tape-like substance stuck to the HSF, then, and only then would I use any thermal paste. Turned out that the wrong HSF was shipped, so I didn't get it replaced. It did have metal screws in it, though.

This was a HP Multimedia center with an AMD processor.

[thegreatone]

I've seen a HP HSF a month ago, and it came with a piece of thermal tape attached to it. I asked about it, and was told that thermal paste isn't used anymore, as people were using the wrong amounts, and it wasn't effective.

If there isn't a gray piece of tape-like substance stuck to the HSF, then, and only then would I use any thermal paste. Turned out that the wrong HSF was shipped, so I didn't get it replaced. It did have metal screws in it, though.

This was a HP Multimedia center with an AMD processor.
Well, i only applied a light covering, and i mean light covering. The the theory being that less was more ;) Otherwise it would have been insulating instead of conductive.

As for the pads, at this rate i think i will be sticking to Thermal Paste. I'm sure i will always be able to get my hands on some.

My Packard Bell came with some horrible black gunk that supposedly worked... Left my processor at almost 70'C idle. I hated it, so dismantled the heatsink (and all the dust, this was a brand new machine, why was it dusty?) and scraped all the gunk off, then reapplied lovely thermal paste and a Zalman cooler. Runs lovely now :)