Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips (
More info?)
On Sat, 17 Apr 2004 17:58:33 -0400, Tony Hill <hilla_nospam_20@yahoo.ca>
wrote:
>On 15 Apr 2004 17:21:16 -0700, datrooper@hotmail.com (sam unwise)
>wrote:
>>thanks for the reply,thankfuly i havent bought a celeron,i was
>>considering it till i read the reviews in this and other newsgroups
>
>Good call!
>
>>sorry to be a bother but could you give me the name of the pink
>>thermal pads,i hadnt heard of that before and am trying to pick up
>>things as i go along here
>
>Hmm... I'm not sure that they really have a name! I suppose they
>probably aren't always pink either, though all the ones I've seen have
>been. They are usually just referred to as a "thermal transfer pad"
>or some such thing. I've never seen them sold separately from a
>heatsink in any stores, usually they just come pre-packaged with a
>heatsink, particularly if you buy a "retail box" processor which has
>the processor and heatsink in one package.
A while back -- K6 & P5 era -- I saw pink pads which had a rubbery feel to
them and they did not work very well. Analyses of performance usually
showed that they only worked at extreme pressures and never as well as
thermal paste - it was my impression that they were really designed for
convenient factory assembly where things got bolted together, e.g. voltage
regulators and power transistors.
>Generally speaking they seem to be falling out of favor. Even most
>retail box CPU + heatsink combos seem to come with a little dab of
>thermal grease these days. Thermal grease is generally a bit more
>effective, but the pads used to be reasonable common because they're
>easier to use correctly for new users (thermal grease is only
>effective if you use a VERY flat and thin layer, many people just slap
>a bunch of the stuff on, sometimes making it worse than no grease at
>all). The only reason why I mentioned them is that you don't need to
>go out of your way to buy thermal grease if you buy a CPU + heatsink
>combo that comes with one of these pads.
Some of the retail and aftermarket CPU heatsinks I've seen fairly recently
have what looks and feels like a thick paste but is in fact a phase change
material - with heat, it first becomes more fluid, spreads under the
pressure and then hardens into something that feels like plastic.
Obviously this is a one shot deal so if you ever have to take the heatsink
off, you have to scrape the stuff off and apply fresh thermal paste... so
it's always a good idea to keep some thermal paste around.
I'll add that I've seen quite a difference in "quality" between the usual
white thermal pastes. The Radio Shack stuff is awful, the liquid carrier
evaporates/disperses quite quickly and leaves just white powder behind;
stuff I bought at an electronic parts store, don't recall the brand but it
came in quite a largish tube (enough for several lifetimes of hobbyist use)
was much better. With it, a heatsink I took off recently which had been on
for 4 years or so still had enough liquid/grease present that the CPU still
slid around a on it. My first thought was that I'd applied too much back
then but no, there was just a very thin layer of what was still paste.
Rgds, George Macdonald
"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram