Due to the unique shape and sizes of the particles in Arctic Silver 5's conductive matrix, it will take a up to 200 hours and several thermal cycles to achieve maximum particle to particle thermal conduction and for the heatsink to CPU interface to reach maximum conductivity.
Arctic Silver is a grease and does not have any adhesive qualities. It will never dry or set and cannot be used to glue a heatsink to a chip.
that's a good point. Also make sure to clean up all the dust from your heatsink/fan and your case fans to make sure they are in the same condition when you first applied the paste.I think it would be nice to record the temps you get when you first apply AS5 and then re recored the temps a month later.
I would say re-apply every 2 or 3 years.
Theremal paste contains liquid, as with any liquid it will evaporate over time. Evaporation causes the paste to eventually shrink and crack, thus less paste will be contacting the heatshink and the CPU.
Worse, as paste drys out it also cracks and that can result in tiny little air pockets in what is left of the paste. Last I heard, air is really not a good conductor of heat.
the 99.9% silver is the purity of the silver, not the silver content of the paste. This is a common misconception. If it were 99.9% silver content it would look like silver and not be a grayish paste.
I figure the paste will last until the computer reaches obselescence, after that point it probably doesn't matter if the paste is working to full capacity anyway.
-mcg