Legit Reviews

AI Technology Cool Silver Thermal Interface Material

If you were to ask just about PC enthusiast “What thermal paste should I use” you would always get one answer. Today we looking at a new thermal paste from AI Technology that is looking to dethrone that one answer, read on to find out if it can. We try it out on a couple different heat sinks to see how it performs on of our test systems.



Article Title:AI Technology Cool Silver Thermal Interface Material
Article URL: http://legitreviews.com/article/577/1/

This may be a bit overkill, but do you think you would notice a bigger difference with Cool Silver if you applied the same amount of grease specified in the instructions but spread the grease yourself on the heatspreader?

top wrote:This may be a bit overkill, but do you think you would notice a bigger difference with Cool Silver if you applied the same amount of grease specified in the instructions but spread the grease yourself on the heatspreader?

I am under the impression that bubba applied the thermal compound with the x method with both compounds. He can correct me if I'm wrong.

I had applied the grease as per their respective instructions.

Now, for the Cool Silver, if one was to make the X then spread it by hand rather than letting the cooler do it (which is what I think your asking) I don't think it would make that much difference. if it did show a difference, it could be worse temps as you increase the chances of air pockets and voids between the CPU and heatsink.

i remember researching about the different ways to apply the paste a while back

an X VS spreading with a credit card VS spreading with plastic bag with the finger VS putting the HS on it and moving it from side to side

i like the last one better simply because there is less chances to do it wrong

Nice review, in fact your review is better than most I've seen regarding this new TIM, but with all respect to the reviewer, the testing has a bit of room for improvement. You tested it for 72 hours and not the recommended 200+ hours and many thermal cycles that Arctic Silver 5 needs to attain maximum performance. All is not lost though, perhaps a follow up with results after 200 hours and many thermal cycles would be a good thing. You guys always do good reviews here, and I was surprised you didn't let it break in to maximum performance after 200 hours.

I saw this other review by Tweaknews.net, http://www.tweaknews.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=82429 ; and not only is the testing conducted imporperly, the admin and reviewer has no business doing reviews if he's going to make up his own testing methodology on the fly, he's the one in that thread that's seriously mistaken. I would rebut his nonsense, except that site has an antiquated registration system, each registration has to be manually approved, so until they approve my registration, I can't set this reviewer straight.

If he thinks he knows more than the manufacturer and others that know a bit more than him about silver TIM testing, he's grossly mistaken. You guys have a few threads in this forum like this http://forums.legitreviews.com/post526. ... paste#p526, and this was a direct result from my Silver paste article back in 03 http://www.overclockers.com/articles938/

On a sidenote, soon as I get a tube of this AI Cool Silver, I plan to test it myself, starting with testing the Ag content, then test it for performance with at least 200 hours and many thermal cycles.

PS, I think that the X method of applying this paste is a bit silly, but I can't say for sure until I test it myself. Kind of hard to find this TIM for sale, and I prefer to not get samples from the manufacturer for many reasons. But that's just my preference.

Stay cool,

Silversinksam

Glad you liked the article . The only place that I have found the Cool Silver for sale at the moment is on the AiT's website.

That paste is impressive, some long term results would be nice to make it fair, but still, great review

Silversinksam wrote:I saw this other review by Tweaknews.net

Tweak doesn't make reviews, they sell pages that look like reviews.

bubba wrote:I had applied the grease as per their respective instructions.

Now, for the Cool Silver, if one was to make the X then spread it by hand rather than letting the cooler do it (which is what I think your asking) I don't think it would make that much difference. if it did show a difference, it could be worse temps as you increase the chances of air pockets and voids between the CPU and heatsink.

With AS5, I'm always afraid that I put too much or too little. The manufacture should ship the grease in little mini packets or capsules for each use, or whatever. Just leaving a dap in the middle doesn't necessarily spread the grease on the entire heatspreader all the time. Relying on a dap to entirely spread on the heatspreader after running the system is pure luck.

However the method you prefer does seem to be the safest way, if a machine handles the placement. Reason why I say that because for me it's hard to snap both ends of a heat-sink to securely hold it down on the cpu. Well that's the case if you ever used a Scythe Ninja Heatsink.