DIY CPU Thermal Grease, Using Diamond Dust 210
tygerstripes writes "The dysfunctor has spotted an impressive project over on InventGeek.com; an innovative chap has developed his own thermal compound for improved CPU cooling, using diamond dust — the best available material for thermal conduction — as the key ingredient. In spite of the quick-&-dirty DIY nature of the project, the gains in cooling performance are remarkable, especially considering the material cost was only $33. Given the price many enthusiasts will pay for a top-end cooler, it's easy to imagine this product coming to market quite soon."
Gain (Score:1, Interesting)
been done before (Score:2, Interesting)
in the do-it-yourself flashlight-making community.
Example:
http://dmcleish.com/CPF/L1-Diamond/index.html
Re:bottom line (Score:5, Interesting)
57C, while this diamond dust compound achieved 38C.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, this sounds like something that needs to be reproduced because it sounds too good to be true man... Did it say that in TFA?
runs off to read TFA for the first time in his life...
Re:bottom line (Score:1, Interesting)
Judging by the massive amount of incorrectly applied compound I see in their pictures then I'm not sure if we can trust their numbers.
With that said, it is well known that diamond based compounds work. I'm really surprised there isn't a manufacturer producing the stuff for overclockers. I remember guys making their own at least as far back as 5 years ago.
Re:bottom line (Score:4, Interesting)
I call shenanigans.
The thermal conductivity of Arctic Silver and this stuff couldn't be so great that a layer as thin as the crack-filler between a chip lid and a cooling-fin plate would amount to a 19C difference in temperature.
I want to see independent reproduction of the experiment.
Either it's totally bogus, or something was not installed correctly in one of the two setups. The heat sink on the 57C, or the thermometer on the 38C.
Re:bottom line (Score:5, Interesting)
I was watching, I think, Nova Science Now. There was a segment about artificial diamonds, and a researcher had the host hold a penny up to a cube of ice, and then a chunk of diamond up to the ice. With the penny, he waited a second and said "I feel the cold." With the diamond, he instantly said "Hey, the ice is melting."
Re:Finally (Score:3, Interesting)
Aaaand thank you.
Myself, I'll always use Ceramique. Many good reasons to use a ceramic based one over metal or diamond when doing hardcore cooling and ease of removal for reseating.
Reviews:
http://hardwarelogic.com/news/137/ARTICLE/2752/3/2008-03-03.html [hardwarelogic.com]
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1133&pageID=3881 [bjorn3d.com]
It just doesn't add up... (Score:5, Interesting)
If we take a rather thick installation of AS5 at 0.015 inches and assume the contact area is a square with sides of
He claims to have a new thermal compound which reduces the temperature by 14 degrees. Now lets take a look at some more realistic numbers... 1 sq in area, 75 watts, 0.010in thick paste, same 8W/m*K and you get a tempeture delta of 4 degrees to cross.
Furthermore, when we start looking at websites that have done reviews of thermal pastes like [url=http://hardwarelogic.com/news/137/ARTICLE/2752/3/2008-03-03.html]IC Diamond 7 Carat[/url] and they show a range of 1-2 degrees difference between AS5 and the paste it makes it hard to belive.
For a little more background, perhaps we should consider what is going on here. We have some material that is being used for thermal conduction, silver or diamonds, and to that we are have a material it is being suspended into. Thermal conductivity of silver is over 400 W/m*K and artic silver which is made from pure silver plus the suspension yields a conductivity of 8 w/m*K. The idea that exchanging that for something with a thermal conductivity of somewhere between 900 and 2000W/m*K is going to yield a paste with orders of magnitude better thermal conductivity.
So based on that, I'd like to call shens. If he made a mistake with his numbers or he faked them I don't know, all I know is the numbers he is reporting are outside the realm of reality.
Re:Diamond dust is cheap? (Score:2, Interesting)
I can break your whole world with one question:
What exactly makes a stone out of a material that costs next to nothing to produce so valuable?
Bonus question:
Or do you mean the stuff that people are killed for?
A stone is not aesthetically pleasing to the majority of humans. However, due to the refractive index, a properly faceted gemstone can be beautiful. The value is determined by scarcity of the resource, and the beauty in the eye of the beholder.
Re:Diamond dust is cheap? (Score:2, Interesting)
When Russia entered the market. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond [wikipedia.org] And read under "Mining, sources and production" for most of it. It doesn't due justice to how that market opening up lowered prices
But really there are 6 major players now, not just one. However De Beers still is nearly 40% of the market.
I for one would love to see diamonds become as common and cheap as catseyes or obsidian so that it can be used more for its non jewel properties more.
What's wrong with the man made diamonds for those purposes?