Is Your Silver-based Thermal Paste Really Silver? 788
strider69666 writes "Over at Overclockers.com they have a review of several thermal compounds that claim to have 99% pure silver content. 'I decided to test Arctic Silver 5, Arctic Silver 3, OCZ Ultra II Premium Silver Compound, and CompUSA Silver Thermal Grease. This test was not conducted to test performance, but rather to determine if these compounds have Silver as an ingredient.' Using a professionally mixed testing solution, they found that several brands do not, in fact, contain any silver at all! So, are you getting what you are paying for?"
OCZ has announced a recall. (Score:5, Informative)
From the above site:
OCZ would like to take this time to address the recent article published at Overclockers.com, ( http://www.overclockers.com/articles938/ )which shows that OCZ Ultra 2 thermal compound has no silver content.
OCZ does not manufacture Ultra 2 thermal compound in house, it is provided by a foreign manufacturer with our specifications. Previous independent lab tests conducted at the request of OCZ have shown that the silver compound content in Ultra 2 is 25% by volume and 70% by weight.
In response to this article, OCZ has submitted another batch of Ultra 2 to a third party for extensive lab testing. This Independent lab report show's that the most recent batch of OCZ Ultra 2 indeed contains less than 1% silver by volume. While simultaneously we have received lab reports from an outside source indicating the silver content to be 30% by weight. This leads us to the conclusion that recent batch(s) of OCZ Ultra 2 from our supplier did not meet the agreed specifications.
We accept full responsibility for these problems and we will be seeking legal action against our supplier.
In order to help solve this problem we have contacted Arctic Silver Inc, and entered into a vendor agreement with them to supply OCZ thermal paste.
Beginning January 22nd 2004 we are issuing a full recall of any and all OCZ Ultra 2.
Any Customers who wish to return OCZ Ultra 2 thermal paste with an invoice will in exchange for their full or partially used tube(s) receive:
1- One (dependant on # of tubes returned) 3-gram OCZ thermal Compound (made by Arctic Silver Inc.) or one OCZ Dominator 2 Heatsink.
2- One OCZ EL DDR T-Shirt
3- One 10 dollar off rebate on any OCZ EL DDR Dual Channel Kit (at participating resellers)
class action lawsuit... (Score:3, Informative)
These people have to have violated more than a few false advertising laws, and since the article says on the bottom that all tests have been verified with an independent testing agency, I say this is a fairly open and shut case.
Re:all that glitters (Score:2, Informative)
Re:silver crayons (Score:3, Informative)
Please, actually think about what you say... (Score:5, Informative)
In addition, the author claims that similar claims were made on the label of OCZ paste. Judging by the reaction from the people at OCZ (or the people that claim to be OCZ) and his accuracy in the rest of the test, I have no reason to doubt him.
Please, think before you spout the tired, cynical rhetoric about shady advertisement.
Re:Cost of Silver? Copper an alternative? (Score:5, Informative)
"Pure silver has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of all metals, and possesses the lowest contact resistance"
From http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/t
ARTICLE TEXT (Score:3, Informative)
Silversinksam - 1/21/04
I decided to test Arctic Silver 5, Arctic Silver 3, OCZ Ultra II Premium Silver Compound, and CompUSA Silver Thermal Grease. This test was not conducted to test performance, but rather to determine if these compounds have Silver as an ingredient.
All Testing was done twice, once on a jeweler's acid free 'Black stone', and the test was repeated on paper. The testing solution was Nitric acid and Muriatic acid that was pre-mixed professionally.
The tests produced some very disturbing results:
OCZ Ultra II Premium Silver compound and the CompUSA Silver Thermal Grease has ZERO silver in it.
The testing solution stayed orange - if it had any silver in it, the acids would turn varying degrees of red, depending on the purity of the silver present. OCZ claims that OCZ Ultra II Premium Silver compound is, "Made with 99.9% pure micronized silver, Over 70% silver content by weight".
I cannot concur and my tests conclusively show that there is Zero micronized silver present, and Zero silver content by weight.
Arctic Silver 3 and Arctic Silver 5 were also tested and both produced a blood red color, indicating 90% - 100% purity of Silver in both Arctic Silver 3 and Arctic Silver 5. Arctic Silver's claim of, "Contains 99.9% pure silver" by my testing is accurate and of the compounds tested, only Arctic Silver products produced results showing that Silver is in fact present.
The tubes in the picture below from left to right, Arctic Silver 5, Arctic Silver 3, OCZ Ultra II Premium Silver Compound and CompUSA Silver Thermal Grease.
In picture 3 below, from left to right is Arctic Silver 5, Arctic Silver 3 and OCZ Ultra II Premium Silver Compound. The compounds were placed on the paper and the acid was place on the compound undisturbed. Notice how the acid drop placed on the OCZ Ultra II Premium Silver Compound remains orange, indicating zero silver present:
When you go into a jewelry store and buy a sterling silver or a fine silver necklace, you expect the jewelry to be made of sterling or fine silver. The same should apply to silver thermal pastes - if the silver paste has no silver in it and the manufacturer says it does, that is misleading.
Based on my testing, I can not recommend OCZ Ultra II Premium Silver Compound or CompUSA Silver Thermal Grease, as they are both misleading products with zero silver in them. If you want a product that actually has silver as an ingredient, Arctic Silver 3, Arctic Silver 5 or Arctic Silver Adhesive tested OK.
Ed Note: Silversinksam's conclusions have been verified by an independent testing laboratory - details will follow in Part 2 of this article.
Silversinksam
Re:Cost of Silver? Copper an alternative? (Score:3, Informative)
Check out some of the heatsink companies websites, thermaltake etc, to get some graphs and such about the heating properties of their products.
Toms [tomshardware.com] does regular heatsink comparisons, and the copper always beats out the alu of the same type.
Re: Silver is better than copper or aluminum (Score:5, Informative)
(In Watts per meter per degree Kelvin)
Silver ~420 W/mK
Pure Copper ~400 W/mK)
Pure Aluminum ~240 W/mK)
If you REALLY wanted some fancy shit, try a diamond paste. Diamond is like 2000+ W/mK. Really good at transfering heat. (No, I don't know if anyone actually makes the stuff).
Oh, and just for reference, air is about 0.025 w/mK, and water is somewhere around 0.6ish.
So you could use a copper paste, but it wouldn't be quite as good as the Silver.
Re:Cost of Silver? Copper an alternative? (Score:5, Informative)
Please, someone tell me what is the point of blabbing misinformaton about things of which you are utterly ignorant?
Silver has far higher thermal conductivity than gold.
Gold, 320 W/m/K
Silver 430 W/m/K
To the extent gold is used in microchips, it is for other reasons.
Re:Cost of Silver? Copper an alternative? (Score:5, Informative)
What gold does do best is resist corrosion, which is why it is often used for connectors. Silver and copper both oxidize very rapidly, causing bad connections, but gold does not.
Re:Overclocked... (Score:5, Informative)
it doesn't matter (Score:5, Informative)
Here is a measure of the heat conductivity of some stuff (watts/in. degree C)
air - 0.00076
nylon - 0.00635
heat sink goop - 0.0168
brick - 0.0175
glass - 0.02
silver heat sink goop - 0.0282
alumina - 0.7
steel - 1.7
silicon - 2.5
brass - 3.05
aluminum - 5.5
gold - 7.4
copper - 10.0
silver - 10.6
diamond - 16.0
Note that any heat sink goop is a terrible conductor of heat. The only thing it is better than basically is air. Thus, heat sink goop is only to be used to fill microscopic voids between the heat sink and the CPU. If you actually have a layer of it between the heatsink and the CPU it will insulate the chip a LOT and make it overheat.
Thus, there is no reason to use a lot of heatsink goop, it isn't critical that you use good goop. It is VERY CRITICAL that you have good enough heatsink pressure that your heatsink and CPU come in direct contact, with as much as possible heat sink goop squeezed out. There shouldn't even be a visible film of it after heat sink removal, just small pockets in the imperfections on the chip.
Oh, all these figures are stolen from "Hot Air Rises and Heat Sinks: Everything You Know About Cooling Electronics is Wrong" by Tony Kordyban. The book, BTW is just okay. I don't really recommend it to the average person.
Re:Mod parent up! (Score:5, Informative)
No, actually silver is #1, copper is #2, and gold is #3.
Silver 430 W/m/K
Copper 400 W/m/K
Gold 320 W/m/K
Aluminum 235 W/m/K
silver candy decorations have real silver (Score:5, Informative)
OCZ recall (Score:3, Informative)
Re:OCZ has announced a recall. (Score:2, Informative)
Silver compound isn't a necessity for a CPU running at stock speed. However, just a few degrees celcius can mean the difference when you are into extreme overclocking. Hopefully everyone had their thermal protection turned on in BIOS.
Re:Cost of Silver? Copper an alternative? (Score:5, Informative)
Last time I checked, that isn't the case. Silver has the best thermal conductivity of all elemental metals (at least all common ones - I don't actually have an extensive list in front of me). Slightly, but not drastically, better than that of copper. And with respect to other to other responses to the parent, the conductivity of aluminum, while better than, say, steel, pales in comparison to that of copper or silver.
See FrostyTech [frostytech.com], or Tom's Hardware [tomshardware.com] if you don't believe me.
The use of aluminum is a consequence of price and of system requirements. You can cool a Pentium II, for instance, adequately with an aluminum heatsink because it doesn't put out as much heat. Modern processors, on the other hand, put out more watts of energy which needs to be rapidly sucked away from the cpu and dissipated, so a heatsink with a copper core at the very least tends to be the norm.
Why don't we see more silver heatsinks? Price, of course. Copper is already relatively expensive, but a big block of high purity silver is out of the price range of most people. At that point water cooling probably has a better price performance ratio.
page mirror (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Cost of Silver? Copper an alternative? (Score:3, Informative)
Your cpu run at 1947.52 F (Score:3, Informative)
Tm
Re:silver crayons (Score:4, Informative)
From CompUSA's product info [compusa.com]:
97% pure micronized silver
75-80% silver content by weight
I sure as hell don't remember any of my crayons saying "micronized silver." Which is probably just as well, considering how much we used to chew on them.
Re:So.... (Score:3, Informative)
In my experience the Better Business Bureau is a paper tiger, it doesn't have any ability to back up its supposed powers of protecting the consumer.
I've contacted them on several problem companies and the response that I've gotten back has always been, "Sorry. We can only suggest to a company, we can't enforce." If the company doesn't agree with the issue then the Better Business Bureau doesn't do anything. They never even updated their web site with any of the complaints that were made.
Re:OCZ has announced a recall. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:OCZ has announced a recall. (Score:5, Informative)
Let me flesh out something you said (Score:4, Informative)
Good advice. This may be stating the obvious, but the perfect thermal junction between a chip and a heatsink is NOTHING, i.e. both of them perfectly flat, with every single atom touching. In the real world, surfaces have flaws and air gets in between. Air is a very poor conductor of heat. So we have thermal compound, which is beter than air, and more malleable than the two surfaces could be.
Don't use much of the stuff AT ALL. When you squeeze the two surfaces together, you just want a thin film of compound fillling in the areas where the two surfaces don't touch. If it squishes out the sides, you used too much.
Re:OCZ has announced a recall. (Score:5, Informative)
Quite frankly, sir, you are ill-informed, since these thermal pastes do far more than your standard stuff you get from AMD or Intel (I'm not sure if Intel provides a thermal pad, I'm sure they do, but I've never bought an Intel processor), or buy on the internet that doesn't contain silver.
Here are some links for you to check out to see just how much of a difference these tubes make:
Mikhailtech review [mikhailtech.com], EXHardware review/comparison of pastes [exhardware.com], Overclockers Club review/comparison [overclockersclub.com], ClubOC review/comparison [cluboverclocker.com].
There are many more reviews and comparisons. I chose to do a Google search for 'review "arctic silver 3"' and those were pretty much the first hits I got. In an overclocked system where stability and cooling is important, these pastes could make all the difference. In a standard system, these help prolong the life of the computer's parts.
Oh, and before I forget, the links I just posted more or less compare Arctic Silver stuff with either other Arctic Silver products, or competing products. If you want to see just how much of a difference these compounds can make from the regular thermal pads or thermal compound that uses silicone, Check this out [earthv.com]. That's a whopping 10 degrees celsius difference the Arctic Silver has on full load compared to a standard thermal pad, and 5 degrees difference from standard thermal compound w/silicone.
I personally use AS3, and so does my father. With this paste I can safely overclock my Athlon 2000+ to an Athlon 2600+. Not that I do, mind you, because even though I can, I'd rather know that my system is well cooled, rather than adequately.
Re:Nice... (Score:4, Informative)
Did you try calling?
Customer Service Phone Number: Toll Free: (800) 390-1119
That number is located in their help section under Contact
And what you say doesn't make much sense. If you wanted to return the camera, they have an automated system which gives you a RMA# automatically if your claim is within the return period (which they fudge in the buyers favor btw). They don't offer full support since they're just a reseller.
I placed 320 orders from them since 2002 (you can check your entire order history!), and probably RMA'd about 50 items (out of over a thousand) without even a single problem. They're not perfect, but that's pretty close.
Re:it doesn't matter (Score:1, Informative)
Note that any heat sink goop is a terrible conductor of heat. The only thing it is better than basically is air. Thus, heat sink goop is only to be used to fill microscopic voids between the heat sink and the CPU. If you actually have a layer of it between the heatsink and the CPU it will insulate the chip a LOT and make it overheat.
I'm not even sure you know what you're saying. You're saying that thermal goo is no good, because if you put a lot on, it acts as an insulator rather than a conductor. Um.. no shit, dude. That's why you use very small quantities (a small drop) and spread it out. You shouldn't really even be able to tell (with your eye) that there is any goo on it.
Saying "thermal goo is no good, because you can use it incorrectly" is just stupid. If you don't know how to use thermal goo, that reflects poorly on the USER not on the thermal goo.
Re:QA? (Score:2, Informative)
So they do what a great many companies do; they order something, test what they get the first time and assume the spec doesn't changes. I would imagine OCZ get the paste already in the little syringes (I.E. they don't fill them) so they just have to package & ship them.
However, to their credit when a critique of their product appeared on a website (and presumably someone contacted them and told them) they did the right thing:
Lab testing is expensive. I doubt the margins on this product are huge, so it's not economically viable to test every batch in an external lab.
Having said that, I imagine OCZ might be investing in some of that orange acid that the guy at overclockers used, they'll not want to get caught with their pants down again!
We accept full responsibility for these problems and we will be seeking legal action against our supplier.
Re:bah (Score:2, Informative)
Gold is not quite as good, but doesn't tarnish, which is why it gets used so much.
I believe the order goes: Silver, Copper, Gold, Sodium (!)). Of these Gold is best for exposed contacts.
Re:So.... (Score:5, Informative)
In the UK we also have the Small Claims Court, but the case here might be against teh small corner shop who sold you the stuff, and they might defend the case....
No system of legislation is perfect, but it seems to me that fraudulent claims like this should automatically be actioned by the authorities everywhere, with no need for private individuals to have to pay for lawyers.
In any case, if you have been ripped off, first politely request a refund and compensation, and if they refuse, report them to whatever official body deals with such things locally. They will soon get the message.
BTW I have no sympathy whatsoever for any overclocker who has had a meltdown. Overclocking is a very unsound practice, for a number of reasons, which I have aired on /. before and will not bother repeating. It DEFINITELY shortens the life of your equipment, that is provable fact. But, I don't condone fraud, and no silver look-alike is likely to have adequate thermal conductivity.
BTW, copper is almost as good as silver, you would never be able to detect the difference in practice, in fact it might be better because it could be used in higher concentration, and being slightly softer in pure form, the individual particles might deform better to give more contact area. Other metals such as gold or platinum are absolutely useless, despite any spurious claims that may be made. Any testbook on material properties, with tables of thermal conductivity, will show why.
Re:bah (Score:2, Informative)
Re:bah (Score:1, Informative)
Similar controversy in silver jewelry (Score:3, Informative)
Expensive thermal pastes worthless anyway... (Score:3, Informative)
Silver? Toothpaste? Who cares? (Score:5, Informative)
Have you checked out Dan's Data on thermal greases [dansdata.com]? He does a very nice comparison between Artic Silver 3, Cooler Master PTK-001 and HTK-001, Nanotherm "Ice" and "Blue", and... Toothpaste and Vegimite. While Dan may be quite mad [dansdata.com], even for an Aussie [crocodilehunter.com], there is definitely method to his madness. After measuring the effects on cooling with his usual methods... the difference amounts to diddly-squat [dansdata.com]. And yes, that includes the difference between Artic Silver 3 and Toothpaste. (Actually, toothpaste was marginally superior.)
So, yeah, there may not be much point to getting too upset if you've gotten thus screwed-- it probably won't make jack-all difference in your system.
On the other hand, it is definitely immoral and almost certainly illegal to claiming "99.9% silver content" when you mean "99.9% silver free". While it was probably a harmless scam (and probably saved this disreputable company some chump change in manufacturing their overpriced goop), whatever Three-Letter-Agency [ftc.gov] has jurisdiction should probably come down on these folk like a ton of old hard drives on the principle of the matter.
Re:OCZ has announced a recall. (Score:1, Informative)
Thermal conductivity: >9.0 W/mK (Hot Wire Method Per MIL-C-47113)
Extended temperature limits: - 40C to >180C
ASIII works well in tests and if favored by most serious overclockers. It's a decent product and regardless of whether its called gold, sliver, bronze whatever, it clearly works. Obvious the stuff from OCZ is garbage, but ASIII does Not fall into that category.
Cheap (Score:2, Informative)
Re:OCZ has announced a recall. (Score:3, Informative)
AS3 or AS5 have better thermal conductivity then either product, Both the 47113 and DS-3 are silicone grease with zinc. Zinc is a basic thermal transfer agent used in the *cheapest* thermal compounds. While both work good, they are designed to be in all-weather conditions and enviroments where contamination with enviromental factors is expected. Your computer getting soaked is NOT that enviroment.