[UNOFFICIAL] Laptop Performance Guide

**Garteal** · 08-09-2013, 03:23 AM **#11**

(08-09-2013, 03:12 AM)Jhonn Wrote: @Off-topic: right now, I have to decide between Arctic Silver 5 and Arctic MX-4... For you guys, what would you get?

The AS5 is better, but if the MX-4 is much cheaper than get the MX-4.

**mbc07** · 08-09-2013, 03:28 AM **#12**

Well, I found both at almost the same price (rarity, at least in Brazil). However, the AS5 is electrically conductive right? This could cause any kind of issue?

**admin89** · 08-09-2013, 03:29 AM **#13**

Silver may conduct electricity ...No good for laptop

Quote:If I keep the 105°C temperature for prolonged times, will this reduce the lifespan of the CPU?

You should worry about GPU . CPU life span is really really long
GT 635M is soldered on the motherboard . Too much heat will slowly meltdown GPU solder ball -> Artifacts will appear -> GPU will die slowly -> RMA to warranty service to reball GPU

**mbc07** · 08-09-2013, 03:41 AM **#14**

I'll get the MX-4 then... Thanks for the help!

**NaturalViolence** · (This post was last modified: 08-09-2013, 11:00 AM by NaturalViolence.)

admin89 Wrote:Silver may conduct electricity

May?

Silver never acts as an insulator under any circumstance.

Nice guide by the way.

Starscream Wrote:The kinds of people who like to debate about extremely small differences in thermal compound probably need to go outside for a while.

There is actually a very big different in thermal conductivity between ceramic and metallic based thermal compounds. Then again most enthusiasts don't use ceramic compounds anymore and are comparing different polysilicon based compounds against each other.

Edit: Actually many of today's popular thermal pastes are carbon based now that I think about it. Which is why they don't conduct electricity. Metal based compounds like AS5 do provide better thermal conductivity while carbon particle based compounds like MX-4 sacrifice some thermal conductivity for safety. But you're right the difference between these two classes is usually fairly minimal.

**admin89** · 08-09-2013, 11:00 AM **#16**

Quote:May?

Arctic Silver 5 (Silver for short Tongue

)
Real Silver obviously conduct electricity

**NaturalViolence** · 08-09-2013, 11:09 AM **#17**

Arctic Silver 5 uses real silver (99.9% purity). It's basically powdered (crushed up) silver mixed with zinc oxide, aluminum oxide and boron nitride particles. It's 88% silver by volume. Thus it conducts electricity.

**mbc07** · 08-17-2013, 01:12 PM **#18**

Well, I replaced the thermal compound with Prolimatech PK-3 (my local distributor ran out of stock and had only this one, expensive, twice the price of MX-4). I measured the temps with Zelda Twilight Princess in Hyrule Field after beating the game, with LLE, EFB Copy to RAM and 4x internal resolution (The game was unplayable at 9 FPS, was just to stress both CPU and GPU). I left TP running like that for around 30 minutes and 85°C (CPU) and 70°C (GPU) were the highest temperatures I got. Should I still worry?

**admin89** · 08-17-2013, 01:31 PM **#19**

Quote:and 85°C (CPU) and 70°C (GPU)

GPU should be ok now
Don't worry about CPU . Modern Intel CPUs can withstand high temp , 85C is high but still acceptable

Nintendo Maniac 64 · (This post was last modified: 09-23-2013, 12:22 AM by Nintendo Maniac 64.)

(08-09-2013, 10:49 AM)NaturalViolence Wrote: Metal based compounds like AS5 do provide better thermal conductivity while carbon particle based compounds like MX-4 sacrifice some thermal conductivity for safety.

I profusely apologies for posting in a month-old thread, but I must ask this question...

What about diamond? It's made of pure carbon and yet, depending on the purity, has two and half to eight times the thermal conductivity of silver.