«

Hi,

Just wondering if use of thermal paste supplied with heatsink/fan kits
for Xeon processors should be used? these are not the retail Intel kits.

I'm planning on moving processors around during future upgrades, and I'd
rather not use it if not required.

Thanks,

The Other Guy

In article <418931bf$>, The Other Guy <> wrote:
>Hi,
>
>Just wondering if use of thermal paste supplied with heatsink/fan kits
>for Xeon processors should be used? these are not the retail Intel kits.
>
>I'm planning on moving processors around during future upgrades, and I'd
>rather not use it if not required.
>
Definitely use it. It may not seem like much, but those few microns of
gap between the CPU and the HSF base can make a lot of difference to how
effectively the CPU is cooled.

--
Matthew Poole Auckland, New Zealand
"Veni, vidi, velcro...
I came, I saw, I stuck around"

My real e-mail is mattATp00leDOTnet

On Thu, 04 Nov 2004 08:19:38 +1300, The Other Guy <> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>Just wondering if use of thermal paste supplied with heatsink/fan kits
>for Xeon processors should be used? these are not the retail Intel kits.
>
>I'm planning on moving processors around during future upgrades, and I'd
>rather not use it if not required.
>
>Thanks,
>
>The Other Guy



It has to be used..

On Thu, 04 Nov 2004 08:19:38 +1300, The Other Guy <> had
this to say:

>Hi,
>
>Just wondering if use of thermal paste supplied with heatsink/fan kits
>for Xeon processors should be used? these are not the retail Intel kits.
>
>I'm planning on moving processors around during future upgrades, and I'd
>rather not use it if not required.

There's two school of thoughts here.

The first is that, yes, using Thermal Paste can make a
reasonable-sized difference in the cooling of a processor, and hence
it is a good thing.

The second is that, in many circumstances, it will void your warranty.
For instance, using the popular Artic Silver compound with an AMD
processor affectively voids the warranty.

This is because many/most of the thermal paste solutions actually
conduct electricity, albeit with a reasonable resistance. This means
that in theory, they can short the wee connections on the top of the
processors, and potentially cause all sorts of problems.

However, using the non-Intel supplied heatsink/fan on your Xeons might
be technically voiding the warranty anyway. Note that there is often a
difference to what technically voids a warranty and what AMD or Intel
actually reject a warranty claim on.

My advise is that, if you do use it, make sure you don't put too much
on! We've seen some horror cases where people have basically drowned
their processors in thermal goo, causing them to fail. You only need a
tiny amount.

HTH

"Gurble" <> wrote in message
news...

> My advise is that, if you do use it, make sure you don't put too much
> on! We've seen some horror cases where people have basically drowned
> their processors in thermal goo, causing them to fail. You only need a
> tiny amount.

For values of "a tiny amount" between 1 and 2 cubic mm.

Andrew

You could try the thermal tape stuff often found on heatsinks. Same benefit
but no mess.

"The Other Guy" <> wrote in message
news:418931bf$...
> Hi,
>
> Just wondering if use of thermal paste supplied with heatsink/fan kits
> for Xeon processors should be used? these are not the retail Intel kits.
>
> I'm planning on moving processors around during future upgrades, and I'd
> rather not use it if not required.
>
> Thanks,
>
> The Other Guy

In article <>, Gurble <> wrote:
>On Thu, 04 Nov 2004 08:19:38 +1300, The Other Guy <> had
>this to say:
*SNIP*
>The second is that, in many circumstances, it will void your warranty.
>For instance, using the popular Artic Silver compound with an AMD
>processor affectively voids the warranty.
>
*SNIP*

Using a non-AMD heatsink/fan also voids the warranty. Doing anything
with an AMD CPU that involves non-AMD parts voids the warranty.
Thankfully NZ law is a little more intelligent, and a CPU warranty is
not automatically void just because you used non-AMD cooling. Drowning
the CPU in metal-based thermal paste would probably not be accepted,
though.

Arctic Silver make a non-metallic paste, called Ceramique, that is
absolutely non-conductive. Seems to work pretty well, too.

--
Matthew Poole Auckland, New Zealand
"Veni, vidi, velcro...
I came, I saw, I stuck around"

My real e-mail is mattATp00leDOTnet

In article <> in nz.comp on
Thu, 04 Nov 2004 12:08:07 +1300, Gurble <> says...
> On Thu, 04 Nov 2004 08:19:38 +1300, The Other Guy <> had
> this to say:
>
> >Hi,
> >
> >Just wondering if use of thermal paste supplied with heatsink/fan kits
> >for Xeon processors should be used? these are not the retail Intel kits.
> >
> >I'm planning on moving processors around during future upgrades, and I'd
> >rather not use it if not required.
>
> There's two school of thoughts here.
>
> The first is that, yes, using Thermal Paste can make a
> reasonable-sized difference in the cooling of a processor, and hence
> it is a good thing.
>
> The second is that, in many circumstances, it will void your warranty.
> For instance, using the popular Artic Silver compound with an AMD
> processor affectively voids the warranty.
>
> This is because many/most of the thermal paste solutions actually
> conduct electricity, albeit with a reasonable resistance. This means
> that in theory, they can short the wee connections on the top of the
> processors, and potentially cause all sorts of problems.
>
> However, using the non-Intel supplied heatsink/fan on your Xeons might
> be technically voiding the warranty anyway. Note that there is often a
> difference to what technically voids a warranty and what AMD or Intel
> actually reject a warranty claim on.
>
> My advise is that, if you do use it, make sure you don't put too much
> on! We've seen some horror cases where people have basically drowned
> their processors in thermal goo, causing them to fail. You only need a
> tiny amount.

It's only the chip in the middle that actually conducts the heat on
modern CPUs, not like the old K6s with a big wide can that contacted
nearly all of the chip surface.

In article < >, Patrick Dunford <> wrote:
>In article <> in nz.comp on
>Thu, 04 Nov 2004 12:08:07 +1300, Gurble <> says...
*SNIP*
>It's only the chip in the middle that actually conducts the heat on
>modern CPUs, not like the old K6s with a big wide can that contacted
>nearly all of the chip surface.

I suggest you look a little more closely at A64 CPUs, then, Patrick.
Their entire top surface is a flat metal square.
Intel could learn something from this type of design, since it's got to
be a more efficient thermal dissipator than a mound of silicon in the
middle of a PCB.

--
Matthew Poole Auckland, New Zealand
"Veni, vidi, velcro...
I came, I saw, I stuck around"

My real e-mail is mattATp00leDOTnet

Matthew Poole wrote:
> I suggest you look a little more closely at A64 CPUs, then, Patrick.
> Their entire top surface is a flat metal square.
> Intel could learn something from this type of design, since it's got to
> be a more efficient thermal dissipator than a mound of silicon in the
> middle of a PCB.

The Xeon CPUs I have have a large metal surface as well, with some outer
components. I decided to use a little of the paste as recommended.

The Other Guy