Heatsink question: Apply artic silver or keep the stock goo?

[kisk]

I bought an Asus V-60 (WOW this thing looks amazing!). Anyway, the heatsink comes with it's own thermal compound already sitting on the contact point. Should I clean this stuff off and get the artic silver 5 I bought on there? I'd think the artic silver, but the compound that came with my heatsink has a nice thick spread on the contact and looks effective... but of course, at the same time I can see manufacturers using cheap thermal compounds.

Any advice would be great

Thanks!

[TwoRails]

I would (and do) leave on the stock "goo." It's designed to work, and it works good with even spread and good properties.

[kisk]

Thanks for the reply! Yeah its been awhile since I'd bought a new heatsink and I remember the consistancy of artic silver being a little more "runny" than I would think effective for a thicker coat. Maybe this is by design and the temperature transfer math adds up...

The stock thermal compound on my new heatsink (haven't installed yet) seems sticky'er and like it would create a better contact.

[TwoRails]

Actually, you don't want a "thicker coat" as all that you're doing is filling in microscopic voids and valleys. Too much "grease" and you'll have squeeze out that could cause problems. The little square that is typical on stock HSs will spread out pretty nicely and cover evenly.

[kisk]

The layer of compound on the heatsink seems rather thick by my standards (~1.5 - 2.0mm). With the artic silver I always just put a less-than-pea sized dab and it spread real thin when the heatsink made contact with the CPU. Maybe its just the makeup of the compound used? Stock vs Artic.

[Cricket]

Try the stock stuff first. Spread it out evenly if you don't think it'll squeeze down evenly by itself. Check the temps after a few days (let it break in a bit) and see if the temps are where you expected them to be. If you think the CPU is running to hot you can always wipe the original stuff off and apply AS5 later since you don't have the CPU 3 year warranty to worry about.

Cricket

[TwoRails]

I wouldn't mess with the stock pad if you're going to use it. Below is a shot I took two days ago of an AMD stock pad after a couple of years of use. It is spread out pretty nicely without too much squeeze out (I shoot for a little less, but it's still not bad). It was still doing a good job of things.

[kisk]

UPDATE:

Well I went ahead and used the stock thermal compound and its working great! This heatsink was well worth the few extra bucks -- not only does it look awesome but I'm sitting at a very comfortable 31ºC idle and 42ºC stressed.

Asus pulls it off once again!

Thanks again for everyone's help