On Tuesday 03 May 2005 14:45, Carlos E. R. wrote:
The Friday 2005-04-29 at 16:08 -0600, Darryl Gregorash wrote:
That's what he just told him - apply some thermal grease between the ****************************************snip*************** between the two substances (fills in all the little holes), and hardens from the heat. Hardly a grease.
The thermal compound that was normally used in electronics, even before processors needed heatsinks, was called "silicon grease", and most certainly stayed as a grease even years after applying it to transistors heatsinks and such. I must have a tube of it somewhere.
That's probably why modern compounds are still named "grease", even if they aren't.
Right on Carlos! Thermal compound is usually a 'doped' up silicone grease. The most common dopant is Zinc-oxide powder. But there are many substances that are thought to be better conductors of heat. A brand of thermal compound popular with Over-Clockers (also known as under-reliability'ers) is Artic Silver because they used to mix in finely ground silver. The ELECTRICAL conductivity of the silver began to cause problems and now the trend is back to heat-conductive compounds that are electrical insulators. There are also thin sheets of the mineral Mica that are used with and w/o silicone grease. Silicone is preferred because it does not thin out or liquify at higher temperatures like petroleum greases. They still make good lubes and are prefered around rubber components. PeterB
On the other hand, I have seen a PC working happily submerged completely in vegetable oil (sunflower seed oil, in fact - they didn't though of using transformers oil). Messy stuff. I'd hate to be the chap doing changes to the motherboard. :-p
That was two years ago or roundabouts, I wonder if it is still running.
-- Cheers, Carlos Robinson