Question to someone adept in thermal paste application:
1. If you take the heat sink off and see that paste is applied OK by Bitmain, can you just slowly plop the heat sink back, or you HAVE to clean up and reapply new paste?
2. How much of AS5 to apply? I tried to do it on the first machine (too early to know the results) and you can actually spread it very thin with a rasor blade or exacto knife.
3. When it stabilizes after the application as far as thermal transmission is concerned? AS5 manual talks about something happening in ~25hr and something else in ~200hr.
1) yes and no. if you dont adjust and reapply some paste it would likely be worse than it started out. might still function fine but after all the work of remounting it you would have poorer contact than you started with
2) small amount. maybe the size of a plastic BB. dont put much effort spreading it since the pressure of the heatsink should do that for you
3) give it at least 12hrs to cure a little before running the antminer, it may take longer to reach 100% cured but will work anyways
no need to wait to try to cure the thermal paste since thermal paste does not dry or seal . you can powerup as soon as it is applied.
@aztecminer
Yes, Arctic Silver 5 manual says that you can start using immediately, but it will decrease the temperatures slowly (break-in over 200hr)
I am running 2.5 hours so far after AS5 application and temperature dropped from the initial 43 to 40-41C already.
I will wait to report the speed comparison until 12-14 h mark if not later.
@allcoinminer
Got it re plopping the heat sink back without cleaning and reapplication. However, I did spread it evenly over the surface, but took care not to have any on pins/connectors (because it is slightly capacitive according to manual).
I will post pictures later to explain why I decided to spread it (hint-what you described did not work for Bitmain).
@klondike_bar
thanks for the info regarding possible air bubble if no re-application of paste.
decided not to let it cure-too impatient, but started with lower mhz.
If you don't have AS5, and can't wait for amazon, grab it (3.5g) at Microcenter-they usually have loads. I ordered some online, but could not wait
i have not been using AS5 due it being capacitance conductive ..
that is the reason i been using the gc-extreme because it is neither electrical conductive nor capacitive conductive ..
gc-extreme is carbon-based ~8.5W/m-K i think is better for our application around such small asic chips ..
good to see the drops in temps though which is what we hope to see changing the thermal paste ..
