| Arctic Alumina Review |
Category : Cooling
Manufacturer : Arctic Silver
Posted by: Ben on 2002-01-28
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Arctic Alumina
Arctic Silver Inc Alumina Review
It is ironic that the purpose for which I first joined OcPrices.com has now become my least favourite activity. News posting minions have come and gone to allow me to concentrate on reviews, but before the excellent 009, they disappeared as quickly as they had arrived. This left the news posting to me (again), and as a result, my negative attitude towards it has occasionally manifested itself as cynicism, sarcasm and down right rudeness. The last example where I got myself into some trouble was for a review of Arctic Alumina Thermal compound, where I said: "Arctic, is cashing in on their good and respected name by selling regular white silicone thermal goop. They claim it performs better than the generic snot bundled with your crappy cooler and are thus charging several times the going rate for it. Quite rightly I got a stinging E-mail from the CEO of Arctic Silver informing me that Arctic Alumina is anything but generic snot, since 1) It does not contain any silicone, and 2) It does not contain any zinc oxide (the two main constituents of regular thermal goop). OK I admit it, I looked at the picture, saw it was white and thought "typical, a big-name company trying to make a fast buck." I'M SORRY! Sneakily in my reply I managed to wing some of this new stuff for review. First up, let’s take a look at the tube, then engage in some dull technical details.
Arctic Alumina is sold in 1.75 gram tubes.
This is enough to cover around 25 to 35 small AMD CPU cores, 9 to 15 large Pentium 4 CPU cores, or 4 to 8 heat plates. Each tube costs approximately $3.95 compared to around $8 for ASII. Although looking similar to generic grease, Arctic Alumina Compound uses a layered composite of aluminium oxide and boron nitride to provide "near Arctic Silver II level performance". The complex polysynthetic oils work together to provide three distinctive functional phases. Arctic Alumina's consistency is initially optimised for easy application in a thin, even layer. During the CPU's first use, the Arctic Alumina compound thins out to enhance the filling of the microscopic spaces and insure the best physical contact between the heatsink and CPU core. Over the next 20 to 100 hours of use the compound thickens out to its final consistency designed for long-term stability. Sounds very High-Tech! Rather than simply accepting Acrtic Silver Inc's word on all this, I am of course going to put it to the test against a formidable opponent, and Alumina’s main competitor in the overclocking market - Arctic Silver II. Since they are both made by the same firm, I am sure Arctic don't really give two hoots about which is superior, but us consumers do!
As much as I like and use Artic Silver II, it is not the easiest thermal compound to work with. For one, the opaque nature of the compound makes it difficult to judge how thickly you have applied it. Another problem is the cost. Although not hideously expensive, Arctic Silver II is undeniably more costly than any regular thermal compound. Its third and final problem is that although not conductive, it is slightly capacitive. This capacitive nature can cause some crosstalk at very high frequencies and affect the stability of the chip if it gets all over the bridges and surface mounted components. It will not however conduct DC and will not permanently damage a chip. Nothing major then, but a pain none the less. Fortunately Alumina is neither conductive nor capacitive.
Correct application of thermal compound is extremely important if you want it to form. Spreading it on thickly like peanut butter will do nothing for your temperatures I assure you. Another popular misconception is that you can get away with spreading a nice thick layer, then the cooler will squeeze out the excess when fitted. Whilst this might be true in the case of core-crackers like the Zen CPU Radiator, whose clip is firmer than Sarah Michelle Geller’s arse after liposuction, the pressure certainly wont be sufficient from your average thermoengine! The best method is to spread on as thin a layer as is humanely possible whilst still retaining total coverage. Remember the soul purpose of thermal compound is to fill the microscopic valleys in the heatsink and on the core. Two perfectly flat surfaces would work best with no compound at all!
I opted for my regular HSF review system to test this stuff. The Athlon 1.4GHz offers more than a challenge to most coolers and thermal compounds. The full specs are:
- AMD Athlon 1.4GHz Thunderbird CPU
- 256MB Cas 2 DDR RAM
- IBM Deskstar 60GXP 60 GB
- Iwill XP333-R Motherboard
- 19" Sony Multiscan GDM-400PS Monitor
- Windows XP Professional
- Lian-Li PC-60 case
- OCZ Goliath Cooler
All temperatures were taken using a thermal probe connected to a digidoc 5. Idle temperature was measured by allowing Windows to boot up, and leaving the PC idle until the temperature stopped fluctuating. To measure the temperatures at full load, I used Genome @ home and allowed the CPU to run at full 100% load for 30 minutes. This was sufficient to bring the CPU to its maximum temperature under the cooler. Where possible, all heat sinks were subjected to the same test conditions (Same Genome@Home work unit, same testing period, same ambient temperature of 25°C plus or minus 0.5 degrees.)
Before taking the temperatures, I allowed both compounds 24 hours of settling-in time in which I used the PC as normal. So how does the young upstart perform compared to the Granddaddy? Very well is the answer, matching it exactly (well plus or minus 1°C).
Conclusion
Clearly Arctic if anything, have downplayed the effectiveness of its new product, not wanting to loose money on its premium Silver compounds. Arctic Alumina in my opinion is the finest thermal compound available today (although Arctic Silver 3 may perform even better - review soon). It is much easier to apply thinly than ASII, it is not capacitive, and best of all it is downright cheap. If you are still using the crap that came with your cooler, AA is well worth the investment, and with proper application should shave a couple of degrees from your CPU temperature. I have no trouble awarding Arctic Alumina the OcPrices.com Editors choice award.
Click for an explanation of our awards.
Highs
- High tech phase-changing technology
- Great ASII-matching performance
- Easy to spread thinly
- The price is right
- Not capacitive
Lows
- Easy to squeeze too much out of the tube
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