Thread: New PC Burn-In Question...

How long should I burn my CPU in? I am using Arctic Silver 5. I always understood its best to wait a couple days. Any advice?

Let run overnight hub once said I believe.


Sent from my iPhone 4 using Tapatalk

AS5 actually has a 200 hour cure time for best results. Wait a week-week and a half before going crazy with any overclocking. You should slowly see your temps get a little better.

To avoid this in the future, you can always go with a different TIM, such as Arctic MX-4. I started using it recently and really like it. No cure time, and great results right away!

You probably don't want to hear this but it doesn't really matter. Whether your CPU runs 3 or 4 degrees warmer or not won't make a difference. It's really just splitting hairs. I've always just applied the stuff and then let 'er rip. I've never had a problem. Perhaps after a week I gained a few degrees but it's not like I'm pushing the overclock to the edge of the thermal envelope.

Just the fact that you're using AS5 is sufficient.

Also, I realize a couple degrees isn't super significant... but

The 200 hour burn-in for AS5 also needs a decent amount of power cycles, heat up... cool down repeat.

So leaving her running for 200 hours idling isn't going to help......

Well, 5 degrees can make a difference when you are talking 65C and 70C, especially when at full load for long periods of time. Higher temps from your CPU means your CPU cooler is radiating more heat, which impacts your case temps, which impacts the ability for your GPUs and memory to cool. A few degrees can be the difference between your video cards working fine, and your video cards artifacting due to overheating.

If a better thermal compound will keep my temps down a few degrees, I am all for it. It is cheap and just makes good sense. AS5 is a great product... but there is better. If someone is asking about the drawbacks to AS5, it is the burn time, and the fact that there are really better TIMs out there now.

Rush, good advice. I wouldn't have thought I needed to let it cool to cure.

From the days of building my socket 939 and then LGA775 builds I always heard the praises of AS5. Never broke it in until I think I heard it here somewhere. I have 2 or 3 small tubes of AS5 stuff so I wont be buying anything else, and I don't mind waiting.

I OCed to 4.0 ghz and it was sitting right around 48C+-2 on all 4 cores while running the SMP client. I am going to wait to go any higher. I have no real need to OC other than folding.