Make your own thermal epoxy?

coolio · Post by **coolio** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 12:01 am

Do you guys think this would work? The guy shows it working at only 2.5degrees lower than some Arctic silver.
http://www.overclockers.com/tips683/

Post by **Skyone** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 12:42 am

Just a question:

What does this have to do with n64?

sniper_spike · Post by **sniper_spike** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 5:05 am

Skyone, I'm beginning to question your nerdiness.

Thermal epoxy is used for greater thermal conductivity between ICs and heatsinks; the greater the conductivity, the more heat is dissapated into the heatsink. The less heat on the IC, the better it can perform, and the better it can be OCed.

"Now you know." - Bill Nye The Science Guy

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 11:40 am

that and your 64 will probably just straight up fry if you run it to long without sinks.

coolio · Post by **coolio** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 12:00 pm

oh! My bad

. I forgot to ask if I could use that to hold the heatsink on.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 12:10 pm

thats the idea! id practise on some garbage chip with some garbage aluminum first. you dount want to end up with sticky, conductive goop all over your 64 motherboard. once you get the recipie right, go fer it.

oh, and those little square blocks that are on the chips now? they are not really heatsinks. you will need something a little better than that if you dont plan to use that huge sheet of metal that was screwed into them. which i dont reccomend using.

Post by **Gamelver** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 2:02 pm

those little metal bits technically are part of the heatsink, though

. by themselves, they suck, obviously

. I've actually started just using the big piece of metal that came with the N64. I may have to fold it up a bit to save space, but other than that it works fine

. a fan (low draw

) with smaller heatsinks might be better, though...

coolio · Post by **coolio** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 4:25 pm

I think that I have found a good mixture for my needs. It has a fair amount of thermal compound but enough epoxy to make it stick. It take a little force to pull off a chip but enough to stay on quite well.

daguuy · Post by **daguuy** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 4:46 pm

i'm just using thermal goop on the chips and heatsinks and hot glue to glue the heatsinks to whatever they happen to be near on the board. that way if it fries or something (mmmm...deep fried N64, who's hungry?

) i can take off the heatsinks without any damage/inconveniances

G-force · Post by **G-force** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 5:02 pm

Cool find! Man, this could have helped me out so much on my first N64P. I had to resort to superglue at the time (keep in mind this was nearly 2 years ago).

Is thermal compound electrically conductive? I know that Arctic Silver stuff is, and if you get it on the chip leads you're in trouble. If this stuff isn't conductive, then it would probably be easier to work with than Artic Silver.

coolio · Post by **coolio** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 5:46 pm

I'm not sure. I just got the thermal compound from The Source. (Radioshack) I guess that I could do a test a little later. Does anyone know if epoxy is conductive?

Post by **Skyone** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 6:05 pm

sniper_spike wrote:Skyone, I'm beginning to question your nerdiness. Thermal epoxy is used for greater thermal conductivity between ICs and heatsinks; the greater the conductivity, the more heat is dissapated into the heatsink. The less heat on the IC, the better it can perform, and the better it can be OCed.
"Now you know." - Bill Nye The Science Guy

I'm not a nerd, at all.

Dr.Weasel · Post by **Dr.Weasel** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 7:03 pm

By definition, doesnt a thermal conductor have to also be a electrical conductor?
-Hayden

Post by **Gamelver** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 7:06 pm

no....thermal is heat....electric is...er, electric

.

different stuff

.

superdeformed · Post by **superdeformed** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 8:52 pm

coolio wrote:I'm not sure. I just got the thermal compound from The Source. (Radioshack) I guess that I could do a test a little later. Does anyone know if epoxy is conductive?

I'm pretty sure their thermal compound is not conductive, but it is a goopy mess. Make sure you don't get it on your clothes (or anything else you value), because it's not coming off. To be sure it's not conductive you can just stick two wires in it and measure for resistance with a meter. Also, plain old epoxy is not conductive.