Arctic Silver Ceramique Review
When you think about the name Arctic Silver, you automatically think high-performance thermal compound products. That's what they are. Arctic Silver is by far the most popular brand maker of thermal compounds and now brings something new to the table. Arctic Silver has just announced the introduction of their new thermal compound a few weeks ago, the Arctic Silver Ceramique.
Arctic Silver was nice enough to send two 2.7 grams of Ceramique thermal compounds. The syringe-based tubes have been upgraded to ensure that application will be easier than before.
Arctic Silver Ceramique is a ceramic-based thermal compound and is used for heatsinks and water cooling solutions. Thermal compounds are materials that go between the metal of the heatsink and the die of the CPU core. Thermal compound fills in microscopic valleys between the heatsink and the core because they are never flat.
The Arctic Silver Ceramique is now white in colour as opposed to the grayish colour of the Arctic Silver 3 compound. It is much thicker than before also. Therefore, applying the compound feels stickier but that's no problem.
Here is an image of Ceramique spread on an envelope.
Specs
- Made with micronized aluminum oxide, boron nitride and zinc oxide.
- Average particle size: 0.38 microns <0.000015 inch
- Ceramique is engineered to not separate, run, migrate, or bleed.
- Wide Temperature Limits..Peak: – 40°C to >180°C...Long-Term: – 40°C to 140°C
- Easy to clean
Installation
During applying Arctic Silver Ceramique, I found that the syringe is much easier releasing the compound. It just takes a small push of the syringe and it comes out. Don't push too much as compound will just come all out. There were no times when the tube became stuck.
The thermal compound is relatively smooth yet kind of thick as I have stated. I found that it doesn't spread as nicely as Arctic Silver 3 because it's thicker. Cleanup was easy and very typical. You can use alcohol swabs or the Akasa TIM Clean product.
Testing
I will make a comparison between the Arctic Silver Ceramique, Arctic Silver 3 and the Nanotherm XTC. I will be using the Spire FalconRock II for testing and the ambient room temp ranged from 22-26c. That's because summer is here (temps go up). The system setup consists of the Soltek SL-FRN2-L motherboard and more can be found on our test system page. All compounds were set in for a 72 hour period.
Results
| Idle (30 mins) | Load (UT 2003, 1 hour) | Load (5 mins, Toast) | |
| Arctic Silver 3 | 38 | 45 | 47 |
| Nanotherm XTC | 37 | 44 | 47 |
| Arctic Silver Ceramique | 37 | 43 | 45 |
Conclusion
The Arctic Silver Ceramique is an excellent thermal compound that has been revised to offer better performance. While the compound compared similar on idle stages, the Ceramique displayed its improvements on the load side of things.
I rate the Ceramique a...
9.5/10!
Pros and Cons
+
Better than AS 3
+ Syringe
+ Cheap price
- A bit on the thick side
I would like to thank Arctic Silver for making the review possible.
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Alternative Pricing
- Elitecool.com - $5.00U.S.
- 2Cool Tek - $10.00U.S.
- KDC
Computers - $3.45U.S.
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