"silver Thermal Pastes - Buyers Beware!"

A Must Read



UPDATE 1/23: OCZ is recalling OCZ Ultra II Premium Silver Compound - Details HERE.

I decided to test Arctic Silver 5, Arctic Silver 3, OCZ Ultra II Premium Silver Compound, and CompUSA Silver Thermal Grease. This test was not conducted to test performance, but rather to determine if these compounds have Silver as an ingredient.

All Testing was done twice, once on a jeweler's acid free 'Black stone', and the test was repeated on paper. The testing solution was Nitric acid and Muriatic acid that was pre-mixed professionally.



The tests produced some very disturbing results:

OCZ Ultra II Premium Silver compound and the CompUSA Silver Thermal Grease has ZERO silver in it.

The testing solution stayed orange - if it had any silver in it, the acids would turn varying degrees of red, depending on the purity of the silver present. OCZ claims that OCZ Ultra II Premium Silver compound is, "Made with 99.9% pure micronized silver, Over 70% silver content by weight".

I cannot concur and my tests conclusively show that there is Zero micronized silver present, and Zero silver content by weight.

Arctic Silver 3 and Arctic Silver 5 were also tested and both produced a blood red color, indicating 90% - 100% purity of Silver in both Arctic Silver 3 and Arctic Silver 5. Arctic Silver's claim of, "Contains 99.9% pure silver" by my testing is accurate and of the compounds tested, only Arctic Silver products produced results showing that Silver is in fact present.

The tubes in the picture below from left to right, Arctic Silver 5, Arctic Silver 3, OCZ Ultra II Premium Silver Compound and CompUSA Silver Thermal Grease.



In picture 3 below, from left to right is Arctic Silver 5, Arctic Silver 3 and OCZ Ultra II Premium Silver Compound. The compounds were placed on the paper and the acid was place on the compound undisturbed. Notice how the acid drop placed on the OCZ Ultra II Premium Silver Compound remains orange, indicating zero silver present:



When you go into a jewelry store and buy a sterling silver or a fine silver necklace, you expect the jewelry to be made of sterling or fine silver. The same should apply to silver thermal pastes - if the silver paste has no silver in it and the manufacturer says it does, that is misleading.

Based on my testing, I can not recommend OCZ Ultra II Premium Silver Compound or CompUSA Silver Thermal Grease, as they are both misleading products with zero silver in them. If you want a product that actually has silver as an ingredient, Arctic Silver 3, Arctic Silver 5 or Arctic Silver Adhesive tested OK.

Ed Note: Silversinksam's conclusions have been verified by an independent testing laboratory - details will follow in Part II of this article.

A Must Read

[NeoMoses]

Good catch wallcrawler. I don't make it over to OC.com nearly as much as I used to. That is quite interesting.

That's excellent information! Thanks

PS I should have a very interesting video for you boys of a 'Silver Paste' that can possibly cause DETRIMENTAL harm to your cpu and heatsink.

The silver' paste had a violent reaction to the testing solution and the video will be hopefully compiled in a few days.

This video is worth waiting for, I guarantee you will be shocked.

Looks like this is getting to be a big issue...

http://www.overclockers.com/articles938/


http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.p...63#post2607563

[pack rat]

I do hope that it becomes a big issue. Ripping off people should be a big issue. OCZ did the right thing.

Said it is not there concern at this time.
They have nothing to do with it, the own the company that supplies this crap, plus from what is going on this stuff has damaged my CPU,.....