Can Arctic Silver 5 damage your motherboard if a small amount of it gets on the motherboard?

[ZeRedz]

I was doing some research on thermal paste and found out that the Silver 5 is conductive. Does that mean the Silver 5 is capable of doing serious damage if even a bit of it gets on a motherboard or a GPU PCB?

[Tan3l6]

2 minutes ago, ZeRedz said:

I was doing some research on thermal paste and found out that the Silver 5 is conductive. Does that mean the Silver 5 is capable of doing serious damage if even a bit of it gets on a motherboard or a GPU PCB?

http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm#:~:text=Arctic Silver 5 was formulated to conduct heat%2C not electricity.&text=While it is not electrically,close-proximity electrical paths.)

Not Electrically Conductive:
Arctic Silver 5 was formulated to conduct heat, not electricity.

 

Also theres an ancient LTT topic covering this - 

 

[ZeRedz]

1 minute ago, Tan3l6 said:

http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm#:~:text=Arctic Silver 5 was formulated to conduct heat%2C not electricity.&text=While it is not electrically,close-proximity electrical paths.)

Not Electrically Conductive:
Arctic Silver 5 was formulated to conduct heat, not electricity.

Guess I'll go for the silver 5 then!

[Tan3l6]

32 minutes ago, ZeRedz said:

Guess I'll go for the silver 5 then!

Though in the end they mention - While it is not electrically conductive, the compound is very slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical paths.

 

But thats probably the case with most pastes.

[Chris Pratt]

28 minutes ago, Tan3l6 said:

Though in the end the mention - While it is not electrically conductive, the compound is very slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical paths.

 

But thats probably the case with most pastes.

Yes, any paste can cause issues if it gets on the right place on your motherboard, but generally it's not something you have to worry about if you don't like put half the tube on the CPU.

 

The concern with liquid metal pastes is that the metal can actually leak out over time. That's not something that happens with traditional pastes.

[Tan3l6]

4 minutes ago, Chris Pratt said:

Yes, any paste can cause issues if it gets on the right place on your motherboard, but generally it's not something you have to worry about if you don't like put half the tube on the CPU.

 

The concern with liquid metal pastes is that the metal can actually leak out over time. That's not something that happens with traditional pastes.

The liquid metal cooling compound is usually not called "paste" in the web. 
But yeah, usually consisting of gallium and indium does also "eat/corrode" aluminium.

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3362-how-liquid-metal-affects-copper-nickel-and-aluminum-corrosion-test

[paddy-stone]

41 minutes ago, ZeRedz said:

I was doing some research on thermal paste and found out that the Silver 5 is conductive. Does that mean the Silver 5 is capable of doing serious damage if even a bit of it gets on a motherboard or a GPU PCB?

No it should be fine. But, if you did happen to get some on the PCB of the mobo or GPU, then just use some isopropyl alcohol and a lint free cloth to get rid of it.

[freeagent]

I don't want to say AS5 is harmless, but it the 10 years or more, leaning towards more.. that I have been using, I haven't had any issues with it. It is not remotely as dangerous as LM is.

 

For what it is, and as long as it has been around.. its actually pretty decent still. I've used some of the top TIMS, not much difference. Its there, but not as huge as some would make you believe.