How long to wait after applying thermal paste?

[shaun88]

I've just bought an i7 3770, and I'm going to buy a Noctua heatsink for it that doesn't come with thermal paste, is Arctic Silver 5 good enough? Also once applied, how long do I wait until I can turn on my PC and use it for games etc?

 

[legokill101]

the answer is yes it is good enough the and answer to the second part is immediately

 

[scout_03]

you could use it but some paste need a cure time check on your .

 

[clutchc]

Use MX-4. It is not electrically conductive and it has a next to nothing cure time. You can game right away. I've used it for years and run Intel Burn Test immediately after building. The temps are just as good as when I used to wait days.

 

[GhislainG]

Artic Silver 5 takes up to 200 hours to cure; in other words, the system has to be powered on for up to 200 hours to complete the curing process (the maximum temperature coulf be a couple degrees lower). With an i7-3770, AS5 is fine as that CPU runs rather cool. Even the stock cooler is good enough; when I bought mine, I ran Prime95 torture tests for 24 hours and it didn't overheat.