Hang on a sec… The adhesive is discontinued, not regular AS5, at least not that I saw. ??
The adhesives are discontinued, the one that is an epoxy made with two tubes.
I just realized it’s not only the alumina adhesive but also the regular silver thermal adhesive that is discontinued.
Here we mostly care about the alumina though.
The regular alumina thermal compound is still available.
Naw, regular AS5. Rarely if ever use actual adhesive.
Still, as long as they’re sealed, they shouldn’t “go bad” too soon.
I keep mine in the fridge sealed in a food saver bag—-used some 3 yr old Artic Silver epoxy yesterday—just like new—-out of curiosity I used some Artic Alumina just as old on some spare parts had to use the vise and hammer to separate them today
Oh then yeah that’s not discontinued, only adhesives are.
There are better thermal pastes than AS5, AS5 is really old.
Yeah, but I don’t go building Q8s or MT09Rs or anything, so I’m good with AS5.
I like AS5 over some fancier stuff that I bought at some point (will look up what it was) because of the smooth texture, it applies really easy in a nice thin layer. That other stuff is way too stiff to use under stars.
If it’d too stiff, pre-heat the head and the paste.
I’m still using MX2 for non-adhesive paste, nothing I do needs ultimate performance. I just like being able to permanently attach things sometimes, and that’s where the Arctic Alumina thermal adhesive comes in.
As far as I know, the non-adhesive pastes keep for years and years in storage, but the adhesive versions eventually degrade and go hard, so I was fine with the MX2 lying around after buying a larger (better value) tube, but I was avoiding doing that with the thermal adhesives.
Good point - I’d forgotten about that.
Thank you :+1:
So they won’t give a reason to why it is discontinued, however if you contact them directly it is possible to buy the OEM thermal epoxies.
Minimum order is $100 and you purchase it directly through them. Everything is produced on demand so it takes them a few days or weeks to make it before shipping to you.
The ceramic quick-cure thermal epoxy is the exact same as the retail alumina adhesive which used to be available.
Fortunately MTN electronics got one last batch in stock, so there’s still 24 left 
http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=25_74&product_id=114
Also when you buy OEM you get a lot of epoxy, way more than these small 5g tubes.
$100 would get you about 200g of the ceramic adhesive.
It’s too bad it’s not supposed to be used with aluminum.
dont buy from frozencpu.
buy from here:
https://modmymods.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=arctic
these are the guys that worked at frozencpu when the poop hit the fan. when things got super sketch, they left and formed a new business.
Brian
Take a look, they don’t have the epoxy.
Only the alumina thermal paste.
Oops. I was more concerned with sketchy frozencpu and didn’t look carefully.
Brian
We’ve been frustrated by the discontinuation when ARTIC Silver said it was due to California laws. We have been using an alternative supplier by Atom Adhesives. They have replacements of the products discontinued. Part number: AA-DUCT 902 and AA-Supertherm 195. They ship fast without order minimums.
We’ve been frustrated by the discontinuation when ARTIC Silver said it was due to California laws. We have been using an alternative supplier by Atom Adhesives. They have replacements of the products discontinued. Part number: AA-DUCT 902 and AA-Supertherm 195. They ship fast without order minimums.
JB Quickweld works GREAT as a permanent heatsink compound…it has metal in it and good thermal conductivity (if used in a thin layer)
It must be quickweld though
And once cured…it’s absolutely stuck
The thermal conductivity is far from good. Just because something has metal in it does not mean it is a good conductor. And no, making it thin will affect the thermal transfer just like any other thermal compound. The property of heat conductivity is inversely proportional to the distance.