Metal based thermal paste? What makes it so good?

           There are so many great thermal pastes on the market from MX4 to IC Diamond, but what makes one so different from the other? Today I have the answers for you! I found a really interesting article that discusses one of the most famour thermal pastes to date, and this also being one that i use in my personal system, i just had to mention it! You can read more in depth about thisnd and metal thermal paste right here: http://www.arcticsilver.com/reviews/as5/pcsynapse/pcsynapse_reviews.php.htm?verify=14.  Lets start off with the basics, if you are new to computers in general you might be wondering what is this thermal paste? Thermal paste is the interface between point A, a point of heat being generated, to point B, the heat sink, which acts as a dissipator for the heat. It is just the bridge for those 2 points, and it keeps your components from dying from overheating. Now a thermal paste can vary on its composition and structure, which affects how efficiently it transfers heat from said point A to point B. One that particularly caught my eye was a relatively old, yet still effective paste, AS5 (arctic silver 5) Which is a silver based thermal compound. It is made with 99.9% silver, along with aluminum oxide, zinc oxide, and boron nitride on a poly synthetic oil base. Metals themselves are great conductors, The silver, aluminum, and zinc are great conductors of heat but that is not the main takeaway, another reason why the heat conductivity is so great, is because of the shapes of the silver particle composition, so that it allows for maximum particle to particle contact after about 200 hours of "breaking in" period. The paste itself is a composition of various structures, both ionic and covalent and even organic, which affects the heat conductivity, this being a a metal based silver compound means that it has an ionic structures in it. The particles are packed so closely that they can more effectively transfer the heat energy more quickly and easily between one another from one end to another, these structures are what make such a thermal paste such as this such a good heat conductor for computer components, the electrons can more easily move between the cage structure and it is what makes the metals themselves such great conductors, of course this also introduces the fear of electrical shorts, because where its a great heat conductor it would also be a great electric conductor right? Yes and no, as stated earlier it is not all metal, it is all based on a poly synthetic oil base, and oil is so scarce when it comes to charged ions, which makes it in a word...a DULL conductor, but it is still stated that it does have the potential to conduct if it is allowed to make close enough contact with the micro circuits and transistors. So are metal based pastes worth it? Here is the bottom line, if you have enough experience and you know what you are doing, go to town, if you don't, stick with non-metal based carbon compounds. One question that i am very interested in knowing the answer to is, what do you think would make up an effective thermal compound?

Using Non-conductive fluids in water cooling may not be as safe as you think?

        Ever since the concept of water cooling has been introduced to the PC community all those years ago, the fear of their failure unfortunately hitched a ride right along with it. I came across an interesting article that depicts various fluids that can potentially be used to "Faliure-proof" your PC, you can read that right here     http://www.bittech.net/modding/2008/02/16/watercooling_fluid_shootout/2. People fear that with these types of coolers, the scary idea of leakage would be introduced right along with them, but we as the human race believe that for every dilemma and every obstacle, there is a solution to remedy it, and so to counteract this particular dilemma, the folks who made these coolers would come to use non-conductive fluids, to effectively eliminate the risk of the coolers leaking and shorting out all of the precious electrical components. Now in a sense what the liquids are, are simply put, pure compounds, that show very low ionization, such as water for example, because of the fact that it has very low ionization, it means it doesn't carry electrical current through very well such as for example, a metal like iron, or copper would. Now the most common non conductive liquid used is distilled water, because its pure, cheap, and initially not conductive, notice i say "initially", this brings me to the point of this post, you've so far heard me talk about why and what substances are used to prevent damage, but never heard me say yet why its dangerous, well here it is. The reason these supposed non-conductive fluids are dangerous is because as they move through your water cooling loop, they eat away at all of the metallic parts inside your loop, essentially picking up the one key component to electrical conductivity, you guessed it! Ions... These little particles of metal essentially turn your safe, non-conductive liquids, into deadly, component killing, conductive, computer poisons! All of those little ions makes the liquids become more and more ionized, therefore increasing it ability to allow the flow of current through itself, effectively making it more dangerous to your PC. Now you are probably thinking, "Well with all of these scary statements, there must be a solution to this problem right? RIGHT?"...No...unfortunately there is no way in this day and age to prevent this inevitability,
with coolers such as AIO closed loop water coolers, there is virtually no way to prevent the ionization of the liquid, unless you build a fully custom loop, which introduces maintenance, but will essentially allow you to drain your fluids and replace them from time to time, but that is so time consuming and tedious that it is just not worth the effort. To sum it all up, if you are looking for something that will make your water cooling 100% safe, I've got disappointing news for you, and recommend you stick with traditional air cooling, because ionization is just one of those little annoyances that you just can't get rid of, especially when it comes to liquid cooling. So do you think that non conductive fluids are worth it for the safety, even if it means having to switch it out every month or so?