I remounted my HSF today, replacing my 3-month old Arctic Silver 5 with IC Diamond 7 Carat.

I had lot's of practice using as5, and removing the HSF showed an extremely thin layer of TIM, my very-high-pressure mount squeezed any excess out. Both my cpu and HSF are lapped. The past three or four remounts of as5 gave identical results (I keep a spreadsheet of ambients, fan speeds, vcore, etc).

I practised spreading the IC 7, as it's a thicker paste, and it clings to itself, rather than the HSF. (I use ArctiClean to clean surfaces.) I expected to need a very thin layer of IC 7, but spreading with a razor blade gave just a haze, and actually scratched the lapped TTBT I was using.

My first 'real' mount was of this haze-thin coating on both the cpu and HSF. Temps were about 10c higher in idle and Orthos.

I applied the next-thinnest layer I could achieve, which was by squeezing out the thinnest line I could, as per Arctic Silver's directions for Intel C2D chips, then spreading with the razor blade.

Temps on restart were identical with as5, as were Orthos. I have since heat-cycled the system three times, and my temps are still identical with the as5. Ambient's are the same to the tenth of a degree per an electronic thermo I keep at system air intake level.

It may be that I have reached the thermal capacity of my Infinity, as newer coolers run significantly cooler. It's also possible that in the next week or two, some of the IC 7 will squeeze out, giving me somewhat better temps.

One strange thing I noticed: cleaning my lapped 'test' TTBT with ArtciClean did NOT remove the dark 'stain' left by the IC7. I wonder what the carrier is in this stuff?