Cool Runnings

The documentation on Arctic Silver 5 says that there is a 200-hour break-in period after application of the thermal grease. If the system is permitted to come down to room temperature repeatedly during that time, it will improve the chemical structure of the particles in the compound. It suggests that this can enhance your cooling results by about 2 to 5C.

Current results after a day of turning the computer off for a few hours every so often: after 15 minutes of sustained 100% CPU utilization, my cores are running at 49C, 37C, 41C and 44C. Pinch me, I think I'm dreaming.