IPhone – Thermal paste for A8 chip

hardwareiphonelogicboardprocessor

On the iPhone logic board (or at least for the iPhone 6), there is a metal shield (heatsink?) covering the A8 SoC and few other components. There is also black thermal paste between the chip and shield. I have the grey thermal paste for computer processors and heatsinks, but I don't have, nor have I seen, the black paste being sold. Can I use the grey thermal paste with the A8, without it overheating and with it working long term?

Best Answer

The article Thermal Paste Thermal Tape Question Logic Board mentions a similar black substance used in a G4 PowerBook logic board:

When installing the logic board, I know your're required to use the silver colored thermal paste on the main processor and it's heat sink. On the other chip however, ( I assume it's the video chip, it says Motorola on it), the original techs appear to have used something black, and it is thicker, and harder to remove and appears to be cut to size. My question is,...what is the black stuff used on the other processor with a copper heat sink? Is it black thermal tape, cut to size and if so, where do you buy it from? And do you apply a piece of tape on the video processor and on the copper heat sink? Or do you apply the thermal substance on only only one part either the video chip or the copper heat sink?

Unfortunately, as you mention, there appears to be no source for the black thermal substance1. However, silver (which has an extra 5% efficiency) thermal paste, rather than white , should do the trick.

1 Unless this Thermal paste for iPhone 5 Mainboard is the black stuff.

Related Question