Les Jones

Science > Not a Sliver of Silver

Silversinksam at Overcockers.com decided to test popular brands of silver thermal paste. The paste goes between the computer chip and the heat sink to improve thermal conduction. What he found was that several of the brands either contained no silver whatsoever, or much less than indicated. Via Slashdot

The results have been confirmed by an outside lab. OCZ, one of the companies involved, has already announced a recall, saying that they buy their OCZ-branded paste from an outside company who lowered the silver content after the early samples were tested.

Here's a great article on thermal paste at Dan's Data.

From the discussion on Slashdot I found out that silver prices are much lower than I realized, around $6 per troy ounce. By way of comparison, gold is around $440 per troy ounce. This USGS study looks at historic silver prices through 1998.

It looks like silver is at a periodic low, while gold is near a high. Metals generally aren't great investments. They tend not to keep up with other investments or even inflation. However, they do provide some stability in a portfolio, and you can always hope for a metals rush, as happened in the inflationary '70s. With silver so low, I may pick up a little in my 401K. Heck, at these prices I can afford solid silver doorstops and bookends.