How do you apply thermal paste ?

[Regenweald]

I see differing schools of thought on the matter so:

Do you manually spread it over the cpu or

Place a small bit at the centre and press gently down with the heatsink to spread ?

[dragos240]

I have never heard of thermal paste.

[scragar]

Spread it thinly over the whole CPU or heatsink(really doesn't matter which, although common sense dictates the CPU, since heatsinks tend to have larger bases), making sure not to leave gaps and big chunks.



I have never heard of thermal paste.
Have you ever tried to replace a processor or heatsink? Ever built your own computer? The heatsink would normally come with some thermal paste pre-applied to the heatsink.

[NoaHall]

It's what holds your heatsink(fan/cooler) to your CPU.

I didn't add any for while, needed to swap heatsinks. And the little I have added, are in the core four corners and then one in the middle.

[howefield]

Any thermal paste I have used in the past, came with a little scraper for spreading.. go figure.

[solitaire]

The paste is to transfer heat efficiently between the CPU and heatsink.

The base of a heatsink is very rough and so it the CPU surface, so when both are placed together there's loads of small gaps between them (gaps = terrible heat transfer). the paste is there to fill in those gaps so you only need a very thin layer of paste (any more and it starts to make things worse!)

you can polish the base of the heatsink to a "mirror finish" (called lapping) and get better heat transfer than standard heatsinks ;)

The best paste uses diamond dust in a holding medium and you can make it yourself ^_^

using both you can take 5c to 20c off of your top temps (your mileage may vary) :)

[Moop]

I've always used a grain of rice sized amount in the middle of the heat spreader and let it spread itself.

[kirsis]

Place a small bit at the centre and press gently down with the heatsink to spread ?

That

[coldReactive]

I'm too shaky, I'd rather get it done by a pro.

[darco]

I've always used a grain of rice sized amount in the middle of the heat spreader and let it spread itself.

+1 but also important is the paste itself...Artic Silver 5 is what I use....

darco

[Skripka]

http://www.arcticsilver.com/instructions.htm

PS-Guys, it varies with what kind of CPU you have, and how the heat spreader interfaces with the CPU.

[LowSky]

I usually apply a little arctic silver to the heatsink and rub it in until its barely noticeable. Then I apply an an amount directly to the CPU, and spread it out using a business card or credit card. The layer is aplied as thin and evenly as possible so that when the heatsink is installed no Arctic silver is oozing out over the sides.

[gn2]

I'm a spreader rather than a blobber.
When you spread you know it's all covered, when you blob you can't tell how far it's spread.

[doas777]

I see differing schools of thought on the matter so:

Do you manually spread it over the cpu or

Place a small bit at the centre and press gently down with the heatsink to spread ?

I spread it out, but then add a last dab before setting the sink, just to fill in the cracks as it were. I use good thermal paste, and it is a little too thick to be sure that it is evenly distributed just by the compression by the sink.

if I'm just building a cheap box though, I have just been using the adhesive that comes on the stock AMD heatsinks.

[3rdalbum]

When I installed my heatsink, the instructions said to put a rice-grain-sized dob of TIM in the middle of the CPU heatspreader, and when I put on the heatsink to rotate the sink left and right like a steering wheel, to help spread the stuff.

I just didn't know how much was too much (yes, it's possible to have too much), so I decided to let mathematics and physics do the spreading.

If the machine is for someone else, it's just going to be using the stock Intel or AMD cooler anyway; so I just use the TIM that comes pre-applied to the heatsinks. The Intel cooler used to have just a round circle of TIM, but now it has an attractive circle-minus-some-stripes pattern; presumably it still works, that machine didn't overheat :-)

[Tristam Green]

With a stick, while it sleeps.

[Regenweald]

Thanks guys :) The setup is not mine, using a gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H + an AthlonII X2 245, Since I was going with the stock cooler I wanted some quality paste on there so I bought the OCZ Freeze based on some good reviews. Removed the stock goop and made a small (as spherical as possible) ball at the centre of the proc and allowed the heatsink to spread.

System booted first time even though I'm using a 4-pin atx in an 8-pin connector. Will look into and adapter based on any stability issues.

Biggest issue this morning ? Gigabyte shipped a severely mis-shapen driver cd. My sister is currently standing on 40 lb of weights atop the dished cd trying to help me with that :)

Edit: pressing out the cd was a bust. Over at Gigabyte grabbing the drivers now ;)

[BrokenKingpin]

Spread it thinly over the whole CPU or heatsink(really doesn't matter which, although common sense dictates the CPU, since heatsinks tend to have larger bases), making sure not to leave gaps and big chunks.
This

[PurposeOfReason]

It's what holds your heatsink(fan/cooler) to your CPU.

I didn't add any for while, needed to swap heatsinks. And the little I have added, are in the core four corners and then one in the middle.
Not sure what TIM you're using here, but it does not hold anything.

OP - For me it depends on the heatsink in question and if there has been lapping done.

[Exodist]

I am shocked how many dont know what thermal paste is.

I normally use more then directed, but not enough it squeezes out of between the heat sink and CPU onto the mobo or anything. I squirt the amount I want to use in the center of the cpu and then put the heat sink & fan and forget it.

Arctic Cooling's "Arctic Silver" paste is my preferred paste.

[doas777]

Thanks guys :) The setup is not mine, using a gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H + an AthlonII X2 245, Since I was going with the stock cooler I wanted some quality paste on there so I bought the OCZ Freeze based on some good reviews. Removed the stock goop and made a small (as spherical as possible) ball at the centre of the proc and allowed the heatsink to spread.

System booted first time even though I'm using a 4-pin atx in an 8-pin connector. Will look into and adapter based on any stability issues.

Biggest issue this morning ? Gigabyte shipped a severely mis-shapen driver cd. My sister is currently standing on 40 lb of weights atop the dished cd trying to help me with that :)

Edit: pressing out the cd was a bust. Over at Gigabyte grabbing the drivers now ;)

I built 3 almost identical boxes last week, and did just fine with the stock heatsink. MDs idle high anyway, so I don't go bullistic trying to get into the 20C range. they idle about 40-45 but these aren't workhorse boxes either. just some media boxes, and one for the kids.

[LowSky]

http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appinstruct/as5/ins_as5_amd_dual_wcap.pdf

[starcannon]

I see differing schools of thought on the matter so:

Do you manually spread it over the cpu or

Place a small bit at the centre and press gently down with the heatsink to spread ?

First an explanation for those that don't know Thermal Paste/Grease's purpose; it is applied to fill in the very, very, very small pits and other surface inconsistencies on the chip to which it is applied. This allows even heat dispersement/cooling, and better heat management by removing places for air to be trapped.

So, that said, I apply a small dab, about the size of a grain of rice, to a desktop cpu. I then take an old credit card offer, and use the sample card to move the material around on top of the chip. I then use the credit card to squeegy(sic) the material. When I squeegy the material, I put firm but gentle pressure down, helping to press thermal material into the voids on the chip surface. If I have scraped most of it off in the squeegy process, I then add just a little more for the heatsink to press in once it is spring loaded.

Before fitting the now chipped motherboard to the case, I carefully inspect the job to make sure no excess thermal paste dripped out onto the board, that could possibly cause a short cirquit. I also check to make sure there is no excess paste getting ready to drip from between the Heatsink and Chip, for the same reason. I clean up any drip situations I may find, then proceed to finish building the computer.

Thats how I do it.

GL

[Regenweald]

Well i see that both camps are pretty well supported :)

For my personal preference, I rather allow the heatsink and physics determine the spread. Manually spreading could lend to undulating topography and allow air in. At least that is what I tell myself...

[unutbu]

http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appinstruct/as5/ins_as5_amd_dual_wcap.pdf

Thanks for the interesting read!


Important: Keep the surfaces free of foreign materials and do NOT touch the surfaces, a hair, piece of lint, and even dead skin cells can significantly affect the thermal interfaces performance. In addition, oils from your fingers can adversely affect the performance by preventing the micronized silver fill from directly contacting the metal surfaces. (Fingerprints can be as thick as 0.005")
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Understand that we are just putting thermal compound in close proximity to the center of the heatspreader. Only a small amount of Arctic Silver is needed. The example at left shows you an approximate amount to use, about the size of one aa half uncooked grains of short-grain white rice or ¾ of a BB.
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Since the vast majority of the heat from the core travels directly through the heat spreader, it is more important to have a good interface directly above the actual CPU core than it is to have the heat spreader covered with compound from corner to corner.

[starcannon]

Thanks for the interesting read!
Good they updated the directions; when I first started using Artic Silver they recommended a "Pea Size" bit of thermal compound; which, made a huge mess to clean up at the end of the CPU install process, though likely sold a great deal more thermal paste :D

[forrestcupp]

I do it like I put mayonnaise on a sandwich. I squirt a little over most parts of the processor. Then I press the heat sink on the processor and move it around some to spread the stuff all over.