• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Applying thermal paste...

Anomaly1964

Anomaly1964

Platinum Member
When applying thermal paste to the CPU, once the "BB or pea sized" amount is applied, do you simply attach the heat sink and let the paste spread from pressure or do you spread it out evenly over the CPU and them put the heat sink on?

Thanks!
 
I've seen it done both ways with great results.

Personally i use the pea sized amount and then lay the hea tsink centered on the CPU and apply VERY SLIGHT pressure while giving it a VERY SMALL twist either way to help it spread. Then i bolt/clip/pushpin the heat sink down.
 
i put on a pea and then take a clean utility blade and work it into the nooks and crannies on the cpu and HSF.
 
My concern would be that the pressure wouldn't be enough to fully spread the dab of thermal paste. In that case you wouldn't get optimum contact.
 
Thanks guys, I know there are youtube videos and the spreading with a business card seems to be popular, just wanted the PROs opinions...thanks again.

EDIT* -

should you let the Heatsink sit for a bit and adhere a bit to the cpu before you screw in down (to avoid it from shifting on the cpu)>

Will be using a 212+ HS...
 
Last edited:
Careful before you say "pea sized" guys, because peas are far larger than the amount of material you wan't to use. BB is more accurate. If you truly used a pea sized amount, it would seep out everywhere and make a mess or even cause damage. 😛

It also depends on the heatsink in question. Direct Heatpipe coolers should be treated differently, because of the grooves that exist between the pipes and the base. If you simply apply that BB sized amount in the center on those, it won't spread evenly because the heatsink was grooved.
 
Continuity28 said:
Careful before you say "pea sized" guys, because peas are far larger than the amount of material you wan't to use. BB is more accurate. If you truly used a pea sized amount, it would seep out everywhere and make a mess or even cause damage. 😛

It also depends on the heatsink in question. Direct Heatpipe coolers should be treated differently, because of the grooves that exist between the pipes and the base. If you simply apply that BB sized amount in the center on those, it won't spread evenly because the heatsink was grooved.
Click to expand...


This is the heatsink I will be getting (should be delivered today):

35-103-065-S04.jpg


How would you suggest apply the paste?

Thanks!
 
Anomaly1964 said:
When applying thermal paste to the CPU, once the "BB or pea sized" amount is applied, do you simply attach the heat sink and let the paste spread from pressure or do you spread it out evenly over the CPU and them put the heat sink on?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I don't use that method as IHS may be slightly concave in, causing TIM to stay dead center instead of spreading. Even if it spread, you can't be sure if the spread covers portion where the cores are.

Note that a fingerprint can increase temp by as least 5 degree, let alone hair, fur or dirt. Use 90%+ alcohol and use the cloth that people clean their glasses with as the last pass.

I found one of the two works best. First, find out where the cores are underneath the IHS, draw one straight line with TIM across the longest side of the die of the CPU. Place HS on top and slowing increase the pressure and turn the heatsink in both direction (about 1-3 degree clockwise and counter-clockwise) until it feels the TIM has spread out.

The second method is to find a thin plastic(overhead slide), thinner then your credit card, and cut out the shape of the die, then place this plastic on top of IHS, fill the center with TIM and spread the TIM with an unused credit card. At the end the thickness of the TIM will be identical to the thickness of the plastic you use, and the surface of the TIM should not have bumbs and exceed TIMs are left of plastic. Lift up the plastic before placing the HS back. With this method you don't need to worry about pressure and turning as much as the TIM is already overing the die.
 
Last edited:
I really believe you guys are overthinking this simple act of putting heatsink goo on. Its not rocket science, just common sense. You want the full contact area to have thermal interface material on it to maximize heat transfer, so just make sure that is being done and it will work great. I don't buy it that a fingerprint will raise temps by 5 degrees.
 
I put a dab on the center, spread it out with my finger, put on the heatsink and press down and twist till I feel the heatsink contact the chip, pull off the heatsink , look for voids, re-apply if necessary until I see no voids then press it back down and tighten. This is what they taught me 20 years ago in the navy and done it that way ever since. The rule was if you can't see through it when it is spread out you used too much.
 
Modelworks said:
I put a dab on the center, spread it out with my finger, put on the heatsink and press down and twist till I feel the heatsink contact the chip, pull off the heatsink , look for voids, re-apply if necessary until I see no voids then press it back down and tighten. This is what they taught me 20 years ago in the navy and done it that way ever since. The rule was if you can't see through it when it is spread out you used too much.
Click to expand...

ANOTHER good tip, thanks...
 
I just drop a nice pea sized amount (relative to the size of the heat spreader) and then let the heatsink do the work and as mentioned above, give a little twist to get the air bubbles out. I've never had any problems and my temperatures are fantastic. But,When applying paste to large areas, for example an Nvidia GTX 580 GPU, i spread the paste, as i find with larger surfaces the pea drop method doesn't work as it won't cover enough of the surface area.

Here is a video comparing the various methods:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyXLu1Ms-q4&feature=&p=BAF48E797A43FBE5&index=0&playnext=1
 
Last edited:
slag said:
I really believe you guys are overthinking this simple act of putting heatsink goo on. Its not rocket science, just common sense. You want the full contact area to have thermal interface material on it to maximize heat transfer, so just make sure that is being done and it will work great. I don't buy it that a fingerprint will raise temps by 5 degrees.
Click to expand...


People tend to go overboard with it. Putting too much is one of the biggest problems. I was taught to use a finger to apply it and this was on million dollar equipment. It is just supposed to fill any voids. I still use the same white silicon grease they have used for decades and often get better results than the people that apply the new high performance paste because the old grease is so hard to apply wrong.
 
I will generally apply some TIM to the heatsink and rub it into the grooves with a piece of plastic wrapped around my finger. Then I'll take a lint free cloth and wipe the heatsink mostly clean. What that does is fill in the grooves between the heatpipes so that they don't impede the spread when I press the heatsink down.

I experimented with several arrangements of beads for optimum spread. Mine is a 4 pipe model, and the best spread occurred with 3 short lines of thermal grease on the 3 aluminum dividers between each heat pipe, in the center of the area where the CPU heatspreader makes contact. I've also used the method where the thermal grease is spread evenly over the cpu surface with this same heatsink and the difference is marginal, perhaps 1-2 degrees in favor of the 3 line method.

I recommend spreading some paste on the cpu and pressing the heatsink down on it once just to get an idea of where the heat spreader will be on the block. I took a screwdriver and made some light scratches on the heatsink to mark the corners of the cpu heatspreader so that I could be certain that I was centering the lines of thermal paste properly.
 
SlitheryDee said:
I will generally apply some TIM to the heatsink and rub it into the grooves with a piece of plastic wrapped around my finger. Then I'll take a lint free cloth and wipe the heatsink mostly clean. What that does is fill in the grooves between the heatpipes so that they don't impede the spread when I press the heatsink down.

I experimented with several arrangements of beads for optimum spread. Mine is a 4 pipe model, and the best spread occurred with 3 short lines of thermal grease on the 3 aluminum dividers between each heat pipe, in the center of the area where the CPU heatspreader makes contact. I've also used the method where the thermal grease is spread evenly over the cpu surface with this same heatsink and the difference is marginal, perhaps 1-2 degrees in favor of the 3 line method.

I recommend spreading some paste on the cpu and pressing the heatsink down on it once just to get an idea of where the heat spreader will be on the block. I took a screwdriver and made some light scratches on the heatsink to mark the corners of the cpu heatspreader so that I could be certain that I was centering the lines of thermal paste properly.
Click to expand...

Nice explanation...
 
slag said:
I really believe you guys are overthinking this simple act of putting heatsink goo on. Its not rocket science, just common sense. You want the full contact area to have thermal interface material on it to maximize heat transfer, so just make sure that is being done and it will work great. I don't buy it that a fingerprint will raise temps by 5 degrees.
Click to expand...
You don't have to buy it, but it is really simple chemistry. Fingerprint contains oil, mixing it with the compound within the TIM will reduce the effectiveness of its cooling ability. In fact, any impurity and residues on the surface of the IHS and HS will impact the effectiveness of cooling, and therefore people use alcohol to clean the surface.

If you argue that the fingerprint cause minimal impact, then you may as well argue the need of using alcohol to clean the surface. If those ain't important than you should probably stick with stock paste. Hey, they work and most people uses it without any problems after years of use.

If however the goal is to insure maximum radiativity, every little thing helps. For best radiativity, TIM should be as thin as possible, and a fingerprint of oil is alot when you are mixing it with no more than one water drop worth of TIM. Think about it.
 
I just recently installed a xigmatek 1283 gaia which is a 3 pipe cooler opposed to the 212 4 pipes.

I just put 2 lines, about 2/3 of the cpu length, in the 2 spaces in-between the pipes.
 
Last edited:
It seems it would be EASIER it seems if they had like a thermal PATCH that you applied to the processor...(kinda like a band-aid or "quit smoking patch)?
 
Anomaly1964 said:
It seems it would be EASIER it seems if they had like a thermal PATCH that you applied to the processor...(kinda like a band-aid or "quit smoking patch)?
Click to expand...

Some manufacturers supply similar things pre-applied to heat sinks, but they usually don't work very well.

On the other hand...

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/04/07/thermal_paste_shootout_q209/2

American cheese is the name given to cheese that goes through a specific type of pasteurization process. Often yellow or orange in color, this cheese has also been known to take on a white color. A versatile type of cheese, tracing its origins back to the very start of this great nation, American cheese has found uses in barbeques and kitchens all over the country. Finding detailed specs has been no easy feat so without measurements in specific gravity or thermal conductivity we will be testing purely on its performance.
Click to expand...
 
Seero said:
You don't have to buy it, but it is really simple chemistry. Fingerprint contains oil, mixing it with the compound within the TIM will reduce the effectiveness of its cooling ability. In fact, any impurity and residues on the surface of the IHS and HS will impact the effectiveness of cooling, and therefore people use alcohol to clean the surface.

If you argue that the fingerprint cause minimal impact, then you may as well argue the need of using alcohol to clean the surface. If those ain't important than you should probably stick with stock paste. Hey, they work and most people uses it without any problems after years of use.

If however the goal is to insure maximum radiativity, every little thing helps. For best radiativity, TIM should be as thin as possible, and a fingerprint of oil is alot when you are mixing it with no more than one water drop worth of TIM. Think about it.
Click to expand...

One water drop or one grain of rice as some people say is definitely not enough TIM to install a heatsink with. Maybe 2-3x that, sure, but if you are only using a waterdrop's worth of TIM, you aren't using enough. And yeah, a fingerprint will not have any effect on heat transfer. Show me otherwise.
 
I spread a very thin layer using a Zip Loc bag on both the CPU and the heatsink. Then clamp the heatsink down. Simple, easy, and you know you're getting 100% coverage with a thin layer.
It's worked for 10 years so I'm not about to switch to some "foolproof" pea sized blob (which is not really pea sized) method.

I don't like the droplet/pea/whatever method because there's no way it will spread in a perfect rectangle. What will happen is it will either be incomplete coverage, or some will overflow. If you're using Arctic Silver, overflow is bad because it's conductive.

The reason they came up with the "pea sized" malarchy is because they assume people are too stupid to spread paste evenly with a Zip Loc bag.
 
Last edited:
For direct heatpipe coolers, it is better to apply the thermal paste directly to the heatsink, lined along the heatpipes (to ensure the cracks get filled with thermal paste, and that the heatpipes have a good thermal conduction with the processor). Just make sure you don't cake too much on.

It really depends on what you are doing, and what kind of thermal paste you are using. Pretty much the same as anything, there is no one way that works for everything. AS5 is applied differently than IC-7 for example.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top