How much Thermal Paste to put on a heatsink? Overclocking P4 2.6C

[RussianSensation]

My system:

2.6@3.06 @1.50 (actual) - 1.575 Effective stock heatsink/fan
Abit IS7 1.6 bios (234FSB/186MEM = 5:4 ratio)
2x256 Geil PC3500UP @2-6-3-3 Gat@turbo-a-a-d-d @2.74 actual
350 watt turbolink

Now i just ordered Zalman CNPS-7000Cu cooler and some Arctic Silver 3 and i am not sure how much of the thermal paste to put on the heatsink...also should i put a little on the cpu and a litlte on the heatsink? spread it over the cpu evenly or in the middle so when heatsink comes down it spreads the compound "naturally"

It would be very helpful if there was a picture with teh thermal paste on the cpu so I could see how much I have to put ..does anyone know of a link to something like that?

And one more question right now my cpu idles at 45.5 and load at 64*C in Hardware Doctor...Assuming I keep the same setup and relax the RAm timings if necessary with stock northbridge cooler what approximate overclock could i achieve with Zalman cooler (assuming limited by Temperature)? (I am hoping around 3.5ghz)

Would it be of any benefit to get a better Northbridge cooler like Tiger 1 or something??? or stock one is fine?

 

[boyRacer]

Here you go.

EDIT: I don't think that Zalman was made for heavy overclocking like what you're planning to do. It does pretty well though... considering how quiet it is. Check out the P4 section of this page. Good luck.

 

[Nebor]

You can replace the northbridge w/ a passive zalman heatsink, it really doesn't get hot.

Not many chips make it up to 3.5ghz.And with your temps as they are, I wouldn't count on it.

 

[thorin]

RTFM

It's always in the package and if you've thrown that out it's always on the manuf's site.

Thorin

 

[Lyfer]

Goodluck reaching 3.2GHZ+ on a 350W turbolink PSU.

 

[RussianSensation]

I forgot to mention I also ordered a Fortron FSP-530GNA which guarantees that peak power will be supported for a minimum of 15 seconds

its 530 Watts and a peak wattage of 600W i know power supply manufacturers overexaggerate wattages but according to Anandtech and TomsHardware the Fortron Power supplies are very good (they both chose FSP-400-60GNA as one of the best), and their 400Watt one supports a combined +3.3V & 5.0V of 235Watts so this one should be at least as good

Anything else you think I overlooked?

I already hit 3.25ghz with my stockheatink and fan with the TurboLink but I had to raise the CPU voltage to 1.53 actual (1.60 in Bios) and the tempreature were exceeding 65*C thats why i backed off and ordered the Zalman