I agree that most of what everyone has said is at least reasonable under some conditions, though much of it isn't "necessary" for at least moderate success.
I've always stuck with the "spread the paste manually" method after a few dissatisfying experiences with the "dot / grain of rice / dollop & let it spread itself" methods. Particularly for viscous ('thick consistency') pastes.
IMHO a very light low viscosity grease (think between motor oil and maple syrup in a heated room) would probably spread itself pretty evenly pretty quickly, so applying a "dot" of it and letting the contact pressure spread it would be OK.
However stuff like Ceramique, AS5, etc. are pretty viscous materials, even moreso than toothpaste, more like wet cement / mortar / grout. They don't spread particularly well from heatsink to IHS pressure alone, and you'll not get a very fully spread cover over your IHS meaning that what IS there will be thicker than needed, and what ISN'T spread out will just (at least a little) deprive you of cooling surface area.
So though they say NOT to spread it yourself, I usually do. I take a credit card and use the edge as a squeegee or put my finger into a perfectly clean ziplock bag and use the outside surface of the bag to rub / press / stroke the stuff into a very thin layer. Usually the credit card (or straight razor blade) squeegee method is all you need plus a cotton swab / coffee filter to wpe up spills off the edges etc.
I try to create a layer all over the surface of the IHS that is basically as thin as a hair or a piece of paper. So thin that it is basically almost translucent and such that you'd have a hard time uniformly making it any thinner. Make it approximately a 100% uniformly thin layer across the whole IHS top and you're all set.
I also believe in the wisdom of hazing the heatsink base
surface before applying the thermal compound to the CPU IHS. Clean the IHS and heatsink base surface with IPA or whatever and let them dry and ensure there is no residue of oil / grease / dust on them, wipe with a lintless coffee filter to ensure they're hair / dust / dirt free.
Then take a small droplet of heatsink grease and apply it to the heatsink base surface, and use a clean ziplock bag like a glove over your finger and wipe that grease all over the surface of the heatsink's base plate (through the plastic). Then use a lintless coffee filter to wipe the heatsink base and give it a slight polish. Basically you'll wipe off all the 'layer' of HS grease you just put on there but you won't wipe hard enough to remove the microscopic 'hazy' residue of the HS compound that is now filling all the microscopic textures of the HS base.
Then just mate the HS to the IHS with the minimum scraping / rotating / sliding / etc. possible so that you preserve the uniformity of your HS grease layer on the IHS as much as possible, and achieve an even contact.
Yes you can make your own HS grease. There are several published reviews on various sites like AnandTech, Toms Hardware, VR Zone and what not where people have compared the leading dozens of commercial HS greases and have even added things like straight mineral oil, toothpaste, etc. to the test. Surprisingly just simple household stuff like toothpaste or mineral oil often seems to perform better than or as well as many of the commercial HS compounds! The potential problems, though, are how well they'd hold up over long term usage, whether they'd deteriorate in quality over time, etc.
Some diamond dust or fine alumina polishing grit and mineral oil or something like that would certainly WORK, though whether it's any BETTER than just buying a commercial compound, or any CHEAPER is far from certain.
Lapping:
The purpose of lapping is to grind (with sandpaper)
the metal surfaces of the heatsink base, and possibly also the CPU IHS to make them flatter than they already may be. The benefit is that the flatter they are the better contact they'll make and the better the heat transfer you'll get, lowering your operating temperatures. Many heatsinks are FAR from flat when you buy them, so lapping them can sometimes help A LOT. Most often the CPU IHS is PRETTY FLAT from the factory (though sometimes it is VERY warped), so usually there's less benefit to be had from lapping the CPU IHS. Typically you'd do tests with flat glass panes and a drop of water spreading out between the pane and the metal surface to check for flatness. You'd also use a flat razor blade edge against the metal surface and look for any light from a bright window / light bulb shining through any crack between the blade edge and the metal plate to check for flatness also. If they're pretty flat already, you don't lap them. If you've lapped them a bit and they're not correctly flat, you keep going until it's fixed.
You take a clear flat glass plate, like the one from
a 5" x 7" picture frame cover glass, tape (FLATLY!) a sheet of 320 grit wet/dry sandpaper to it, apply a few drops of water to wet it. Then take your heatsink, and apply FLAT EVEN STEADY GENTLE pressure down on the heatsink pressing it slightly against the glass, and stroke it a couple of inches, lift it up, place it back where you started the stroke from, and stroke again. You do about 20 one-directional strokes from top to bottom, then you lift the heatsink, rotate it 90 degrees, then do your next 20 strokes, etc. After about 5 minutes you'll have removed enough material (less than a millimeter) to flatten the metal, so you remove the sandpaper, clean up your glass / heatsink with water & IPA, get all the old grit / dust off. Then start with the next finer grade of sandpaper, say going from 320 grit to 450 grit or whatever, and repeat the process.
After you've gone through the sequence of 320, 450, 600, 800 grit papers you should have a very flat and smooth heatsink base that's ready to be cleaned with dusting / IPA and used in the PC.
The process for lapping the CPU IHS itself is about the same only you'll put the protective cap on to cover the CPU electrical contacts, masking tape around the areas needed to keep water / grit out of the CPU IHS openings and electrical contact areas, and so on. After the first few minutes you'll sand off the shiny nickel plating of the IHS and be down to bare copper. You may void your CPU's warranty doing this to the CPU IHS, however. Also you should be scrupulously aware of the proper ESD prevention / protection measures while handling the CPU as well as the proper ways to clean the metal dust up so no residue remains on the CPU.
Originally posted by: alfa147x
Ok so wait wait wait you can make your own thermal paste ?!? is it worth the work for someone who isnt going to be OC'ing?
And what do you mean by " lap the processor down" ?
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