Thermal Compound application question

[sinthon]

When applying the thermal compound to the little plate on top of my athlon xp 2500+ Barton do I set the heatsink directly on top or is their a method for this that you could educate me on? Help please.

 

[lchyi]

I don't really get your question. Where else would you put your heat sink if not on top of the die? What compound are you using? What heat sink do you have (though that really doesn't matter as much).

 

[sinthon]

I was simply asking if I should put my heatsink directly on top of the thermal compound. Sorry if my question was unclear.

 

[jswjimmy]

yes it should touch the thermal compound but not the die. this should have been posted in cpu/processors and overclocking

 

[Engineer]

Most thermal compounds instruct that you place the heatsink directly on top of the chip (coated in the compound) and to not "wiggle" the heatsink once seated. This seems to "scrape" areas of the thermal compound away and could hurt cooling performance! (YMMV)!

 

[sinthon]

Thank you all very much; my question is answered.