where do you put thermal compound on p4s?

[orcorcorc5]

in all the pictures on arctic silver 3's webpage the CPU core is red, I can't see a cpu core on my pentium 4 2.26GHz.. I'm guessing I just put the compound all over the metal plate that's on the opposite side from the pins that go in the motherboard, is this right? this is also where the words are like intel, 2.26 GHz, the place it was made, etc.

 

[John]

Yes, apply a thin layer of AS III on the heat spreader, then apply the heatsink. Be sure to remove any thermal pad/compound from the heatsink first!

 

[sheriffA]

how thin is thin? do you mean a mm? I heard you should apply a layer equivalent to the thickness of a piece of paper, is that correct?

 

[Mavrick007]

You should apply a layer as thin as you can get it, the thinner the better cause you want it to transfer and not build up heat.

 

[RedShirt]

Apply it so that if it were any thinner, you'd be able to see the heat spreader.

 

[sheriffA]

thank you guys