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Applying Thermal paste, Line or dot? That is the question

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Soldato
Joined
13 Aug 2003
Posts
21,184
Location
UK
I do the same as the Athlon XP days. Glue spreader or old credit card, very thin layer all over the core/die/plate evenly smoothed. Then what's left smear what tiny bit was left on the card onto the centre of the heatsink to fill the machine grooves. Always had good temps with stock coolers, XP's, X2 and X6.
 
Associate
Joined
29 Dec 2010
Posts
270
If you go on the arctic silver webby, it has instructions on how to apply thermal paste for different CPUs, their damn good instructions, check em out :) It told me to use horizontal for core 2 quad
 
Associate
Joined
12 Sep 2009
Posts
658
Location
Harrogate
How about when the bottom of the cooler is ridged?
Some after market coolers have a direct contact with the heatpipes, and the last 2 I've owned have had a ridged finish to them.
They seem to work well enough, but I'm guessing a blob in the middle wouldn't spread so far because of this.
 
Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
1,929
Location
In the sticks
I do the same as the Athlon XP days. Glue spreader or old credit card, very thin layer all over the core/die/plate evenly smoothed. Then what's left smear what tiny bit was left on the card onto the centre of the heatsink to fill the machine grooves. Always had good temps with stock coolers, XP's, X2 and X6.

at last somebody who understands how thermal paste works :) all it's for is to fill in the imperfections on the cpu and cooler :D
 
Soldato
Joined
31 Mar 2006
Posts
6,605
Location
Sydney Australia
My Fenrir temps are better than they were with a priming followed by a double line application but I've decided that I'm going to lap it. The finish on the bottom is pretty dire and I've previously gotten brilliant results from lapping. I'll hopefully post some pics from the process and some results.
 
Associate
Joined
23 Feb 2006
Posts
289
so what method did you guys with a sandybridge use? just the pea method? and with or without a little twisting? as I'm about to install mine as soon as I've finished swigging my tea! - any last minute advice would be great

thanks in advance :)
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Mar 2006
Posts
4,379
Location
Jarrow, Tyne And Wear
best method for me, apply a small amount to the middle of the heatspreader, no pointless messing about with razor blades, or credit cards, or plastic bags, the application of the heatsink WILL spread the paste evenly, no problem. never had a single problem with this method, temperatures have generally been good unless i have been careless and upped voltage too much, etc. but i don't understand why so many people waste their time spreading the paste by hand? :confused: or even better still, get some of that coolabratory liquid metal pad stuff, thats what im using on my processor currently and it seems to be doing a spiffing job, applying is the simplest thing ever and takes like two seconds! :D
 
Associate
Joined
16 Sep 2010
Posts
1,229
Location
Nottinghamshire
so what method did you guys with a sandybridge use? just the pea method? and with or without a little twisting? as I'm about to install mine as soon as I've finished swigging my tea! - any last minute advice would be great

thanks in advance :)


For sandy bridge i did the same, thin line in the centre and i put the megahalems cooler on slightly turning the cooler side to side then clamped it down
 
Associate
Joined
11 Sep 2008
Posts
146
I went with the go faster stripe method (2 vertical lines :p)

I also managed to get some accidental side to side movement in there while trying to attach the heatsink :s

But my temps seem to be pretty good providing coretemp isnt lying to me, says max of 47c after 40 mins of prime blend, but one core is like 5c lower than the others :s.

Got a 2500k and a noctua NH-D14.
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Oct 2004
Posts
3,151
Location
Manchester
I went with the go faster stripe method (2 vertical lines :p)

I also managed to get some accidental side to side movement in there while trying to attach the heatsink :s

But my temps seem to be pretty good providing coretemp isnt lying to me, says max of 47c after 40 mins of prime blend, but one core is like 5c lower than the others :s.

Got a 2500k and a noctua NH-D14.
Think it's a pretty common thing with the SB's that core 0 is a fair bit cooler than the others, i'm running Prime now and there's a 5c difference between core 0 and the rest of them.
 
Soldato
Joined
10 Oct 2003
Posts
5,518
Location
Wiltshire
So you dont use the whole tube?
lol :D

This has been a bit of an eye opener for me, I've always covered the whole core (thinly) using a piece of card to spread it out. Never occured to me that this method could cause air bubbles! :(

Looking at those videos it appears in most cases the paste doesn't even cover the whole core when pressure is applied. Is this not really an issue?
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Apr 2009
Posts
3,159
lol :D

This has been a bit of an eye opener for me, I've always covered the whole core (thinly) using a piece of card to spread it out. Never occured to me that this method could cause air bubbles! :(

Looking at those videos it appears in most cases the paste doesn't even cover the whole core when pressure is applied. Is this not really an issue?

Nope as the cores under the metal dont cover the whole CPU.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
Posts
90,805
For sandbridge vertical line through text like the i7 works well - but due to the GPU core and main core configuration you might get better results with a small blob in the center of each core (about 1/3rd of the way from top and 1/3rd of the way from bottom centered horizontally) rather than a line.
 
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