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

[V F]

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.

 

[danzhang16]

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

 

[robj20]

So you dont use the whole tube?

 

[COYS]

There's not much of a science to it. I like to get a virgin to spread it with her breasts.

 

[SteveOBHave]

There's not much of a science to it. I like to get a virgin to spread it with her breasts.

Interesting - I get a midget dressed as a ninja to spread it with a spatula.

 

[Mangochutney]

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.

 

[The Deuce]

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

 

[vandiesel]

Credit card, spread over core/heat spreader, nice and thin

 

[SteveOBHave]

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.

 

[rchads89]

I use a line then slightly turn the cooler side to side before i clamp it down!

 

[Clark the White]

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

 

[Gashman]

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? 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!

 

[rchads89]

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

 

[ohhbass]

I went with the go faster stripe method (2 vertical lines )

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.

 

[JonnyGLC]

I went with the go faster stripe method (2 vertical lines )

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.

 

[Durzel]

So you dont use the whole tube?

lol

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?

 

[matthab]

lol

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.

 

[jamesfreddie]

Just a blob in the middle

 

[Rroff]

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.

 

[Awahwah]

Used a line for my SB rig.