Applying thermal paste

bobboberts

bobboberts

bobboberts

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I am currently building a dual-core system and have a Turiq Tower HS. What is the best way to apply the thermal paste to the CPU? I've seen one method involving clingfilm and applying all over the heatspeader, and I've seen another that shows just putting a line vertically across the core, with no mention of manually spreading it out.

What should I be doing?
 
I built my new rig just before Xmas. I tried the method where you put a thin line of paste across the chip and hope that when the cooler is afixed it will spread out the paste.

At first attempt i did not have cooler correctly centred so had to remove it. When i did this i found the paste was spread very unevenly and a large portion of the chip was uncovered.

I'm sure this isn't text book, but i got a cotton bud and used it to spread the paste over the chip as evenly as i could before fitting the cooler, a Tuniq Tower.

That was before Xmas. I'm using a Quad Core Q6600 which i've overclocked a little - 2700mhz.

So far its been perfectly stable, and if Abit's uGuru is accurate the highest temp i've seen is 27-28c, with Tuniq fan running at 1000 rpm.
 
One old method you could use, is apply a drop to the centre and spread it out using a credit card, since the edge is flat, and you can get a nice thin coat.
 
I dropped a small amount on the chip and just smoothed layer evenly across using my finger and a stretched plastic bag across it.

Cpu temps vary from 20-30 idle (depends if my radiators working :D) and hit 60'ish on load but I am using the intel stock cooler.
 
I've always done the spread method, interesting to see the difference between the line/dollop and spread method. One thing that concerns me about doing a dollop method is that people will interpret a dollop differently? Are we still using a grain of rice as a good guide? :)
 
I never spread the TIM out. If using arctic silver on a C2Q - apply a thin line horizontally and if its a C2D, apply vertically.
 
I can see a thread like this going on and on, a long discussion on how to apply TIM properly :)

What I recommend people try if they really wanna get to the bottom of this is to take a tube of freebee white TIM and practice the blob-line method, whack on what you think is the right amount and then slap on the heatsink and fire the machine up, do some tests etc etc then power down and take the heatsink off again and check out the TIM spread, if you put too much on it will be spread right out and spilling over the edge of the IHS, if you apply to little TIM you will see a small round circle of paste. Through trial and error and you soon learn to judge the best method.

If you have a really clunky-hard-to-attach heatsink I can see how this fitting, removal, fitting, removal is gonna be a pain but then maybe you should have got an easy fitting HSF.

I really only got the knack of it because I had about 7 CPU's to test one after another so while I was doing that I played around with the different methods and came to realise that farting about trying to spread the TIM was a waste of time.

The downward pressure from the heatsink does a great job of spreading the TIM out, just think of a piece of dough under a bakers rolling pin! :o

img3941edited1ji5.jpg
 
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GarethDW said:
So you spread the thermal paste using the rolling pin, right...? :p
Click to expand...
Yes but don't forget a liberal sprinkle of flour first lol! :D

[edit] however don't use self raising flour because once the processor is under heavy load then . . . . well you get the idea ;)
 
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