CPU and thermal paste!

Silent Spring

Silent Spring

Silent Spring

Associate
Joined
2 Nov 2009
Posts
105
Location
London
Hi all,

i have realised in all my wisdom i order the OEM verson of the i5 which means that i have no cooler!!!

not to worry though as i plan to upgrade my other pc (also i5) with a new cooler! and use the old cooler on the ohter i5 rig (if tht makes sense)



i have purchased the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler

now is it best to remove all thermal paste from the old CPU pefer installing the new cooler which has pre applied thermal paste?

like wise it is it best to remove all old thermal paste from the old cooler before installing it with the new I5??


hope thats not confusing !! i will try and summerise!

1. PC 1 is a new i5 chip that i am using an exsisiting old cooler on (should i remove all paste from cooler and start again)


2. PC 2 have a new cooler that im installing that has pre applied paste. (should i remove all exsisting paste from exsisting CPU?)

i plan to use Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound and Akasa AK-TC TIM Clean CPU & Heatsink Cleaner to remove!!

thanks
 
I would remove as much as possible.

You really want the thinnest amount of paste you can.
 
In terms of applying thermal paste, personally I don't agree with the spreading it out by a finger. I just allow the cooler to spread it out on contact and give it a twist or two to make sure its fully on.

From what I've read any kind of spreading, either by finger or credit card etc.. can result in air bubbles that cause inefficient cooling. Additionally if you spread it out too thin, you may find that your cpu is not perfectly flat (why people lap them) which could mean you have insufficient paste at some points...again resulting in inefficient cooling.

Just my 2p...:D
 
Yeah I would go for:

Remove old paste from the CPU you are fitting to and just fit the Freezer 7 with the pre-applied paste.

Remove the old paste from the Old Cooler you removed and use your tube of MX-2 to start again from scratch, with either the finger spreading method or a rice sized lump of paste squashed between Cooler and CPU.

Personally I would spread it. With the other way, how do you know that the paste has covered the whole surface? How do you know that it has covered the surface but spilled out on one side?

Check out you tube for a video of a guy applying paste to a HSF and piece of glass so you can see the spreading.
 
eddie86 said:
Yeah I would go for:

Remove old paste from the CPU you are fitting to and just fit the Freezer 7 with the pre-applied paste.

Remove the old paste from the Old Cooler you removed and use your tube of MX-2 to start again from scratch, with either the finger spreading method or a rice sized lump of paste squashed between Cooler and CPU.

Personally I would spread it. With the other way, how do you know that the paste has covered the whole surface? How do you know that it has covered the surface but spilled out on one side?

Check out you tube for a video of a guy applying paste to a HSF and piece of glass so you can see the spreading.
Click to expand...

It doesn't need to cover the whole surface, the cores are in the center.

Here's a simple example here
 
That's the video I was thinking of.

Contacting the whole surface would be the ideal though?

Although getting air bubbles in defeats the object of applying paste in the first place I suppose.
 
I use the 'pea' method, spreading it out is useful if you've lapped your stuff but otherwise on an uneven surface it kinda defeats the object as paste isn't going where it's needed. Using the heatsink forces it out and doesn't use more than is needed. Remember too much TIM is as ineffective as air, it should only fill the gaps not create more space between the 2 metals.

Also, AS5 (I think) used to state the line method for multi-core CPUs, it looks pretty dangerous though :eek:
 
even if you've lapped spreading might not be good imo.

You need no air bubbles, and the only way I think you can ensure that is to use pea / line / cross. These are better because when compressed force the air out the sides. If you cover everthing or draw funny shapes etc, when it compresses the air has nowhere to go since the paste is now blocking its escape = air bubbles.

Also I would not remove the heatsink to look how well its covered, or try not to accidentially lift it off when fixing it to the board as again you are introducing air which is bad.

Just my view, no doubt other people will say the opposite :D
 
You do realize that no matter what the spreading method used, as long as you haven't put a whole tube on the temperature difference is unnoticeable?
 
Superewza said:
You do realize that no matter what the spreading method used, as long as you haven't put a whole tube on the temperature difference is unnoticeable?
Click to expand...


I will be fitting a new CPU cooler pretty soon so I reckon I'll have to test out some different methods.

You may very well be right though!
 
Superewza said:
You do realize that no matter what the spreading method used, as long as you haven't put a whole tube on the temperature difference is unnoticeable?
Click to expand...

I don't agree with that, the difference between can be signficant in my opinion.

I reseated my cooler earlier today for the hell of it, and my temps dropped by 6. That not unnoticeable to me, especially when your creeping up to the 80 degree mark.
 
Superewza said:
You do realize that no matter what the spreading method used, as long as you haven't put a whole tube on the temperature difference is unnoticeable?
Click to expand...

True that, I do find though that people put more on if they spread it simply because they can't get it thin enough and worry when it doesn't cover the entire CPU.
 
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