Is this how you put thermal paste on?

Andy Pandy · 1 Jul 2009 at 18:08

I have looked at loads of websites to find out how to put the Titan Fenrir cooler on the I7. One website suggested two lines of the thermal compound to the Titan where it touches the cpu and then I will also put the compound in an S shape on the CPU.

Do I spread it out with my finger, then scrape with a credit card or something. Then put the Titan on? I've never put a cooler on before so I dont know that much. Thanks

Diggsy · 1 Jul 2009 at 18:15

rjkoneil just posted a topic this morning... http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18026989

Andy Pandy · 1 Jul 2009 at 18:21

I did see that, but other websites also say inlcude some on the Titan itself. I could just put the paste in a S figure like Rjkoneil did and then put the Titan straight on? If its that easy then thats great

BIGBC · 1 Jul 2009 at 18:38

Check this out - http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...sk=view&id=170&Itemid=38&limit=1&limitstart=5

Andy Pandy · 1 Jul 2009 at 18:40

Yeah thats what I read about putting the paste on the Titan. The two solid lines was the best method according to the site. But do I put the paste on the Titan and the cpu, or just the CPU. I dont want to waste the paste or use too much it messes up the temperatures

Ross1234 · 1 Jul 2009 at 18:42

Just follow rjkoneil's guide. He knows what hes talking about.

BIGBC · 1 Jul 2009 at 19:01

Andy Pandy said:
Yeah thats what I read about putting the paste on the Titan. The two solid lines was the best method according to the site. But do I put the paste on the Titan and the cpu, or just the CPU. I dont want to waste the paste or use too much it messes up the temperatures

Ive done it with the two lines as shown in the link, just on the heatsink and it worked well, there was good contact between base + CPU.

Ben M · 1 Jul 2009 at 22:43

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ap...s=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

first link.

Andy Pandy · 2 Jul 2009 at 10:03

Thats a good link. Thanks for that

Admiral Huddy · 2 Jul 2009 at 10:07

This may help too:

http://www.huddysworld.co.uk/index....g-tim&catid=40:techie-talk-hardware&Itemid=72

Andy Pandy · 2 Jul 2009 at 10:29

That was helpful too

. There are a few ways of applying the paste, if i followed Rjkoneils guide with the figure of S and then put the Titan on straight away will that be enough? I assume the cpu will be ready for the TIM or AS5 or what ever it is to use, and I dont need to clean it?

DragonQ · 2 Jul 2009 at 10:30

I asked my supervisor if we had any rubbing alcohol at work and it turns out we do. Since we also have lens cleaners, I have been given unofficial permission to borrow them to remove the thermal paste on my NH-U12P and i7 920. However, I just wanna check two things:

1) Is 99.7% ethyl alcohol OK to use for this purpose? Most posts I find on this mention isopropyl but according to Wikipedia, both are forms of rubbing alcohol. I'm guessing both are fine but I don't really know anything about pure ethanol and I just wanna make sure I'm not gonna kill anything.

2) I'm thinking of using the method recommended for this heatsink here (25C drop is amazing, if a bit unbelievable) - is this recommended elsewhere? At the moment I have one core ~7C lower than the others and since it appears the design is two cores on top of two other cores, I have a feeling my current blob method isn't fully covering one of the core stacks. I'm trying not to get my hopes up but this line method does look promising.

unknownsock · 2 Jul 2009 at 10:51

DragonQ said:
I asked my supervisor if we had any rubbing alcohol at work and it turns out we do. Since we also have lens cleaners, I have been given unofficial permission to borrow them to remove the thermal paste on my NH-U12P and i7 920. However, I just wanna check two things:

1) Is 99.7% ethyl alcohol OK to use for this purpose? Most posts I find on this mention isopropyl but according to Wikipedia, both are forms of rubbing alcohol. I'm guessing both are fine but I don't really know anything about pure ethanol and I just wanna make sure I'm not gonna kill anything.

2) I'm thinking of using the method recommended for this heatsink here (25C drop is amazing, if a bit unbelievable) - is this recommended elsewhere? At the moment I have one core ~7C lower than the others and since it appears the design is two cores on top of two other cores, I have a feeling my current blob method isn't fully covering one of the core stacks. I'm trying not to get my hopes up but this line method does look promising.

Lapping time!

DragonQ · 2 Jul 2009 at 14:17

Meh, can't be bothered to lap and I don't have any sandpaper either.

I did remember today that when I installed the NH-U12P, the motherboard backplate didn't fit flat, which might be causing my temps to be too high (if that isn't flat then presumably the heatsink isn't flat on the CPU either). I'll try rotating the backplate to see if it fits flatter in a different orientation when I redo it tonight.

DragonQ · 2 Jul 2009 at 20:28

Well I took off everything and saw that the compound had spread more towards one core stack than the other, so I was hoping that doing it properly this time would improve my temps.

I gave the CPU and heatsink a good clean with 99.7% alcohol, dried it off (all with lint-free lens cleaner), put the motherboard backplate back on (it seemed to fit perfectly this time whereas before one of the screws barely any thread to grab onto in one of the corners), put the heatsink on, wiggled it a bit to spread the compound, screwed it down tightly, shoved on and plugged in the fans.

My idle temps have dropped by 1-2C and my load temps have dropped by 1-2C. I don't understand why my idle temps are 20C above ambient whereas most reports of this cooler have idle temps 10C above ambient. I give up.