Kind of. You can certainly apply too little thermal paste, but you can't actually apply too much in terms of how it'll affect thermal transfer. You can make a huge mess though, obviously. Covering the entire heatspreader is marginally better than the "pea" method though. The nonsense people used to spout about how there'd be "gaps" and "air bubbles" if you spread the paste have rather been dismissed by objective modern testing.
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Thermal Paste In AM4 Socket
- Thread starter venomx
- Start date
Wow so much incorrect information and views on the amount of compound.
@Bouton Aide that is way too little. I have tried that much on my 5950x when was seeing how little I could get away with and it didn't make enough contact and overheated very quickly. I also tried adjust the plate on the CPU block to see if it made any difference as the EK block I have naturally has a concave design to it and a plate can be inserted to make it flatter.
I have also put as much as @venomx has put on and although it worked was messy. It had zero effect on temp delta though, or at least not that was being measured in that it was within a degree of the amount that I actually like to use (about half what the OP put on their CPU) which I then spread using a plastic card to give a thin layer across. I have found that to give the easiest correct amount in terms of full coverage and not too much going anywhere it shouldn't.
As per @Aretak post though, you can see the results there which speak for self. And even in the video linked the pea-sized bit by GN was actually much closer to what the OP has used compared to what suggested is better practice. The big blog shown actually seems to be more than the OP has even used tbh and still worked generally fine with minimal leakage.
@Bouton Aide that is way too little. I have tried that much on my 5950x when was seeing how little I could get away with and it didn't make enough contact and overheated very quickly. I also tried adjust the plate on the CPU block to see if it made any difference as the EK block I have naturally has a concave design to it and a plate can be inserted to make it flatter.
I have also put as much as @venomx has put on and although it worked was messy. It had zero effect on temp delta though, or at least not that was being measured in that it was within a degree of the amount that I actually like to use (about half what the OP put on their CPU) which I then spread using a plastic card to give a thin layer across. I have found that to give the easiest correct amount in terms of full coverage and not too much going anywhere it shouldn't.
As per @Aretak post though, you can see the results there which speak for self. And even in the video linked the pea-sized bit by GN was actually much closer to what the OP has used compared to what suggested is better practice. The big blog shown actually seems to be more than the OP has even used tbh and still worked generally fine with minimal leakage.
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Never had a single system overheat. When spread evenly it’s fine. It’s a photo edit that was done in 10 seconds. I’m not going to sit there and measure it out.
I can only go from what is shown but a size pea that is the is the same size as the Z is not enough to get an even spread across the heatsink when I have tried that amount. I mean you might not want to measure it but when you are giving advice on something that is specifically about scale/amount, then without doing or considering what is shown that the post becomes pointless and not accurate and thus doesn't help anyone.
For anyone wondering what I have used based on my previous post I have quickly added a circle to the image to show my personal recommendation for thermal paste amount. The blob should touch the edges of the letters either side of the Z and then you get what I have found to be just the right amount to get a nice even spread across the standard Ryzen heat spreader. Of course it may not be 100% accurate and as above you can do a little more no problem and will work fine but I wouldn't recommend less than this myself.
The size of the pea, the size of the elephant... All of these are relative sizes, is it a pea grown in Chernobyl area, or is it a baby elephant? Best thing is, to put a little bit of paste on a cpu heatspreader, spread that paste as thin as possible across with credit card or equivalent, see if you can comfortably spread it full surface, if not, add a bit more. If you think you overdone it, "scrape" off of the top. The main thing is to spread as thin as possible. At the end of this, if you think you don't have enough on it, whatever is left on the credit card (or equivalent), use small bit of it and spread it a bit in the middle of heatsink. Then slap the heatsink on the CPU and tighten the screws equally on both sides. Simple 
All this above is for people who do not trust automatic spread of the paste under the pressure of headsink. The gap between heatsink and CPU heatspreader is tiny, so paste WILL spread, and if you overdo it, that crap will spread both ways onto other components
All this above is for people who do not trust automatic spread of the paste under the pressure of headsink. The gap between heatsink and CPU heatspreader is tiny, so paste WILL spread, and if you overdo it, that crap will spread both ways onto other components
the verge did a really good guide to pc building a while back which showed how to apply thermal paste
now now, behave, you
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You can absolutely apply too much. Thermal paste has terrible thermal conductivity compared to metals, for example Kryonaut has a rating of about 14w/mK whereas aluminium is 200 and copper 400 w/mK.
You need as little as possible so long as you cover everything in a thin film which in turn fills in the troughs in the metal surfaces. Any more than a thin film is sub-optimal simply because thermal thermal paste is a thermal insulator compared with metal.
But shouldn't correctly designed heatsink retention mechanism just spread the excess paste outwards anyways, which still is bad, since paste ends up on the motherboard, CPU edges, socket, pins, etc, etc.
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Depends on *thinks intently* materials science and also how hard you screw.
let's say Noctua has springs on the screws, which even if not be able to create the minimal gap straight away, manages to do so over time (I believe)
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I mean it may, but why put too much on?
I'm not advocating for putting more than needed. I'm just saying, that well designed heatsink retention mechanism would make sure the excess paste would not prevent creating minimal/optimal gap between IHS and heatsink
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Because some people are worried about applying too little (which is far worse).
Obviously applying so much it ends up in the socket isn't good, but some excess isn't going to hurt. If people don't screw their heatsink on tight enough then they are going to have big problems anyway since cooling performance is linked to the clamping force between the IHS and cold plate.
Obviously applying so much it ends up in the socket isn't good, but some excess isn't going to hurt. If people don't screw their heatsink on tight enough then they are going to have big problems anyway since cooling performance is linked to the clamping force between the IHS and cold plate.
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You're saying it might spread out okay, depending on the paste.
What I said was quite specific. Any more than the minimum is going to be worse than the minimum:
If you want to put more than that one to guarantee coverage then sure, there's value in that. However it still won't be as good as working out the right amount, which is still a super thin film designed to fill microscopic cracks across the entire heat-spreader.