A central blob and let the surfaces find their own levels. That would also (hopefully) dispel any air bubbles.
I pour it all into the socket for the best thermals. But for real, so far I haven't needed to apply thermal paste. I've just used the stock paste on 2 stock coolers and 2 aftermarket coolers that was preapplied.
Put a pea on, done. OR, I recently bought one of those graphite pads for my r5 3600. Idles better now than it did with the paste (40 instead of 46) cooler was torqued the same. doesn't go past 65 in games.
Re-built 3 PCs in the past couple of days - basically central blob, then some on the outside - with the pressure the coolers have on the IHS, I doubt there would be any air bubbles left.
Though, my R5 3600 does idle at 47 degrees :undecided
Empty 3 or 4 tubes of it and smother the CPU and socket in it :P
As Thermal Grizzly say it should be done in the package(they even give you a tool for it). Thin layer on all the CPU heat spreader/GPU die.
LeSWiS
As Thermal Grizzly say it should be done in the package(they even give you a tool for it). Thin layer on all the CPU heat spreader/GPU die.
^ This - It comes with spreader nozzles, so I use those. TG is thick as pig poo anyway, so benefits from a bit of assistance.
Small pea shaped dot in the middle (even if using Thermal Grizzly). Never let me down in 20+ years of building / modding PC's. But hey, each to their own.
And I don't see the need for this topic/discussion. EVERYBODY knows that the way to do it is as The Verge do it. No debate.
I remember reading an article years ago and the tried all the ways to put it on and found that a central blob was the best way even for , no need to worry about gaps in the corners as the die is no where near there and too much paste isnt great either (think 4mm blob).
A few blobs here and there, how it's applied doesn't really matter.
I'd hope the guy who bought shares in Thermal Grizzly and (afaik) played a big part in the development of their pastes knows what he's talking about so I'll trust him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCqxE-5Ct3w
Sadly with liquid metal it isn't as easy as just putting a blob in the middle. I have to distribute it evenly with a cotton swab.
With older CPUs the actual chip is only in the middle. So it's not that crucial to cover the entire heatspreader. But with the chiplet design this changes sightly.
HEXUS
Read more.
not like this, that's for sure!
Anyone with crappy thermals on an XPS 9350 / 9360 this could well be what you have under the hood!!
From various sources learning back in the day my method is:
- Clean surface with TIM cleaner (if used before)
- Prime surface with small amount of compound smeared with plastic credit card or similar - nothing hard, sharp or metallic.
- Get as much off as you can - the aim is to help fill the microvoids only.
- Look up CPU guidance for where to apply the small amounts to target the cores. Some want TIM applied in a line, some a cross, some a blob.
- Apply a small amount of TIM as the relevant guidance.
- Mount heatsink (also pre-cleaned if used before), give it a wee twist (as manufacturer's instructions) and screw in position.
LeetyMcLeet
Empty 3 or 4 tubes of it and smother the CPU and socket in it :P
Damn it man, do you work for Dell or something?
Usually (I can't even remember where I found this technique lol) but it's very similar to ik9000 above..
Clean the surface with tim cleaner
Rub a small amount of paste onto surface to get the microvoids
Add small ‘pea size’ amount of paste in the middle
Squish the cpu cooler (also cleaned with tim cleaner) down as evenly as possible
Hope it goes well and that I'm happy with cpu temps…if not repeat until happy lol
I use half on the CPU & the other half in a cup of tea…. Winner's way !
A blob in the middle & let it do the rest.
I approach it like I approach most lubrication - I spit on it and ram it into place.
ik9000
not like this, that's for sure!
Anyone with crappy thermals on an XPS 9350 / 9360 this could well be what you have under the hood!!
From various sources learning back in the day my method is:
- Clean surface with TIM cleaner (if used before)
- Prime surface with small amount of compound smeared with plastic credit card or similar - nothing hard, sharp or metallic.
- Get as much off as you can - the aim is to help fill the microvoids only.
- Look up CPU guidance for where to apply the small amounts to target the cores. Some want TIM applied in a line, some a cross, some a blob.
- Apply a small amount of TIM as the relevant guidance.
- Mount heatsink (also pre-cleaned if used before), give it a wee twist (as manufacturer's instructions) and screw in position.
Well ….that, really.
All I'm trying to do is fill in pits in either metal surface, so it doesn't need much. A “pea”, IMHO, is probably too much. Maybe a petit pois. Or a matchstick head.
Apply. Spread with old credit card. Debit cards work too. ;)
Remove excess but don't wipe. Then the “blob”, twist as per ik9000 and mount.
I want the absolute minimum compatible with filling those pits. Best is metal-to-metal, next, TIM. Worst, air-gap.
Personally, I'm not a fan of the pads manufacturers use (or used to) and tend to rem8ve them then clean up and TIM myself. And, esoecially ckean up and as above when replacing one cooler with another, and I've sure done plenty of that over the years.
The “bloke” is right. You spread it with a credit card to make sure it gets an even layer all over.
It comes from old days, where you put it directly on the cpu core. There were no heat spreader or what it's called on top as we got today. So a lot more thermal paste is needed now :)
I put a pea sized blob in the center, that's it nothing special when I do it.
Spread with a credit card? I just use my phone for payments these days. Do I need NFC enabled for this approach like with contactless or will my Samsung spread it just fine without?
Asking for a friend (who is an idiot).
I did once get a cooler which had “pre applied thermal paste”. It was like someone had buttered a biscuit with I'd say a 2mm of thick, perfectly square “blob” of paste. Obviously, this was not helpful so I scraped it all off, cleaned it with IPA and applied a small blob which I spread around using the cooler. I then removed the cooler, scraped off the excess and secured the cooler in place. That was with standard goo. There are some other ones which are designed I think to be more forgiving with more paste. I suspect these have been developed as a lot of this stuff is sold via word of mouth on forums (“I got X degrees under load with this paste”) and most people believe more = more betterer. Therefore if your paste works better than other with it buttered like a biscuit, then I suspect you'll get better reviews via word of mouth regardless of whether it works when applied properly ala Saracen.
The only other thing to consider is, if you put too much on and then you apply a cooler with sufficient pressure, it'll just squeeze any excess out of the sides. Enough pressure will solve the problem. It'll solve it over the side of the CPU and right into the socket if you do it right. I used this approach with a very viscous paste on my watercooled set up. The idea was that I could ensure that I got it everywhere and then screw the cooler into place bit by bit, the excess goo coming out of the sides and only residing where there'd be an imperfection. The viscosity of the goo meant it was easy to stop it going where it wasn't wanted but it was very hard to get the excess off. I think this is the most effective approach I've ever used but it does require a cooler you screw into place, not clip. My temperatures under load are insanely low but that may just be that I got good sillycon.
It largely depends on what I'm applying it to. If it's a naked die I'll spread out a thin layer across the die. If it's a small CPU I'll just do the pea-sized dot and slap the heatsink on. If it's a large chip I'll do a union jack and slap the heatsink on it.
eHM
% or an X
the chip supplier usually recommends the best pattern to target the core dies. Different chips want different focus. There is no one-pattern-suits-all solution.
The Hand;2809
Probably the only video on thermal paste you need to watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hNgFNH7zhQ
Nice vid. I've used the line method with Arctic Silver 5 a few times and whenever I installed a different processor or just reapplied paste, I noticed it had covered the heat spreader satisfactorily. Interestingly enough though, I watched this LTT video on the subject, a while back, and the results seem to imply that it doesn't matter how the paste is applied as long as there isn't too little.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2MEAnZ3swQ
Thin cover on all of an CPU and very thin cover on LC (copper plate).
Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut is my recent pick, earlier was Artic Silver 5.
Small centered dot and then, put on the heatsink. It should do a good job of spreading the paste.
Corky34
A few blobs here and there, how it's applied doesn't really matter.
I'd hope the guy who bought shares in Thermal Grizzly and (afaik) played a big part in the development of their pastes knows what he's talking about so I'll trust him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCqxE-5Ct3w
method 1 from the movie.
paintball gun
you need to be accurate mind…
Tinfoil works far better than paste.
SpeedyJDK
The “bloke” is right. You spread it with a credit card to make sure it gets an even layer all over.
It comes from old days, where you put it directly on the cpu core. There were no heat spreader or what it's called on top as we got today. So a lot more thermal paste is needed now :)
I’m terms of thermal resistivity, air is the highest, followed by thermal paste, and the lowest is metal to metal contact, which is why those you want the best thermal conductivity lap the surface of the CPU and heat sink to get flat smooth surfaces with no or filled micro voids.
Thermal paste is to fill those micro voids (for those of us that don’t want to void warranties and/or risk damage) but not to (thermally) insulate the metal to metal contact, so the method has to be to apply the minimum amount and get the thinnest layer possible. The thermal performance often improves after the CPU is powered up as the paste softens and excess is squeezed out improving the metal to metal contact area.
Over the past 13 years I've only built two PC's, although with the first PC the motherboard failed, so I had to obviously reinstall the CPU and Heatsink all over. With that first PC, I used some Arctic Silver, and simply put an amount slightly larger than a grain of rice in the middle - I tested how far it would spread at first by putting some on a piece of paper, and putting a heavy weight on it and pressing down, so the amount would be roughly right to spread enough. With my second PC, I didn't bother with Arctic Silver, and simply used the white goo that came with the heatsink/fan, but due to this, I decided I would very thinly spread it over most of the CPU heat spreader. Both methods seemed fine, and resulted in decent temperatures for me, better than those I ever saw online for the same product. I'm not sure what I'll do next time, as I don't know whether I can 100% be bothered with doing my own tech support again, as hardware issues had to be solved by me, and the only way to test when you have no spare compatible parts, is to buy other parts! Next time (another year from now) I'm tempted to get one of those CPU/Motherboard/RAM pre-built bundles on Scan so they can do the testing for me, although I'll probably weigh things up based on what I can afford to do at the time, seeing as Brexit will likely be killing the value of the £ even more by then.
I put it on my heatsink. It's got direct contact heat pipes, so a smaller area than the heatspreader, and it's a lot easier to get to. Spread a thin layer (so I can scrape off the excess), stick on, and torque the retention nuts as far as they'll go (which for my cooler works fine, might not for all coolers)
Used to use Arctic Silver (small blob, spread, place cooler and slight twist) which always gave good thermals. Now I just use the pre-applied stuff on the Corsair Hydro coolers (still do a slight twist). Thermals have never been an issue.
Been using the pea for years, just installed my 3700x and went for the X and things aren't central under there.
The small pea in the middle method. Seems to work well. With Ryzen 3000 series things have changed and may have to use a different method.
I applied a small pea sized amount to the center of my Ryzen 5 3600, it seems to have worked well.
Past few build I haven't really needed to, The AIO cooler already has it on.
And the temps are very good so I don't bother with after market pastes now.
Older builds I used to apply 2 step arctic clean thermal paste remover and then the arctic clean purifier, Then apply Arctic Silver 5 I think it was way back then using a bit of hard plastic to make a thin layer all over.
You can also apply it with an American civil war cannon.
Very small amount of engineers blue in the middle of the chip and then spread out using an old credit card to form a very thin film of blue on the whole surface. Position the heatsink on top and then wring it slightly side to side and back and forth a couple of mm. Lift the heat sink up and check to see if there are any major high spots and check that the blue covers the heat sink pretty well all over. If all is OK then put the smallest amount of heat transfer paste on the middle of the chip that will fill the gaps shown up by the blue and wring the two together again. Done!
If there are high spots after bluing then VERY CAREFULLY scrape them using an old high speed steel hacksaw blade that has had its teeth ground off and then ground at one end to form a scraper, removing the minimum so that the high spot is removed.
Phrontis
Very small amount of engineers blue in the middle of the chip and then spread out using an old credit card to form a very thin film of blue on the whole surface. Position the heatsink on top and then wring it slightly side to side and back and forth a couple of mm. Lift the heat sink up and check to see if there are any major high spots and check that the blue covers the heat sink pretty well all over. If all is OK then put the smallest amount of heat transfer paste on the middle of the chip that will fill the gaps shown up by the blue and wring the two together again. Done!
If there are high spots after bluing then VERY CAREFULLY scrape them using an old high speed steel hacksaw blade that has had its teeth ground off and then ground at one end to form a scraper, removing the minimum so that the high spot is removed.
You don't actually do that…. Do you?
Always a grain of rice size paste in the middle of the CPU
PC-LAD
Put a pea on, done. OR, I recently bought one of those graphite pads for my r5 3600. Idles better now than it did with the paste (40 instead of 46) cooler was torqued the same. doesn't go past 65 in games.
IME the paste gradually hardens and needs to be ‘refreshed’ every few years (i.e. if I remember). ATM I'm using Noctua NT-H1 and it's been on for nearly 3 years so should be good for a while yet.
I'm interested in the graphite pad as it won't dry out. The electrical conductivity doesn't matter as it won't be running into the socket. So long as it fills in the 90% of voids between the 2 faces it's done its job.
I rebuilt lots of PC lately and the one I use is in the center size of a pea. Did not receive any complaints yet.
Blob in the middle for anything that has a heatspreader, cover the entire Die in an even layer for (duh) bare Dies (especially when it comes to comparatively gigantic GPU ones)
I put a slightly larger then a grain of rice blob, then spread it with an old credit card. I have been doing this for a number of years and all is well.
You don't actually do that…. Do you?
To be honest not so much these days, the quality of the big name heatsink manufacturers is so good there is no real need. But it always helps to check, the CPU's were always OK.
I have usually opened up an alcohol wipe, either to clean the old paste off if I'm reapplying or to get the stuff off my fingers afterward. So I use the edge of the packet that the wipe came in to spread the paste.
PC-LAD
Put a pea on, done. OR, I recently bought one of those graphite pads for my r5 3600. Idles better now than it did with the paste (40 instead of 46) cooler was torqued the same. doesn't go past 65 in games.
When you say pea size, do you actually mean it? I remember seeing an image online a few years ago of an actual pea sat ontop of a CPUs IHS, and it looked huge; definitely far too much paste.
Do you actually use a blob more like a “bb” or “grain of rice” size?
A pea sized blob honestly is very big.
The way I have been doing it for over a decade is to put a little bit of good quality thermal paste like Arctic Silver 5 or now I use NT-H1. I then spread it with my finger, yes finger, that way I can spread it thinly & get the best coverage. It was easier with the AS 5 than the more fluid NT-H1, but it can be done. I find applying this way, I use less thermal paste & I know it covers ALL of the CPU. To remove old thermal paste I used to use nail polish remover, the one with the highest g/L of acetone, but now I use methanol which is a by-product of me making ‘shine’ and cotton balls. I use as many balls as it takes to get the old thermal paste off. That is the way I have been doing it for over a decade on my gaming rigs & customers computers ;)
so all that finger grease goes where?
using thermal grizzly, so applying an even layer with the included applicator