Choosing and Applying Thermal Paste

[Oliver]

Been slightly stressing about applying thermal paste, if my 3 year old MX paste will still be good and about the best ways to apply.

I found these rather amusing videos reassuring, basicly the first video compares one of the best thermal paste compound again Tomatoe Sauce, Vegemite, Toothpaste even fried chicken! The conclusion is that nothing in between the CPU and cooler is bad but just about anything inbetween the CPU and cooler is only slightly warmer than a quality thermal paste, tomato sauce was second just 1° warmer than MX thermal paste!




So I'm not worried about the shelf life of my paste anymore, but I'm still a little worried about how I'm going to apply the paste. Should I make a line, a pea shape, an X or spread it using a plastic card?

In this video paste is applied in several different ways including purposely applying too much in a big blob, every method was the exact same, the only thing that made a difference was not apply enough paste, that was really bad.




So I'm not stressing anymore, looks like I can't go wrong

[IT Troll]

May 19, 2016 19:23:42 GMT Oliver said:

In this video he applies the paste several different ways including purposely applying too much in a big blob, every method was the exact same, the only thing that made a difference was not apply enough paste, that was really bad.

Interesting video. I have tried various methods over the years depending on what the current "best practice" was. Here is a similar article which shows that it really doesn't make much difference what you do. Although bear in mind that some pastes cure and improve after several days of use.

www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Thermal-Paste-Application-Techniques-170/

The worst thing though is to leave any room for air between the metal surfaces. Which I guess is the "not enough" test in the video. More recently I've gone for a two stage approach.

First take a tiny amount of paste and rub it over the full surface of the CPU heat spreader with your finger covered in cling film. Then wipe the CPU with a dry lint free cloth. This "primes" the surface ensuring all the microscopic holes are filled.

Second apply a rice sized dot in the centre and allow the pressure of the cooler to spread this as it is fitted.

Hopefully this technique avoids both the too little and too much scenarios.

[Oliver]

Your method seems to make sense, I decided just to go with my old method of applying a pea sized amount to the middle of the CPU. The CPU heat sink was fiddly to fit and I'm a little worried the paste wasn't applied as good as it could have been or that I maybe didn't add enough paste. I'm sure I'm just paranoid though

[IT Troll]

That is quite a generous amount. I would go for about half that. But it seems too much isn't that bad anyway. I don't think you will have any problems given the CPU you have.

I remember when I changed the original CPU on my VGX it was caked in thermal paste. I think they applied it with a trowel.