Thermal compound: Line or dot?

[Guest Gabbs]

Hey guys...

Hopefully someone can help me decide according to my setup.

 

I7-4790K

Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO

 

I'm going to use the thermal compound that comes with the 212.

 

Any suggestions if I should use a dot or line of compound?

 

Thanks!

[AverageHardware]

Pea sized dot. The pressure of the heatsink/heat of the processor will help it to spread out in an even, thin layer.

[werto165]

I used a dot recently with my friends 212 evo, I think it's fine either way I just prefer dot as it's spreads more evenly across the cores. 

[Dredgy]

I go for dot and if I fuck it up, I make it into a line.

[Guest Gabbs]

Thanks guys!

 

What about the compound? Is the one that that comes with the 212 enough for a mild OC? Perhaps up to 4.5Ghz?

Or should I get a fancier brand?

[noisebomb44]

Thanks guys!

 

What about the compound? Is the one that that comes with the 212 enough for a mild OC? Perhaps up to 4.5Ghz?

Or should I get a fancier brand?

The compound that comes from the cooler is good enough from my experience, and you should really only buy cooler paste from other brands than your cooler if your doing a extreme overclock, because it might save you like 2 C

 

 

Also, sorry for boycotting the topic, but what happens if you have too much of it? I think i did but i havnt noticed any side effects

[The Official Czex]

An "X" works better. Supposedly. 

[Sharp_3yE]

Thanks guys!

 

What about the compound? Is the one that that comes with the 212 enough for a mild OC? Perhaps up to 4.5Ghz?

Or should I get a fancier brand?

Ok I have 2 things about how to put thermal paste on the heat spreader.

 

1. You do need to make sure that the paste goes mostly everywhere. The pressure of the heat sink on top of the heat spreader will spread the thermal paste around pretty evenly. So you at least need a correctly sized dot.

2. There will be a certain part of the heat spreader that is hotter then the other parts because of the shape of the thing underneath the heat spreader.

This is a pictures with the head spreader taken off.

As you can see here, the thing that the heat spreader is cooling is a rectangle shape running up and down the center of the heat spreader. That is where most of the heat is. That is where you need to make sure you get thermal paste on. That is a reason to do the line method of putting paste on. BUT thing is that when put the heat sink on, the thermal paste gets spread pretty evenly. So, if you want you can do a SMALL line going up and down the center of the heat spreader to make sure that the area most important to cool of an Intel chip(it's shapped differently on AMD chip) is covered by the thermal paste. In reality, you just need enough thermal paste put in the center to cover most of the heat spreader, which a dot will do just fine.

 

Basically, get enough thermal paste on there how ever you do it. Multiple dots, make a smilely face, use a tool to spread it around yourself. WHAT EVER, just need to make sure that most of the heat spreader is covered. So use enough, not to much because it is a waste and will leak over the edges and you don't want to clean that up (i don't think it harms anything) and most importantly don't use to little because then your processor wont be cooled properly. Use a good amount. A dot or small line is the easiest method. I suggest a Dot, it's the easiest, it will spread evenly and you will use less then doing other methods. You don't need much.

 

Now onto thermal paste itself. So, the one that the 212 came with should be fine. BUT you can get a few degrees cooler (possibly) if you use a better thermal paste.

 

My recommendations of thermal paste: Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, IC Diamond 7, Prolimatech PK-3, Phobya NanoGrease Extreme and Gelid Solutions GC-Extreme. These are all pretty similar, easy to put on and work best. Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut seems to work the best and isn't very much. IC Diamond has been (at least in the past) Linus's favorite thermal paste. I do not know if he has changed since then.

 

Check out this testing and check the air cooling results: http://overclocking.guide/thermal-paste-roundup-2015-47-products-tested-with-air-cooling-and-liquid-nitrogen-ln2/

 

There are liquid metal thermal compounds out there for cooling a processor BUT they are difficult and a mess to put on. Use Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut or IC Diamond or something if you decide to get a tube of one. The one that came with the 212 will be fine, the other ones will probably work slightly better. Really only slightly but if you plan to overclock then it may be worth it.

[NeatSquidYT]

 

My recommendations of thermal paste: Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, IC Diamond 7, Prolimatech PK-3, Phobya NanoGrease Extreme and Gelid Solutions GC-Extreme. These are all pretty similar, easy to put on and work the best. Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut seems to work the best and isn't very much. IC Diamond has been (at least in the past) Linus's favorite thermal paste. I do not know if he has changed since then.

 

Those are good, however on a budget, MX-4/MX-2s are very good.

[DXMember]

Make it in a shape of a happy face:

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

[Sharp_3yE]

Those are good, however on a budget, MX-4/MX-2s are very good.

If he is on a tight budget he can use the one that came will his cooler.

Most of these pastes you can get between 7-15 US dollars. I think one or two are more.

 

Here is Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut for $10.92 on Amazon FROM the Thermal Grizzly themselves. It is a 1.4 gram tube http://www.amazon.com/Thermal-Grizzly-Kryonaut-Grease-Paste/dp/B011F7W3LU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448996407&sr=8-1&keywords=thermal+grizzly+kryonaut

 

Here is Artic MX-4 for $7.99. A 4 gram tube. http://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-Performance-Compound-Interface-Material/dp/B0045JCFLY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448996653&sr=8-1&keywords=MX-4

 

Here is IC Diamond 7 for $7.77 from IC Diamond. 1.5 gram tube. Sale price as well. (not the one that comes with 2 micro fiber cloths. That paste is based on silver not diamond). http://www.amazon.com/Innovation-Cooling-Diamond-Carat-Compound/dp/B0042IEVD8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1448997054&sr=8-1&keywords=IC+Diamond+7

 

This guy only needs paste for this one time though most likely. These paste last for a long time before it needs any changing. So, unless he removes the cooler he won't be changing the paste. A 1.4/1.5 gram bottle can be used multiple times, 5-10 times. I bought IC Diamond bottle as well. I do know about how many times you can use it. 1 tube of that would be all he needs and it performs better then MX-4 (Artic MX-4 is good but Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut and IC Diamond 7 are better).

 

If you are doing a lot more projects, maybe you're a repair man or something, go with the Artic MX-4 because of the quality to price ratio being so good. Otherwise, go with quality.

[Sharp_3yE]

@ one tip of putting your cooler on. Make sure that when you are tightening the cooler onto the board, do one corner the the opposite corner. Don't do two on the same side. Opposites

[NumLock21]

Intel stock cooler has 3 lines, more like a hexagon

[Nena Trinity]

dot it! :3 (I personally made it heart shaped)

[TheCamba]

I remember being told back in the day to put a pea sized dot, lower the heat sink and twist back and forth 90 degrees to spread it.  Not saying its right, I just remember that.

[typographie]

I think a short line from top to bottom is preferred. While the heatspreader is basically square, the CPU die inside of it is more of a rectangle.

 

Though it's not like it's going to spontaneously combust if you use the dot method.