applying the damn thermal paste

[FYZX7]

This topic is so stupidly controversial it gives me anxiety, I'll be building my PC next weekend and I got no clue which method to use on how to apply the thermal paste, everyone is calling everyone out on doing it wrong and now I got my head lost on what is right.

How am I supposed to apply this thing??

The cooler is a Dark Rock Pro 4.

 

 

Help

[Slottr]

I've just always used a dot, hasn't let me down yet 

[minibois]

To be frank, it has been proven many times it really doesn't matter how you do it (in terms of temps), unless you WAY underdo or WAY overdo the paste.

On a 'normal'  chip I would do a pea sized blob in the middle, with a larger chip (think threadripper or Intel X299) I would do a line in the direction of the longer  side. When mounting the cooler (which you should tighten crossways) the paste will spread out.

 

Using something like 'the x method'  and other methods where you use more paste, I have found that the paste goes over the CPU onto the board, which usually is not a big deal with most paste electronically, but is just annoying to cleanup.

[aisle9]

9 minutes ago, FYZX7 said:

This topic is so stupidly controversial it gives me anxiety, I'll be building my PC next weekend and I got no clue which method to use on how to apply the thermal paste, everyone is calling everyone out on doing it wrong and now I got my head lost on what is right.

How am I supposed to apply this thing??

The cooler is a Dark Rock Pro 4.

 

 

Help

Core i-series Intel: pea-sized blob in the middle or a grain of rice down the center

FX series: Small dot in the center, four more tiny dots in an X pattern out diagonally from the center. Total amount used should be roughly the size of a pea.

Ryzen: Pea-sized blob in the middle

The Verge method: Thermal paste? More like thermal paint!

 

If you're using good thermal paste like MX-4, NT-H1, something that will spread easily but not come out looking like water, a pea-sized blob in the center works fine for everything.

[Sorenson]

About this much. 

[Lukle]

Put a little Blob in the center and tighten your cooler crossways.
The paste is just for the very little gaps between both surfaces so you really don´t need much. Remember your cooler is actually being pressed surface on surface, so just a little blob will spread good in all dircetions.

 

Another thing is, that you don´t actually need to have thermal paste on your whole cpu. The surface where you put the paste on is just another heatspreader and the cpu die just uses little space under it.

 

If you´re not sure if you have enoguh or too much, press down with a piece of glass or plexi or just something flat and transparent. Looking good? Then no worries, you´re doing great.

[AndrewMKlasen]

Use one of those applicator spreaders and spread it around

[aisle9]

24 minutes ago, Lukle said:

If you´re not sure if you have enoguh or too much, press down with a piece of glass or plexi or just something flat and transparent. Looking good? Then no worries, you´re doing great.

It's a little easier and less wasteful to just install the cooler, then take it back off and check it if you're really not sure about the spread. That way you can just reinstall it without losing a bunch of paste to a plexiglass sheet.

[aisle9]

Just now, AndrewMKlasen said:

Use one of those applicator spreaders and spread it around

If the thermal paste you buy comes with one of these, return it and buy better paste. These aren't necessary in 2019 unless you're using crappy paste that won't spread on its own.

[AndrewMKlasen]

I have one laying around that's not from thermal paste, just thought it could come in handy.

[TempestCatto]

20 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

If the thermal paste you buy comes with one of these, return it and buy better paste. These aren't necessary in 2019 unless you're using crappy paste that won't spread on its own.

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut comes with one tho.

[aisle9]

3 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut comes with one tho.

Kryonaut also costs roughly double what everything else does, and it's within 1-3C of the other "good" pastes on the market (i.e., everything that doesn't separate into water and cement in the tube). Gotta justify that price somehow, so let's make it look special with a little windshield scraper included.

[FYZX7]

be quiet is using this applying method in their own Dark Rock Pro 4 Installation video. 

[Velcade]

1 hour ago, aisle9 said:

If the thermal paste you buy comes with one of these, return it and buy better paste.

 

1 hour ago, TempestCatto said:

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut comes with one tho.

 

1 hour ago, aisle9 said:

Kryonaut also costs roughly double what everything else does

 

Oh you guys...

 

 

If you're worried about applying it you can always warm it up some.  I usually find myself upgrading my PC around winter time so I'll set the thermal paste tube on my heat vent while I'm getting ready to apply.  In the summer you could place it on a sunny window ledge. It'll warm up enough to push from the tube easy and in a controlled manner.  I use Kryonaut and have never needed the stick.

[Lukle]

3 hours ago, aisle9 said:

It's a little easier and less wasteful to just install the cooler, then take it back off and check it if you're really not sure about the spread. That way you can just reinstall it without losing a bunch of paste to a plexiglass sheet.

Yeeeeah...kind of. You normaly just see fragments of paste on both surfaces and i think there are a lot of people who don´t know what to do with this picture. If i see what happens through the plexi, i can be sure to know what is gonna happen with the heatsink. Second, i personally would not just reaply the heatsink after removing it. I´m pretty sure there will form a lot of air bubbles which are never good. And third, you normaly have more thermal paste than you need so the loss is marginal.

[aisle9]

53 minutes ago, Lukle said:

Yeeeeah...kind of. You normaly just see fragments of paste on both surfaces and i think there are a lot of people who don´t know what to do with this picture. If i see what happens through the plexi, i can be sure to know what is gonna happen with the heatsink. Second, i personally would not just reaply the heatsink after removing it. I´m pretty sure there will form a lot of air bubbles which are never good. And third, you normaly have more thermal paste than you need so the loss is marginal.

Eh, to each their own. You certainly can reinstall a cooler after taking it off without changing paste. I do it all the time. It doesn't affect performance in any noticeable way unless the paste is garbage or old, crusty cement to begin with.

 

TBQH, thermals are the best way to tell. Just turn the thing on. If there's a problem with your mount, you'll know about two minutes after turning the thing on when it starts screaming then throttles and shuts itself down.

[JabroniBaloney]

This really popular website called The Verge has a pretty good guide on this.

[aisle9]

1 hour ago, JabroniBaloney said:

This really popular website called The Verge has a pretty good guide on this.

 

Gotta ensure good contact between the pins and the socket on Ryzen boards.

[TechyBen]

On 6/10/2019 at 5:03 PM, Minibois said:

To be frank, it has been proven many times it really doesn't matter how you do it (in terms of temps), unless you WAY underdo or WAY overdo the paste.

On a 'normal'  chip I would do a pea sized blob in the middle, with a larger chip (think threadripper or Intel X299) I would do a line in the direction of the longer  side. When mounting the cooler (which you should tighten crossways) the paste will spread out.

 

Using something like 'the x method'  and other methods where you use more paste, I have found that the paste goes over the CPU onto the board, which usually is not a big deal with most paste electronically, but is just annoying to cleanup.

The x method is only really needed in the giant Xenon/Ripper chips that are like the size of a small sandwich cheese.