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Too Much Thermal Paste?

ItsCanada
By ItsCanada
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Go to solution Solved by Semper,

Is it too much?

For the surface area needed, yes.

Will it cause issue? By volume, likely answer is no. Quality, potentially (you don't state what compound you're using - though this is relevant with too little, proper amount, or excess). All that's going to happen is the mounting pressure will squish out the excess on the sides of the IHS, creating a mess. So long as it's not electrically conductive, that's the only "problem" that it's going to cause.

Posted

I finally decided to upgrade my i7 4790k from a stock intel cooler to a Dark Rock Pro 4 and potentially do some mild overclocking. After finishing the installation I sent my friend a picture of how much thermal paste I applied and he told me it was too much. Do you guys think it's too much? Is it going to affect performance in any noticeable way? My CPU looks to be idling at about 33c. Thanks in advance!

thermal paste.jpg

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Can't really tell how much is there exactly, but I'd say so.

 

You just need a pea sized dot in the middle

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  • Solution

Is it too much?

For the surface area needed, yes.

Will it cause issue? By volume, likely answer is no. Quality, potentially (you don't state what compound you're using - though this is relevant with too little, proper amount, or excess). All that's going to happen is the mounting pressure will squish out the excess on the sides of the IHS, creating a mess. So long as it's not electrically conductive, that's the only "problem" that it's going to cause.

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Holy crap yes, waaaay to much! The concern being if it goes over the edge of the cpu and into the socket you can short the motherboard, intel CPU's can take a beating but probably not the motherboard, apply a grain of rice sized dab in the middle. More than that is not needed.

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Posted
6 minutes ago, Semper said:

Is it too much?

For the surface area needed, yes.

Will it cause issue? By volume, likely answer is no. Quality, potentially (you don't state what compound you're using - though this is relevant with too little, proper amount, or excess). All that's going to happen is the mounting pressure will squish out the excess on the sides of the IHS, creating a mess. So long as it's not electrically conductive, that's the only "problem" that it's going to cause.

I've seen people over-apply and the thermal paste makes its way into the socket, killing the motherboard whether it shorts it out or interferes with CPU to pin contact. 

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Asus ROG SWIFT PG348Q 100Hz IPS G-Sync UW ‖ Dell UltraSharp U3419W 60Hz IPS UW ‖ Custom TOFU96 ‖ Corsair Scimitar Pro RGB 

 

Work Rig ‖ ThreadRipper 3970X ‖ Asus Prime TRX40 Pro ATX ‖ G.Skill RipjawsV 8x32GB 3200Mhz CL16 ‖ Nvidia Quadro RTX 6000 24GB ‖ Corsair HXi 1000W ‖ EVGA CLC 360 AIO ‖ 8x Sabrent Rocket 2TB w/ 2x Asus Hyper m.2 V2  ‖ Arctic P12 Fans ‖ Phanteks P400A ATX Mid Tower 

 

Plotting Machine 1 ‖ ThreadRipper 2990WX ‖ AsRock X399 Taichi ATX ‖ Kingston HyperX Fury 8x16GB 2666Mhz CL18  ‖ Nvidia Quadro K600 1GB ‖ Corsair RMx 850W ‖ EVGA CLC 360 AIO ‖ 2x Sabrent Rocket 2TB & 2x Sabrent Rocket 4TB w/ Asus Hyper m.2 V2 ‖ Arctic P12 Fans ‖ Rosewill RSV-L4500 4U ‖ 5x Dell DS60 60-bay JBOD w/ 1.2PB of HDD Storage ‖ HP 22U Half Rack

 

Plotting Machine 2 ‖ R9 3950X ‖ Asus TUF X570-Plus Wi-Fi ATX ‖ G.Skill RipjawsV 4x16GB 3200Mhz CL16  ‖ Nvidia Quadro K600 1GB ‖ Corsair RM 650W ‖ Noctua NH-D15s Chormax ‖ 4x Corsair MP600 Force 1TB W/ Asus Hyper m.2 Gen4 ‖ Arctic P14 & P12 Fans ‖ Silverstone FARA R1 ATX Mid Tower

 

J.A.R.V.I.S. ‖ R9 3900XT ‖ Asus B550-I ROG STRIX Wi-Fi ITX ‖ G.Skill Ripjaws V 2x16GB 3600MHz CL16 ‖ EVGA GTX 1080 SC2 iCX 8GB ‖ Corsair SF 750W Platinum ‖ Corsair H100i Pro AIO ‖ Noctua NF-A12x15 Chromax Fans ‖ FormD T1 SFF ITX Case ‖ 

LG 75UM8070PUA 4K UHD 120Hz IPS HDR TV ‖ Corsair K63 Cherry MX Red Special Edition Wireless ‖ Corsair Ironclaw RGB Wireless

 

Archive Server ‖ R3 2200G ‖ Asus B450-I ROG STRIX Wi-Fi ITX ‖ Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 2x8GB 3200MHz CL16 White ‖ Vega Integrated Graphics ‖ EVGA P2 750W ‖ Prism Wraith Cooler ‖ ITX Open Bench ‖ 2x HP SAS Expander ‖ LSI-SAS9211 ‖ 220TB of HDD Storage

 

SFF ITX Home PC ‖ i5-7500 ‖ MSI B250I Gaming Pro Wi-Fi AC ITX ‖ G.Skill Ripjaws V 2x8GB 2800MHz ‖ Intel Integrated Graphics ‖ Seasonic SSP Flex ATX 300W PSU ‖ Cryorig C7 ‖ Velka 3 rev 1.2 SFF ITX Case (Grey)  

 

Laptop ‖ Dell XPS13 2-in-1 7390 (2020) ‖ i7-1065G7 ‖ 32GB 3733MHz LPDDR4x ‖ Intel Integrated Graphics ‖ 1TB NVME M.2 ‖ UHD+ (3840 x 2400) InfinityEdge Touch Display 

 

Keyboard Collection ‖ GMMK Full Size ‖ TOFU96 90%  ‖ KBD8x MKII TKL ‖ Drop CTRL High Profile TKL ‖ KBD Bella 75% ‖ GMMK Pro 75% ‖ XD84 Pro 75% ‖ KBD67 V2 MKII 65% ‖ KBD67Lite 65% ‖ TOFU65 65% ‖ KBD Blade 60% ‖ Drop Carina 60% ‖ Southpaw75 60% w/ Left Numpad ‖ OLKB Preonic V3 Ortholinear ‖ CosPad XD24  ‖ KBDPad MKII

 

Key Cap Collection ‖ GMK Boba Fett ‖ GMK Red Samurai ‖ GMK Laser CyberDeck +Novalties ‖ GMK Arch ‖ MaxKey B&W ‖ Drop MT3 Camillo ‖ Matt3o MT3 /dev/tty ‖ KBDfans Biip Torii Ext-2048 ‖ ePBT Less But Better +Novalties ‖ EnjoyPBT Dolch ‖ WinMix Mustard ‖ Drop Skylight Horizon & Slate ‖ Glorious Black Aura ‖  

 

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Too much and personally the overlaps and such could allow air pockets. Unless its a larger Ryzen chip, you only want a moderate sized drop in the center.

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13 minutes ago, JM21 said:

I've seen people over-apply and the thermal paste makes its way into the socket, killing the motherboard whether it shorts it out or interferes with CPU to pin contact. 

If it's not going to conduct electricity, it's not going to bridge contact points. In theory, yes it could possibly cause contact issues between the socket and the pins, but natively, it's not going to "kill your board". It's a process, and a delicate process (with excessive particular note to LGA) at that. to clean out of a socket, but it can be done.

 

 

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