Thermal Paste Application on Wraith Prism?

[fastfishy2]

I've ended up deciding to use the Wraith Prism cooler that a friend gave me, on my Ryzen 5 3600 as I'm not overclocking. I'm not going to use whatever thermal paste AMD has applied to it from the factory, instead I'm going to use some decent Aftermarket Thermal paste but I'm not sure what pattern would be best for me to use seeing as the baseplate is direct contact heatpipes, and I want maximum heat transfer.

If anyone could help me with this, maybe even draw your pattern suggestion on this picture and send it back, that'd be helpful.

[Fasauceome]

on a CPU this small, pattern is inconsequential, as the pea sized amount in the center will be spread nearly to the entire CPU IHS. Also, the stock paste is certainly decent, if somewhat adhesive after a certain period, so don't expect to see much thermal improvement for your troubles.

[fastfishy2]

18 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

on a CPU this small, pattern is inconsequential, as the pea sized amount in the center will be spread nearly to the entire CPU IHS. Also, the stock paste is certainly decent, if somewhat adhesive after a certain period, so don't expect to see much thermal improvement for your troubles.

I prefer not to use any included TP on any cooler as I don't know how long it's been sitting there. I'd also like my cooler not to be stuck to my CPU and requiring a warm-up in order to get it off for servicing. 

As for the pea-pattern, I'm a bit unsure about it, because I want to make sure it properly and completely fills the grooves between the heatpipes and the rest of the copper base plate.

[Fasauceome]

3 minutes ago, fastfishy2 said:

As for the pea-pattern, I'm a bit unsure about it, because I want to make sure it properly and completely fills the grooves between the heatpipes and the rest of the copper base plate.

the retention force is so high, you won't be changing the surface connection by using any simple pattern

 

in theory, you would get better coverage with the grooves by doing small lines parallel to them, but in practice this would be basically impossible to execute with any level of accuracy, as the applicator tip of thermal paste tubes is quite large relative to the size of the imperfections of the cooler.

[Mooshi]

I'm a fan of the 'X' pattern myself.

 

Pssst.. it's an AMD chip, it's gonna stick to the cooler no matter if you use the stock stuff or not.