is this a good amount of thermal paste?

[probablydumb]

i put a pretty ok sized blob of thermal paste is this good enough? i put the aio over the cou and it kinda squashed it a little bit

[Mateyyy]

Did you just press the CPU block slightly onto the CPU, or is that after you properly mounted and screwed it into place? The thermal paste should spread all across the IHS.

[tikker]

Could use a bit more. Ideally you want it to cover as much of the heatspreader as possible after the cooler has been mounted. I follow the a-little-fatter-than-a-rice-grain rice grain method.

[probablydumb]

Just now, Mateyyy said:

Did you just press the CPU block slightly onto the CPU, or is that after you properly mounted and screwed it into place? The thermal paste should spread all across the IHS.

i pressed it slightly over didnt mount the screws

[probablydumb]

1 minute ago, tikker said:

Could use a bit more. Ideally you want it to cover as much of the heatspreader as possible after the cooler has been mounted. I follow the a-little-fatter-than-a-rice-grain rice grain method.

i didnt fully screw the cooler in i just put it over it so i could grab something.i just slightly left the aio to rest on the cpu

[mr fobs]

Slightly larger than a pea sized blob is usually safe. Make sure if you reapply to wipe off the old stuff with alcohol on both the cpu and heatsink.

[mariushm]

Don't be so obsessed with the amount.  It's better to put too much than put too little, so if you have more paste, add another pea/corn size drop in the middle.

 

Too little is bad, too much is not so bad... usually too much paste results just in maybe half a degree celsius higher temperatures, which are balanced by the fan spinning a bit faster. In real world, you're unlikely to notice it.

 

 

[probablydumb]

3 minutes ago, mr fobs said:

Slightly larger than a pea sized blob is usually safe. Make sure if you reapply to wipe off the old stuff with alcohol on both the cpu and heatsink.

I tried to wipe it clean as best as i could but i think i missed a couple spots

[tikker]

5 minutes ago, probablydumb said:

i didnt fully screw the cooler in i just put it over it so i could grab something.i just slightly left the aio to rest on the cpu

Then it's hard to judge. Put the amount on and properly mount the cooler. If you absolutely want to be sure, take it off again to see the spread pattern, but another test would be to just turn on the computer and throw a load at it while keeping an eye on CPU temperatures.

[probablydumb]

1 minute ago, tikker said:

Then it's hard to judge. Put the amount on and properly mount the cooler. If you absolutely want to be sure, take it off again to see the spread pattern, but another test would be to just turn on the computer and throw a load at it while keeping an eye on CPU temperatures.

i ran realbench for 40 mins and the highest temp was 85c im not sure if its bad or ok

[tikker]

2 minutes ago, probablydumb said:

i ran realbench for 40 mins and the highest temp was 85c im not sure if its bad or ok

So is this a really old picture then? I'm a bit confused. Your post seems to imply you don't even have a cooler mounted and now you say you ran a benchmark for a while already.

[mariushm]

In theory it's bad to mount the heatsink, then unmount and mount again.

 

The reason is because you'll have thermal paste on both sides and when you bring the two parts close a second time, molecules of air can be trapped between the layers of paste (as the paste is not perfectly flat on both surfaces when you unmount the heatsink) and those molecules of air will cause heat to transfer slower between the two elements, so the cooler won't work as well.

So the general advice is that if you remove a heatsink, either clean both surfaces with a solvent (isopropyl alcohol, sanitary alcohol, acetone, whatever) or just one and apply fresh thermal paste on only one surface (the one that still has paste, or one of the two cleaned surfaces)

 

In practice, even if you end up with molecules of air trapped between paste layers, the effect of those is more or less barely measurable in laboratory conditions. It's not worth the extra stress of cleaning and reapplying paste.

[probablydumb]

1 minute ago, tikker said:

So is this a really old picture then? I'm a bit confused. Your post seems to imply you don't even have a cooler mounted and now you say you ran a benchmark for a while already.

The whole story is that i applied a ok sized blob of thermal paste on the CPU,let the AIO rest on the CPU for a bit while i grabbed my phone, took a picture of the CPU,mounted the cooler,mounted the side panel,connected it to power,ran realbench for 40 mins and that's it.

[Dedayog]

1 hour ago, probablydumb said:

The whole story is that i applied a ok sized blob of thermal paste on the CPU,let the AIO rest on the CPU for a bit while i grabbed my phone, took a picture of the CPU,mounted the cooler,mounted the side panel,connected it to power,ran realbench for 40 mins and that's it.

Didn't the AIO have preapplied thermal paste?

[probablydumb]

15 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

Didn't the AIO have preapplied thermal paste?

Well obviously it did when i first bought it,after 1 CPU change and a couple of times that my thermal paste got reapplied it doesn't have that preapplied thermal paste anymore.

[Dedayog]

1 minute ago, probablydumb said:

Well obviously it did when i first bought it,after 1 CPU change and a couple of times that my thermal paste got reapplied it doesn't have that preapplied thermal paste anymore.

So you've re-applied thermal paste a few times before this?  Why is this time an issue?  Just look up a YT video on it and be done.  Tho if you've done it before, why not do it the way it worked for you prior?

 

I'm confused.  But that's nothing new Use a bit more and enjoy your machine.

[probablydumb]

3 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

So you've re-applied thermal paste a few times before this?  Why is this time an issue?  Just look up a YT video on it and be done.  Tho if you've done it before, why not do it the way it worked for you prior?

 

I'm confused.  But that's nothing new Use a bit more and enjoy your machine.

I wasn't the one who did the re-applying before now.This is my first time actually applying thermal paste.Of course i know HOW to apply it, i was just curious if i applied enough of it.

[freeagent]

13 minutes ago, probablydumb said:

i was just curious if i applied enough of it.

No its not enough, you have about half of what you need. AMD has a big area you have to cover. Intel is a little easier because you just have to make sure the cores are covered so a line down the middle is fine. When people say rice sized that is generally for Intel. Pea sized just seems massive to me. Since I have moved to AMD my Intel tricks don't really work anymore. I put a line down the side and spread it over the entire IHS. It seems to work ok. It takes a little practice.. but do it enough times and you develop your own technique.

[probablydumb]

5 minutes ago, freeagent said:

No its not enough, you have about half of what you need. AMD has a big area you have to cover. Intel is a little easier because you just have to make sure the cores are covered so a line down the middle is fine. When people say rice sized that is generally for Intel. Pea sized just seems massive to me. Since I have moved to AMD my Intel tricks don't really work anymore. I put a line down the side and spread it over the entire IHS. It seems to work ok. It takes a little practice.. but do it enough times and you develop your own technique.

The picture i took was made before i mounted the cooler.The circle made of thermal paste looks small and doesn't cover the IHS because i didn't screw in the cooler over the CPU.I just lightly let it rest over the CPU without mounting any screws because i had to get a phone to take a picture of it.After i got my phone i lifted the AIO back up and took the picture that's why it spread like that.AFTER i took the picture,i let my phone down and screwed the AIO in.

[freeagent]

Look at this picture, you will want good coverage all over.

 

 

 

 

[probablydumb]

13 minutes ago, freeagent said:

Look at this picture, you will want good coverage all over.

 

 

 

 

Yes i know,the CPU needs to be almost fully covered.But i have a feeling that you think that the thermal paste that was on the CPU when i took that picture was after i unscrewed the AIO off the CPU meaning that it spread very little under pressure,which can't be the case because as i have mentioned before the picture was taken BEFORE i screwed the AIO over the CPU which probably means that because now it's screwed in it most likely spread a lot more due to the pressure by the cooler and the heat generated between the CPU and the cooler.

[CryingWimp]

A bit too much is better than a bit too little. 

 

As long as you don't put enough it is spilling all over the place after you tighten the cooler it will be perfect.

 

For Ryzen many people find making a small X in the center the best method to guarantee a proper application.

[probablydumb]

1 minute ago, CryingWimp said:

A bit too much is better than a bit too little. 

 

As long as you don't put enough it is spilling all over the place after you tighten the cooler it will be perfect.

I agree, but i was just afraid i put too little

[CryingWimp]

Because its partially squished, it is very hard to tell from that picture.

 

It appears to be a bit too little though IMO

[probablydumb]

14 minutes ago, CryingWimp said:

Because its partially squished, it is very hard to tell from that picture.

 

It appears to be a bit too little though IMO

I'll be pretty surprised actually if it's too little now that i think about it.I remember putting a pretty decently sized blob and honestly i don't have the patience nor am i in the right state of mind to open up the pc for the 3rd time today so imma just let it like this.The temps are pretty good 47c idle,74c in a cinebench run and about 85c after 40 minutes of realbench.

Hope nothing bad happens.