Ryzen Thermal Paste Application

[Blaze5546]

I was just wondering if anyone could help me with what the ideal thermal paste application would look like for a Ryzen 3600 CPU? I am installing my first AIO unit and have used thermal pads up until this point. Thanks!

[Hyrogenes]

Your AIO should come with preapplied thermal paste so there is no need to make a pattern as it will already be a completely even spread out coating on the cooler.

[Blaze5546]

Oh sorry, I should have mentioned, this is a used AIO that someone gave me so there isn't any preapplied paste.

 

[tkitch]

A decent dollop in the middle is fine.  

Too much will just squeeze some out.  Too little is bad. 

 

What paste are you using?

[FRD]

Just use the method Linus mostly uses. A drop of thermal paste the size of a rice grain, in the middle.

[Blaze5546]

26 minutes ago, tkitch said:

A decent dollop in the middle is fine.  

Too much will just squeeze some out.  Too little is bad. 

 

What paste are you using?

I am using Thermaltake paste

[tkitch]

8 minutes ago, Blaze5546 said:

I am using Thermaltake paste

yeah, that'll work fine.  Just use a decent blob in the middle and let the heatsink spread it for you.  

[Chris Pratt]

48 minutes ago, Blaze5546 said:

Oh sorry, I should have mentioned, this is a used AIO that someone gave me so there isn't any preapplied paste.

How "used"? Personally, I'd never use a used AIO. Even in the best of situations, they don't have a very long life (5-6 years max), and that life can be severely diminished by how they were used/abused. You can get good AIOs brand new for $100 (Artic Liquid Freezer II, for example) so there's no point in even bothering with used. If you really can't afford $100, just get a good air cooler. That's really all you need anyways, especially for a 3600.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

The "best" way for thermal paste application on ryzen 3000 and 5000 seems to be smaller blobs of a 3*3 grid pattern on the ihs.

 

However, temp improvements are widely debated. 

[DoctorNick]

42 minutes ago, Kinda Bottlenecked said:

The "best" way for thermal paste application on ryzen 3000 and 5000 seems to be smaller blobs of a 3*3 grid pattern on the ihs.

 

However, temp improvements are widely debated. 

You could also just put one big blob in middle just under the Z

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

16 minutes ago, DoctorNick said:

You could also just put one big blob in middle just under the Z

 

I've tried both on my 5900x. the grid layout is about 1*C - 0.5*C cooler. Extremely negligible. 

[DoctorNick]

35 minutes ago, Kinda Bottlenecked said:

 

I've tried both on my 5900x. the grid layout is about 1*C - 0.5*C cooler. Extremely negligible. 

hmm could be difference in ambient. Unless AC controlled of course

[freeagent]

For Ryzen I use the spatula

 

For Intel I just put a line down the cores slap the cooler down and give it a titty twister before I give it the clamps.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

1 minute ago, DoctorNick said:

hmm could be difference in ambient. Unless AC controlled of course

 

Definitely could have been. 

 

Theoretically it should have a more even spread across all the chiplets under the ihs. 

 

Noctua recommends going with a 5 dot method

 

[freeagent]

44 minutes ago, Kinda Bottlenecked said:

Noctua recommends going with a 5 dot method

I wonder how much of that application would ooze over the edges if it was done their way lol.

[RejZoR]

Why are people so lazy they don't spread it evenly across entire IHS surface? It's not like you do this 55 times a month. For most users it's 1 application per 5 years. Even I've maybe done it like 5 times in 1 year max coz I fiddled with my system a lot.

 

With these "pea sized dots" you just never know if you really made good contact. Until you take it off and then never be sure same application will actually spread the same. Just don't be lazy, spread it across IHS in very thin layer and you'll always have absolutely perfect contact.

[Tan3l6]

23 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Why are people so lazy they don't spread it evenly across entire IHS surface?

There are so many videos about thermal paste application that almost all conclude that the method is far less important, than using the necessary amount of paste. 

Here's a classic:

 

[RejZoR]

And how do you know when it's enough? Even peas that are used as size comparison aren't always the same. If you spread it across entire, it's guaranteed it'll always have 100% coverage. Without exception.

[bowrilla]

The best application is a manual even (and thin) spread over the whole IHS. That way you are 100% sure the you'll have contact at all spots unlike with a blob in the middle, that needs to spread. The bigger the IHS the less reliable the blob-method becomes. With a blob you'll never know the spread unless a) it was too much and you've made a mess or b) you unmount your cooler (which you can do to some extent directly after the mount - it's not ideal but it's okay, but don't wait for days and don't put your CPU through a hot cycle). The blob-method on larger CPUs with a chiplet design is not ideal, because the chiplets are rarely just under the center of the IHS. Here you'll be better off with a pattern that covers the chiplet locations.

 

To spread your paste with the center-blob method to the corners of your IHS, you'll need an excessive amount of paste because a circle with the diametre of the diagonal of your IHS is "a lot" bigger than one that has the diamtre of the height of the IHS resulting in quite an amount of paste being squeezed out. That's simple geometry.

 

Manually spreading the paste over the whole IHS is the most accurate way to cover the whole IHS, to get a good mount and to not make a huge mess in the process.

 

1 hour ago, Tan3l6 said:

There are so many videos about thermal paste application that almost all conclude that the method is far less important, than using the necessary amount of paste. 

Here's a classic:

 

That video is very misleading. First, the chip is pretty small with the Die in the middle. Second, the acryllic glass is flexing (perfectly visible with the spread method). Third, It doesn't tell you that the thinnest possible application of TIM is the best application, since it should never be a thick layer inbetween metal surfaces, but only accumulating within the surface imperfections leaving as much metal as possible for direct contact.

 

TIM is always worse than a perfect metal to metal mount.

[Tan3l6]

43 minutes ago, bowrilla said:

That video is very misleading. First, the chip is pretty small with the Die in the middle. Second, the acryllic glass is flexing (perfectly visible with the spread method).

Yeah, about the acrylic glass flexing i do agree, not the best video.

LTT video might be better:

  

1 hour ago, RejZoR said:

And how do you know when it's enough? Even peas that are used as size comparison aren't always the same. If you spread it across entire, it's guaranteed it'll always have 100% coverage. Without exception.

The problem comes with convex or concave surfaces of some IHS and/or coolers.

[RejZoR]

What problem? If you cover entire surface it just doesn't matter. It'll always be perfect as far as thermal paste application goes. Shape of IHS or cooler is irrelevant and out of user control anyway unless you go lapping which most just won't do.

[Tan3l6]

11 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

What problem? If you cover entire surface it just doesn't matter. It'll always be perfect as far as thermal paste application goes. Shape of IHS or cooler is irrelevant and out of user control anyway unless you go lapping which most just won't do.

Imagine a perfectly flat IHS and then a concave cooler base (or the other way around, that is more probable). If you spread the paste evenly, then there might stay a microscopic bubble in the middle. Not likely, yet if you would use a "large pea amount" in the middle, the center touches in any condition. Yeah, not too likely outcome, yet the spreading method is not the only acceptable method. 99% of the times any other acceptable method will give almost identical result.

[RejZoR]

1 hour ago, Tan3l6 said:

Imagine a perfectly flat IHS and then a concave cooler base (or the other way around, that is more probable). If you spread the paste evenly, then there might stay a microscopic bubble in the middle. Not likely, yet if you would use a "large pea amount" in the middle, the center touches in any condition. Yeah, not too likely outcome, yet the spreading method is not the only acceptable method. 99% of the times any other acceptable method will give almost identical result.

The whole bubble thing has been debunked bunch of times. It just doesn't happen. Compared to thermal paste just not being there and making zero actual contact.

[bowrilla]

1 hour ago, Tan3l6 said:

Imagine a perfectly flat IHS and then a concave cooler base (or the other way around, that is more probable). If you spread the paste evenly, then there might stay a microscopic bubble in the middle. Not likely, yet if you would use a "large pea amount" in the middle, the center touches in any condition. Yeah, not too likely outcome, yet the spreading method is not the only acceptable method. 99% of the times any other acceptable method will give almost identical result.

You're trying to fix a trash cooler with TIM application. No matter how much you try to optimize the TIM application and spread, the performance of a warped IHS or coldplate will always be poor. Just check your coldplate (and IHS) before mounting. I'd either send a warped component back or if that isn't an option for whatever reason, grind it flat.

[Tan3l6]

My point being - most people don't even notice if their IHS or cooler base is concave/convex. 

18 hours ago, bowrilla said:

You're trying to fix a trash cooler with TIM application

I am not trying to do that. Cooler bases might just be rough as the main problem.

Also evening/levelling the IHS process would be called lapping iirc.

 

We are not having a discussion, this has become arguing. So I'll stop.