Thermal paste

[Tom 21]

Hello I’m 14 and very new to pc building I’ve decided to swap my cpu cooler can I put the thermal paste onto the bottom of the coolers ihs instead of putting it straight onto the cpu i thought it might be easier to spread it. if you have any tips please help me

[RONOTHAN##]

1 minute ago, Tom 21 said:

can I put the thermal paste onto the bottom of the coolers ihs instead of putting it straight onto the cpu

I mean you can, there are a couple times when that can make sense (mainly for LN2 pots on GPUs), but for the most part this is much messier and easier to mess up. 

 

Just put a rice sized dollop of paste on the CPU and then tighten down the cooler, the paste itself will spread out well enough, you don't need to worry about spreading it out yourself if you're using something with an IHS like a CPU (on a GPU then spreading the paste makes sense).

[Tom 21]

Ok thx I thought it would be better spreading it with the bottom of the cooler being square