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Apply thermal paste

J0ey
By J0ey
in CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory
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Go to solution Solved by ShadowCaptain,

When applying thermal paste I usually spread it out over the CPU, just a thin layer of thermal paste. However, in the Classic unboxing video Linus mentions that that isn't the correct way to apply it.

 

Why is the "smaller than a grain of rice" method better? I'm a little worried I will use too much or too little. When you spread it out you can be sure it covers the whole CPU and won't be too much, but apparently this isn't correct?

 

 

You do not need to spread out thermal compound, it will spread naturally due to the pressure applied by the heatspreader on the cooler

 

By smearing it you introduce air bubbles with negatively impact performance

 

See here

 

Posted

When applying thermal paste I usually spread it out over the CPU, just a thin layer of thermal paste. However, in the Classic unboxing video Linus mentions that that isn't the correct way to apply it.

 

Why is the "smaller than a grain of rice" method better? I'm a little worried I will use too much or too little. When you spread it out you can be sure it covers the whole CPU and won't be too much, but apparently this isn't correct?

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When applying thermal paste I usually spread it out over the CPU, just a thin layer of thermal paste. However, in the Classic unboxing video Linus mentions that that isn't the correct way to apply it.

 

Why is the "smaller than a grain of rice" method better? I'm a little worried I will use too much or too little. When you spread it out you can be sure it covers the whole CPU and won't be too much, but apparently this isn't correct?

 

 

You do not need to spread out thermal compound, it will spread naturally due to the pressure applied by the heatspreader on the cooler

 

By smearing it you introduce air bubbles with negatively impact performance

 

See here

 

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^ posted as I was typing lol...

How Pastes spread

 

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I've always gone with the grain of rice method, and it is yet to fail me though this is a controversial issue ;) 

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^ posted as I was typing lol...

 

 

I am a ninja, this is me

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No such thing as "correct" way to apply thermal paste. There's nothing wrong with spreading the paste. On this forum, however, most people follow the Gospel of Linus.

 

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As an example of when it makes more sense to pre-spead rather then no spread:

 

CM Hyper 212+ vs Evo.

 

The 212+ had small gaps either side of the pipes not being a flat contact patch like the newer Evo, thus not evenly and automatically spreading paste.

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Most of the times I do spread thermal paste my self, just to be sure it covers all of cpu or gpu chip surface. But I do not think there are right and wrong methods.

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