Thermal Compound

[Tony92882]

I just wanted to talk about or actually know what other people's experiences about using thermal compounds on cpu and gpu components, we all know you need to , does anyone use a certain brand and how much do you typically use when applying it. Does anyone use a certain method while applying? Also can we talk about the right amount that is needed to cover correctly and why applying too much is bad. 

 

I personally use arctic silver 5, i find using a dot in the middle before applying a cooling block seems to cover it well.

[g12601]

9 minutes ago, Tony92882 said:

I personally use arctic silver 5, i find using a dot in the middle before applying a cooling block seems to cover it well.

Well that is good to know as I got some of this stuff last Saturday. 

Never applied any myself yet, but I think the general consensus is to not use too much.

[SLAYR]

Luke did do a video on thermal paste application and that the only difference in temps was with too little paste anything else is fine.

 

A good amount is about the size of a grain of rice.

 

Applying too much is only bad when it gets in the socket or on the motherboard.

[Tony92882]

Has anyone ever done the X method of applying thermal paste. has anyone bench tested cores that had missing paste on the chip heat sink

[Manchineel]

33 minutes ago, Tony92882 said:

Has anyone ever done the X method of applying thermal paste. has anyone bench tested cores that had missing paste on the chip heat sink

as stated previously luke did a video on the different applications, he did test the X method. I dont really know what you mean by the second half of your sentence but linus did a video aobut replacing the thermal compound INSIDE of the CPU and it only made a little bit of difference(if that is what you are talking about).

[Tony92882]

4 minutes ago, Manchineel said:

as stated previously luke did a video on the different applications, he did test the X method. I dont really know what you mean by the second half of your sentence but linus did a video aobut replacing the thermal compound INSIDE of the CPU and it only made a little bit of difference(if that is what you are talking about).

the second part was more of , would there be a heat problem across the cpu if, lets just say there wasn't enough compound on the cpu, can it cause a gap possibly that would show up on core temps across the socket.. if that makes more sense to you. 

 

trying to get an idea if i was to trouble shoot something that could be an indicator that i should get how much paste is applied to the cpu. 

[Manchineel]

not enough compound would result in all cores heating up. one core heating up over other is probably due to your work load only using one or two cores.

[Mira Yurizaki]

You would have to apply an abysmal amount or completely miss where the die is to have the temps shoot through the roof due to a botched thermal paste application. Or the thermal paste is crap if it creates a gap when pressure is applied.

 

Generally, as long as there's some TIM and sufficient pressure, it's going to work.

 

EDIT:

So I found a video out of curiosity to see how a part would run without TIM:

The tl;dw part is a bare cooler kept this processor running some test to 76C, vs. 58C when using thermal paste.

[Tony92882]

5 minutes ago, Quibiss said:

When reapplying TIM on my GPU I used the X-method and going from stock to Noctua NT-H1 made no difference in temps at all, not sure if that is representative but yeah, I'd say if the ammount is right, the way or shape of applying it doesn't make a huge, if not no difference at all.

I watched the video luke did and all the testing showed the same unless there was too little, i've never had a problem with thermal paste (thankfully), i was just wondering what the community thought of it. 

[Mark77]

I use the $4 tubes you can order from China on AliExpress or similar.  Haven't noticed any difference versus the heavily hyped (*cough* arctic silver *cough*) brands.

 

Maybe if you're doing crazy overclocking, you might want something better.  But the cheap stuff works just fine and is available in tubes that you can probably do many dozens of applications with ease.

[Tony92882]

3 minutes ago, Mark77 said:

I use the $4 tubes you can order from China on AliExpress or similar.  Haven't noticed any difference versus the heavily hyped (*cough* arctic silver *cough*) brands.

 

Maybe if you're doing crazy overclocking, you might want something better.  But the cheap stuff works just fine and is available in tubes that you can probably do many dozens of applications with ease.

i do a lot of builds and get a lot of smaller tubes of the cheap stuff included. I dont mind using the arctic silver, never had a problem with it. not broke, no need to fix kinda way of how i look at it. but i know the cheaper stuff is prob close to or just as good. i was more wondering if anyone ever had noticed a better way to apply the paste then more what brand or type works best. lets face it.. if you put too little it wont matter what brand you are using.