[Urgent] Which pattern to follow ( thermal paste )

[Waqas409]

Hi,
i'm changing thermal paste but im confused which patter should i use  ( dot, cross or credit card ) on my cpu.

Here is my cpu cooler.

 

[Shouom]

A cross should be fine.

[Rohime]

It doesnt really matter that much.  just make sure its in the middle, and dont put too much on.  too much can be worse than not enough.

[TheRandomness]

Doesn't matter at all. Just don't put too much.

[Waqas409]

thanks placed cross pattern with minimum amount. 

[zMeul]

26 minutes ago, Rohime said:

and dont put too much on.  too much can be worse than not enough.

absolutely not true

 

too little is way more problematic than too much

[SaladFingers]

On 10/15/2016 at 2:07 PM, zMeul said:

absolutely not true

 

too little is way more problematic than too much

Nowadays the pastes aren't conductive anyway. Worst that can happen is getting everything around the chip dirty and hard to clean up. But once the cooler is properly mounted any excess paste will just be pushed out to the sides so not really a problem performance-wise. Put too little, though, and you might run into overheating.