Has LTT made a comparison of different ways to apply thermal compound?

[Daemonius]

Back in the day I remember that somewhere it was recommended to cover the whole IHS with a thin layer of thermal compound by spreading it with a credit card or similar. But now it seems that the trend is to put a drop of a size of a pea in the center and let the heat sink do the spreading.

 

Has LTT made a comparison of different ways, full covered thin layer, cross pattern, pea size and so on. How does this affect temperatures?

 

If this has not been done, maybe there is an idea for a video. If it has been done, please link me to one.

 

Not that I am in need of this at the moment but for future reference.

 

Thanks.

[Skiiwee29]

YEs.

 

 

[AnonymousGuy]

An X is the best application method according to the legendary 80-way thermal compound test.  http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=150&Itemid=62

 

TLDR: none of it really matters by more than a few degrees C.  Having high mounting pressure for the thinnest bond line is the most important.

[NTDaws]

I do the pea cause it makes me hungry.

[Daemonius]

30 minutes ago, legacy99 said:

YEs.

 

 

Thank you, I knew that there had to be one.

[Krillingt75961]

31 minutes ago, Daemonius said:

Back in the day I remember that somewhere it was recommended to cover the whole IHS with a thin layer of thermal compound by spreading it with a credit card or similar. But now it seems that the trend is to put a drop of a size of a pea in the center and let the heat sink do the spreading.

 

Has LTT made a comparison of different ways, full covered thin layer, cross pattern, pea size and so on. How does this affect temperatures?

 

If this has not been done, maybe there is an idea for a video. If it has been done, please link me to one.

 

Not that I am in need of this at the moment but for future reference.

 

Thanks.

As the video that @legacy99 linked shows, application method doesn't matter very much. Also having too much on it is also very hard to do because attaching the heat sink/ water block will squeeze the excess out unless you have a cheap one that doesn't apply much pressure. While the whole heat spreader comes into contact with the heatsink/ waterblock, most of the heat transfer takes place in the middle since the die is centered. As long as the center is covered sufficiently, you will have good heat transfer so applying a pea sized amount is the most efficient method because you don't waste any and don't have to worry about it overflowing and getting all over the place because while most of it is non conductive, it still is a pain to clean up.

[asand1]

Nope, no one has ever tested that. What a great idea, we should ask Linus to do this.

 

[bomerr]

Spreading out a thin lawyer is the "best" approach because it ensures you covered the entire CPU. Anything else is "cutting corners." With that said on smaller CPU dies like Skylake/Kaby Lake you can probably get away with only a pea sized deb in the middle. But with larger CPUs like Skylake-X then you'll want to apply at least a line. A pea dot can sometimes not spread out evenly over such a large CPU.