How to Apply Thermal Paste the Kentucky Way

RainMotorsports

RainMotorsports

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Kubla would know all about this:
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I dunno about toothpaste. But American Cheese has actually been used in a thermal paste test. Im just not sure if Articlean will take it off after a burn session lol.
 
I've used brake grease on fans before. The first time I built a PC I used the business card method too. It was a P3 750MHz, so I don't think there was any damage. :D
 
Business card would be a little too flimsy. I started out using a cleaned credit card. Mind you this was on laptops where its often preferable to manually spread. I found that a Razer blade was much more appropriate for that particular type of application. Believe it or not you can make AS5 see through. Though I now use G751 while its not the highest end product from the company it applies better seems to and I dont believe in miracle results... perform better.

As far as I am concerned there are 2 methods. Pressure or Razer Blade. Anything else is invalid and idiotic. I mean using a baggie to spread it around? Sure better than a bare finger but much much worse than letting an appropriate amount spread on its own.
 
BOT#00001 said:
The credit card/razor blade method isnt universal.
Click to expand...

I always use the entire surface of the spreader... because. The laptop CPU I have has no heat spreader. Their methods of middle dot versus spreading the length of chip underneath is purely based on minimizing the amount used. It takes a ton more doing "Middle Dot" as they list it to cover the entire spreader just to encompass the rectangle hidden underneath where as you can spread it in the correct direction.

I only use it in applications where weight and application can not provide the force needed. Which for me is compact electronics such as laptops. I know my laptop by heart the GPU heatsink is on a very very small angle so I am able to spread it thicker to one side much as you would hope the weight of a heatsink in a desktop to.

Edit - I made a minor correction there. As some specific Intels down the list are different, not worth noting though.
 
Damn...you already changed your reply:p

RainMotorsports said:
I always use the entire surface of the spreader... because. The laptop CPU I have has no heat spreader. Their methods of middle dot versus spreading the length of chip underneath is purely based on minimizing the amount used. It takes a ton more doing "Middle Dot" as they list it to cover the entire spreader just to encompass the rectangle hidden underneath where as you can spread it in the correct direction.
Click to expand...

That doesnt make sense. Why would they care how much you used? The reason they do it, from my understanding, is that the razor blade method is more likely to create bubbles which leave spots uncovered. The Line or rice method allows the paste to flow out evenly.
 
BOT#00001 said:
Damn...you already changed your reply:p
Click to expand...

Yeah minor change to cover those old ass square intel cpu's. Pretty much every CPU I have actually applied paste to was of the long ways generation. But I dont believe in ONLY covering part of the usable surface contact.

I went from 286 to 486 to Pentium 1, 2 and 4. The 1 I never used paste, 2 was factory catridge. 4 I did take off once didnt reapply or remove so sloppy seconds eh?. After that it was Core 2 Duo and higher.
 
RainMotorsports said:
Yeah minor change to cover those old ass square intel cpu's. Pretty much every CPU I have actually applied paste to was of the long ways generation. But I dont believe in ONLY covering part of the usable surface contact.

I went from 286 to 486 to Pentium 1, 2 and 4. The 1 I never used paste, 2 was factory catridge. 4 I did take off once didnt reapply or remove so sloppy seconds eh?. After that it was Core 2 Duo and higher.
Click to expand...


How is a Core i7 "old ass"?

Arctic Silver, Inc. - Intel? Application Methods
 
BOT#00001 said:
How is a Core i7 "old ass"?
Arctic Silver, Inc. - Intel? Application Methods
Click to expand...

Core™ i7 Processors
Vertical Line
Core™ i7 Processor Extreme Editions
Vertical Line
Core™ i7 Processors
Vertical Line
Core™ i7 Mobile/Lap Top Processors Processors
Surface Spread

All of which seem to go to the documents stating:
Squeeze enough thermal compound onto the center of this area to create a small
mound. By working the plastic tool (old credit card) back and forth in all
directions (See green symbol in photo HS1) you will smooth out the compound
and work it into heatsink. This will ensure optimum filling of the microscopic
valleys in the metal where the CPU cores will contact the heatsink.
Click to expand...

Now here is where the confusion sets in. All of these documents first say rub that shit flat with a credit card.

Applying Thermal Compound:
With the triangle mark on the substrate pointing down and to the left, apply a line
of thermal compound to match the red line in photo QP2. Make the line
approximately 1 millimeter wide. The line of thermal compound crosses the quad
or dual cores vertically as shown with the metal cap removed in photo QP3.
Since heat from the CPU cores travel directly through the metal cap through the
compound to the heatsink, it is much more important to have a good interface
directly above the cores than it is to have the metal cap covered with compound
from corner to corner.
Click to expand...

So they want you to apply one layer via a spread method with a credit card to the heatsink... Then do a line method and plop that shit on? These are not the instructions that came with my tubes. Apparently I got this one with mine http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appmeth/int/ss/intel_app_method_surface_spread_v1.1.pdf

Sorry I stopped when they got to spreading that shit with a credit card lol. At that point both documents look identical. Interesting. On the laptop I apply to the heatsink only on the desktop the cpu only. The laptop is WAY too dangerous to apply conductive directly. The slightest mistake your on circuits.

As i said and mistakenly anyways old ass square cpu's the i7 does not fall under that description.
 
It seems they favored spreading it on laptops as well. But on the Core 2 Quad would you really be happy "hoping" it would spread across 2 chips? Dear god lol. Thats the one cpu that I think even in a desktop manual application would be desirable if the surfaces were a known quantity. Which means doing it, checking it, doing it over again.
 
That's hilarious. I actually have washed many electronics under the sink. Just have to make sure all batteries are out and capacitors are discharged. Then a solid washing with alcohol and liberal use of the air compressor. When you have customer s that spill coffee, soda and God knows what else into their device it's the only way I know how to clean up everything. WD-40 and a old nylon paint brush will make everything look new again when done. Smells like shit, but works like a champ.
 
BOT#00001 said:
Arctic Silver has different methods depending on the CPU and the thermal paste. The credit card/razor blade method isnt universal.

Arctic Silver, Inc. - Instructions
Click to expand...

I don't recommend touching or spreading the thermal paste in any way. The best spread is achieved by the block pressure itself.

When I was looking at hardcore watercooling stuff when I was making my loop 3 years ago, I read about some guy who had done extensive testing with CPU block reseating with different paste "spreading" methods (something like 10-15-20 reseats with the lowest/highest 2 thrown out as "outliers") etc. etc. and the findings as I remember them were:

- the "pea ball" method -> apply cooler works best
- if you put too much thermal material it's actually WORSE than putting on too little thermal material - like I remember the temperature difference of an "underdone" CPU block seat where it doesn't go all the way around the CPU was very very very close to a "perfect" spread where it covers most of the CPU without being excessive, and definitely better than if it oozes off the sides

Then again, it probably depends on the material. Personally, after a LOT of research I did back in the day, I still use this: Petra's Tech Shop

There might be better/newer things that came out, but the above is "tried and proven" for me... Or you can use something unreasonably insane like this: Indigo Xtreme? - High Performance Thermal Interface for Overclocking Applications ... which is probably not worth it anyway.
 
HeatSurge said:
Then again, it probably depends on the material. Personally, after a LOT of research I did back in the day, I still use this: Petra's Tech Shop

There might be better/newer things that came out, but the above is "tried and proven" for me..
Click to expand...

Shin Etsu makes the G751 paste I used and its considered the low end offering. If its their low end I really got to try the rest lol.

But yeah the problem with average cooler is the surface is nowhere near flat. The microscopic surface is one thing. Irreconcilable differences is mounting surface angles is another. But the warped, shit surfaces of many coolers is another thing all in its own. Thats one reason why letting it spread on its own is awesome. It fills the crazy gaps that are hard to even tell they are there.
 
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