Thermal paste is actually called a number of things. You might hear it referred to as thermal compound, thermal grease, thermal grease, thermal interface material and even thermal gel. Basically, thermal paste has to be applied, as the performance of the heat sink essentially depends on it.
This compound helps with the transfer of heat from the CPU to the cooler on top of the chip. Without the compound, the CPU is likely to overheat, causing you multiple problems, including a processor replacement.
If you do that, you are going to destroy your CPU as well as your motherboard, as this is the side that is plugged directly into the socket on the motherboard. Instead, thermal compound is applied to the top of the CPU where the smooth metal plate sits. Fully covered "too much thermal paste" - Generously-applied amount of thermal paste that no one will contest as being "too little.
The big blob, as its name suggests, is just a big dot smacked in the center of the metal plate. It is definitely bigger than the pea-sized recommendations of professionals mainly because it is used for desktop PCs. Once you apply the blob onto the center of the CPU, place the cooler on top and slowly bring the heatsink down.
The paste should spread out laterally "on its own. It doesn't matter if the layer is not perfect either. What matters is that the microscopic gaps between the two surfaces are no longer there and no air bubbles are trapped during the process.
Be careful if you're using a low-viscosity thermal paste a liquid-like texture. When you apply a big blob in the middle, the liquid paste would spread more aggressively and spill onto the sides. The veteran PC builders preferred this method. They used latex gloves and their index fingers to apply thermal paste, or a credit card to smoothen the spread.
Also because the thermal pastes available in the market years ago were packaged in tubs instead of tubes , so getting a chunk at a time is common. The concept of using the thin spread technique is that this supposedly ensures maximum contact between the heatsink and cold plate. The layer in between these surfaces is thin enough for them to stick, but because of this, it could even cause air pockets.
Another advantage of the spread method is that you can be sure that the corners of your heatsink will be covered nicely without spilling to the edges. Note that liquid-like thermal paste is very hard to spread evenly, so this may not work for low-viscosity pastes. This is also true for pastes that are on the thick side, since its texture would make it impossible to spread thinly.
What makes this technique a good choice is that because you're spreading it so thin, you're only using minimal amounts of paste. If you're using the expensive brands, this application method can be budget-friendly. Many people recommend sticking with the pea-sized dot when applying thermal paste.
It is straightforward and it works. Here's how you can do this:. Another benefit to this pea-sized method is that the layer will always have less air pockets than other techniques. The downside though is that the corners may not get enough coverage. If the surface has gaps on the edges instead of the middle, then this would be a huge issue. If not, then it's your lucky day and you can carry on.
The reason why many people swear by the pea-sized dot method is because it is an easy method to replicate should you need to do the application again. As you may have guessed, applying too much thermal paste can be a sticky situation, regardless of using a liquidy or thick paste.
Note that applying too little thermal paste always trumps applying too much. Imagine doing all the steps and finding out that you were unable to cover everything due to the lack of paste. You just need to clean out the old paste, then get back from the start. However, if you put too much thermal paste and then have to redo everything, you'd find that it isn't easy to clean out super-thick thermal paste from the surface. This negatively impacts performance because excessive paste ends up impeding efficient heat transfer.
If you do not leave enough of a gap between the edge of the CPU and the end points on your line, you also risk having the paste squeeze out of the sides once you have secured the cooler. Not only does this make an unnecessary mess, but if you happen to be using an electrically conductive paste, any contact with the PCB could cause a short circuit, damaging your motherboard and other connected components.
Remember: the goal of thermal paste is to fill in microscopic gaps on the surface of your CPU and your heatsink. It can be difficult to ensure that thermal paste is spread evenly. Some people recommend wrongly that thermal paste should be manually spread across the CPU using a flat hard surface such as a credit card.
While this does provide nice looking initial results, and makes it much easier to control the amount of thermal paste applied, it has one major flaw that can greatly impact performance: spreading the thermal paste manually creates small air bubbles. The simplicity of this method works to eliminate the issues with other application methods and guarantees great performance and even spread of thermal paste every time, provided you install your cooler correctly.
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