Question Could I have damaged my Ryzen 9 9800X3D during thermal paste application?

[Cubic775]

Hi everyone,

I built my PC yesterday and ran into a bit of trouble while applying the thermal paste. The paste I used was very thick and difficult to spread with a credit card. Some of it spilled over the edges of the CPU.

To clean it more effectively and apply the paste more evenly, I lifted the retention arm so the metal bracket wouldn’t get in the way. While spreading the paste with the CPU not being held down by the socket latch, the CPU slightly wiggled back and forth due to the pressure I applied (with the credit card).

After spreading the paste, I locked the CPU back in place and finished the installation. I then ran Cinebench, and the scores are within the expected range. Temperatures also look perfectly normal under load and idle.

The reason I’m a bit stressed about this is because the internet is full of stories about people damaging their motherboard socket pins, which makes me worry I might have done something wrong too. I also tend to overthink everything. I’m usually just a silent reader, but I actually created an account just to ask about this because it’s been bothering me.

So I wanted to ask:

• Is it possible that the slight wiggling of the CPU during paste application (with the socket open) could have caused any damage to the pins or the CPU itself?
• Can I trust the Cinebench results and temps as a sign that everything is working properly?

Thanks in advance for any advice or reassurance!

 

[Aeacus]

Is it possible that the slight wiggling of the CPU during paste application (with the socket open) could have caused any damage to the pins or the CPU itself?

Everything is possible. But in your case, give amends to lady luck.

Can I trust the Cinebench results and temps as a sign that everything is working properly?

Yes.

If there would be CPU socket pins issue, for the most of the times, PC won't even POST, let alone boot to OS and CPU being able to complete the bench.

and difficult to spread with a credit card

Moving forwards, don't spread the paste. Put small pea sized blob in the middle of CPU IHS and put cooler on top, while screwing down the screws in X pattern.

 

[Cubic775]

Thank you for your fast reply. Feel a bit of relief now. Yeah I used the blob method the last time I build and I it was too much. So it also spilled out. That’s why I thought this time I will use the credit card method. Anyways I hate thermal paste 😀. But next time will do the blob again.

 

[JeffreyP55]

Drop a little turd in the middle of the CPU. Fancy application designs do nothing. A thin layer will transfer heat evenly between the CPU and heatsink.
Be careful which thermal paste compound you use. There is conductive and non-conductive thermal paste. Hands off the conductive mix.

 

[Aeacus]

Anyways I hate thermal paste 😀.

Well, there are always thermal pads that you can use. While most of them are thicker and have less thermal conductivity than thermal paste (which is much thinner and with better thermal conductivity), there are some good thermal pads for CPUs as well.

E.g Thermal Grizzly Carbonaut: https://www.thermal-grizzly.com/en/carbonaut/s-tg-ca
or Thermal Grizzly KryoSheet: https://www.thermal-grizzly.com/en/kryosheet/s-tg-ks-24-12

Carbonaut isn't electrically conductive and it is suitable to use with desktop CPUs as well.
KryoSheet IS electrically conductive and great care must be taken to use it. It is usually used in laptops due to those needing far better cooling (thermal transfer) than desktop PCs.

Standard thermal pads are used usually in GPUs (e.g over memory), where there are varying height of components, that all need to make contact with cold plate. Thermal pad is then a good option to level them all against cold plate.