Question Is this too much thermal paste?

[DellDude85]

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Way too much. Shouldn't be but a grain of rice size bit in the middle. You only want to fill the microscopic pits in the two surfaces, not insulate them from each other.

 

[Countess_C]

Testers have put way more thermal paste than that and it didn't affect the cooling performance in any negative way.

Personally I spread the paste evenly on the CPU to be sure all of it is covered. A "grain of rice" of paste is too little. 2/3 of what you've got there should be good, I think.

 

[rubix_1011]

As someone that puts thermal compound on CPUs on a weekly basis while testing CPU coolers, that is maybe a little more than I would use...probably 50%-60% of that is enough.

Of course, when the cooler is mounted and properly secured, the excess paste should be pushed out the sides and will just sit on the flip up mounting bracket. If the thermal paste is conductive and this seeps out onto the motherboard, you of course have shorting issues to contend with.

 

[antiglobal]

The grain of "insert vegetable here" is BS. That way only the half of the surface area will be covered, if not less.

Put the paste on, use folded paper to spread it on the whole surface of the CPU, place the heatsink.

Something like this (but a thinner layer): https://linustechtips.com/main/uplo...humb.jpg.f09541d244602393c466f375b14d4571.jpg

The excess will be pushed out to the sides, and will not cause any negative effects (it will stuck to the heatsink).

 

[rubix_1011]

The grain of "insert vegetable here" is BS. That way only the half of the surface area will be covered, if not less.

For one, rice is not a vegetable, but that is just me being facetious.

I've always used the droplet method and have nearly always seen good coverage as long as the heatsink is well-designed and applies even pressure to the CPU IHS.