[SOLVED] My New Thermal Paste Strategy

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dugt

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May 18, 2021
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Watching several videos about applying thermal paste gave me an idea on how to solve the problems of too little or too much paste. It seems to me that voids, or, pockets of little or no paste, are the worst case scenario. On the other hand, too much paste oozing over the sides might be the second biggest concern.

After applying paste, why not inspect your work? After applying the paste and installing the heat sink, why not remove the heat sink and check for voids or excess paste? Then you could add a little paste to the middle of the voids, clean up any excess paste, and put the heat sink back on knowing there aren't any serious problems. If it looks real bad, you might find it best to clean off the paste and do it over again knowing that you should have applied more or less paste the first time.

Is there a good reason not to do this? Waste of time and paste are two possible reasons but I have lots of both.
 
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dugt said:
Is there a good reason not to do this?
Click to expand...
1. It serves no purpose. What it might look like after you pulled the CPU off is not what it looks like when the CPU is on.

2. It introduces MORE air pockets and inconsistency.

3. The heat of CPU is part of the process. It liquefies it a bit more, to spread into the micropits.
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I always did like this during the past 20 years.

Never remove the heat-sink once you put it down, or you have to wipe the paste clean then do it all over again.


IMG-20210225-105110.jpg
 
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dugt said:
Watching several videos about applying thermal paste gave me an idea on how to solve the problems of too little or too much paste. It seems to me that voids, or, pockets of little or no paste, are the worst case scenario. On the other hand, too much paste oozing over the sides might be the second biggest concern.

After applying paste, why not inspect your work? After applying the paste and installing the heat sink, why not remove the heat sink and check for voids or excess paste? Then you could add a little paste to the middle of the voids, clean up any excess paste, and put the heat sink back on knowing there aren't any serious problems. If it looks real bad, you might find it best to clean off the paste and do it over again knowing that you should have applied more or less paste the first time.

Is there a good reason not to do this? Waste of time and paste are two possible reasons but I have lots of both.
Click to expand...
"Good reason" is that you would end up with even more air pockets as paste doesn't stay at only one side and there is no way to set cooler back to exact place. At most you could clean paste of cooler and ad more paste if needed after you use "credit card method" to even paste on CPU.
 
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dugt said:
Why would you have to remove perfectly good new paste?
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Because when you remove the head sink, the paste is spread out on both sides, if you merge them it's will be a real mess.

dugt said:
These guys don't recommend the single dot method:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaxBYrZFJZM
Click to expand...

The true is that the paste takes a while to spread evenly after the heat-sink is locked in place.

The importance is the quantity of paste you use, not how many dots you make.
 
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dugt said:
Is there a good reason not to do this?
Click to expand...
1. It serves no purpose. What it might look like after you pulled the CPU off is not what it looks like when the CPU is on.

2. It introduces MORE air pockets and inconsistency.

3. The heat of CPU is part of the process. It liquefies it a bit more, to spread into the micropits.
 
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Solution
For me, the multi-dots and credit card method is also a myth 😀

But you can use a thermal pad instead, you cut it to fit your CPU and you are good to go. Factory-assembled computers usually use pre-cut thermal pads for a clean and quick operation.
 
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Now I think removing the heatsink to check for complete coverage is unnecessary as long as you use enough paste. Since the single glob in the middle of the chip method has been popular, obviously the paste spreads out a lot when the CPU heats up. But ,with that method, the paste has a long way to go to get to the four corners, especially on the new bigger LGA1700 chip.

I've decided to use paste in a thin X from corner to corner and with a small dot in each bare triangle. That should give good coverage with a little emphasis in the middle.
 
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Anyway I didn't watch the first Youtube clip as they make me watch two advertising clips first (1 minute each).

It seems that folks on Youtube want to make things more complicated than it should be just for generating as much views and watch time as possible.
 
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dugt said:
Watching several videos about applying thermal paste gave me an idea on how to solve the problems of too little or too much paste. It seems to me that voids, or, pockets of little or no paste, are the worst case scenario. On the other hand, too much paste oozing over the sides might be the second biggest concern.

After applying paste, why not inspect your work? After applying the paste and installing the heat sink, why not remove the heat sink and check for voids or excess paste? Then you could add a little paste to the middle of the voids, clean up any excess paste, and put the heat sink back on knowing there aren't any serious problems. If it looks real bad, you might find it best to clean off the paste and do it over again knowing that you should have applied more or less paste the first time.

Is there a good reason not to do this? Waste of time and paste are two possible reasons but I have lots of both.
Click to expand...
No science here. Clean the old stuff off with 70% or better Isopropyl Alcohol. Drop a little turd in the middle of the CPU and call it a day.
 
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dugt said:
Now I think removing the heatsink to check for complete coverage is unnecessary as long as you use enough paste. Since the single glob in the middle of the chip method has been popular, obviously the paste spreads out a lot when the CPU heats up. But ,with that method, the paste has a long way to go to get to the four corners, especially on the new bigger LGA1700 chip.

I've decided to use paste in a thin X from corner to corner and with a small dot in each bare triangle. That should give good coverage with a little emphasis in the middle.
Click to expand...
The parts of the processor that need cooling are in the center of the chip.
The danger of using too much paste is that when under heat and pressure, some will ooze out into the socket.
That is bad, particularly when you are using conductive metallic pastes.

In theory, the problem with separate lines/blobs is that when the paste flows and the lines meet, a bit of air can get trapped.

It really is quite hard to use too little.

Don't overthink this.
If your idle temperatures are about 10-15c.(a bit more for ryzen) over ambient, the paste and the mount is working as it should.
 
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geofelt said:
The parts of the processor that need cooling are in the center of the chip.
The danger of using too much paste is that when under heat and pressure, some will ooze out into the socket.
That is bad, particularly when you are using conductive metallic pastes.

In theory, the problem with separate lines/blobs is that when the paste flows and the lines meet, a bit of air can get trapped.

It really is quite hard to use too little.

Don't overthink this.
If your idle temperatures are about 10-15c.(a bit more for ryzen) over ambient, the paste and the mount is working as it should.
Click to expand...
My 5950x idles at 41c. That is 10 degrees hotter than my 5600x. Like said newer fast CPU's burn the power.
 
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geofelt said:
The parts of the processor that need cooling are in the center of the chip.
The danger of using too much paste is that when under heat and pressure, some will ooze out into the socket.
That is bad, particularly when you are using conductive metallic pastes.

In theory, the problem with separate lines/blobs is that when the paste flows and the lines meet, a bit of air can get trapped.

It really is quite hard to use too little.

Don't overthink this.
If your idle temperatures are about 10-15c.(a bit more for ryzen) over ambient, the paste and the mount is working as it should.
Click to expand...

I get the concept of how bubbles or voids could form but I'm believe this guy who says they don't. Bubbles don't form and pumping happens...

A few recent tests seem to lean toward going back to the credit card, smear it out smooth method. I don't want to list a bunch of you tube videos and it probably doesn't matter as long as you use enough paste but if you believe the bubble theory, you might want to watch the video above.
 
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dugt said:
I get the concept of how bubbles or voids could form but I'm believe this guy who says they don't. Bubbles don't form and pumping happens...

A few recent test seem to lean toward going back to the credit card, smear it out smooth method. I don't want to list a bunch of you tube videos and it probably doesn't matter as long as you use enough paste but if you believe the bubble theory, you might want to watch the video above.
Click to expand...
I remember in the late 19xx and 200x, lapping the the CPU. All overkill. Bubbles?
 
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dugt said:
I get the concept of how bubbles or voids could form but I'm believe this guy who says they don't. Bubbles don't form and pumping happens...

A few recent test seem to lean toward going back to the credit card, smear it out smooth method. I don't want to list a bunch of you tube videos and it probably doesn't matter as long as you use enough paste but if you believe the bubble theory, you might want to watch the video above.
Click to expand...
Not really a wrong way or right way to do it depending on what you use.

Most people don't realize how little you actually need all it has to do is fill in the imperfections in the mating of the cooler and CPU surface. If you look at coolers that have it pre applied not much is used at all.

Also no air bubbles unless part of the paste was dried out already.
EDIT if the cooler surface was really bad for some reason I guess a air bubble could be possible.
 
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I'll throw this video in here since there isn't another video like it (or at least the YouTube algorithm isn't coming up with anything)

The takeaway I found from this is most of the common methods people suggest (pea drop, X pattern, line pattern, spread) are fine, but don't use a method that mostly surrounds a spot with thermal paste, as it has potential for voids to form. Also there's no such thing as "too much" thermal paste. It's a "fluid" more or less, any excess will simply ooze out from the mounting pressure between the heat sink and the heat spreader. Also the goal isn't 100% coverage, but covering at least where the dies really are.

Given this, sticking with the most common methods there isn't really a need to check your work. You can do it if you want, but it's simply an extra step.
 
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