[SOLVED] Thermal Paste + CPU Question ?

[Dylan Beckett]

Hello

I am putting together my new 12700K build and I’m a little nervous as I’ve never had to Paste and mount a CPU before.

I’ve seen various videos with strongly opposing opinions on how to/how not to apply the thermal paste before you clamp down the CPU… but I have a question.

My understanding is that they give you at least twice as much thermal paste as you’ll actually need – in case you stuff up? As long as I lay down some soft plastic or something to really protect the surface of the motherboard around the CPU Block…. Is there any reason I can’t apply ALL OF THE thermal paste?

Spread it all out evenly, flattened out like icing on a cake. Then gently place the CPU down, clamp it and clean up all the excess that will squish out?

AS long as I try to keep it super level and press it down gently - wouldn’t this be the most surefire way to ensure the most uniform proper thermal paste distribution possible?

I’ve seen so many videos where they pull up old CPU’s or GPU’s etc and the thermal paste is never uniformly flat across the whole surface – it’s awfully irregular with huge areas totally bare or as good as.

So – what do you think – good/bad idea? What would you suggest I do for my first paste job?

I’m also curious – will the paste that comes with the CPU be ok to use or do I really need to buy something else? If so – what is good value but good quality? How much roughly should it cost?


Cheers!

 

[Lafong]

When you look at it after its been used for a while, it will rarely have covered the entire surface. It doesn't need to.

What are they giving you? A tube of paste? Something else?

The natural inclination is to use too much. More of anything "good" is better than less, right?

If in doubt, buy a small tube. It's like 10 bucks and is good for quite a few pastes. Arctic Silver is the old standby. Noctua is good. Of course, you'll be led to believe you are a fool if you don't use brand X. They are all within a fairly narrow range.

I normally use a dot in the middle, between the size of a BB and a green pea. I don't spread it at all. Let the cooler pressure and heat when in use do that.

Don't get wound up about it. As long as you don't use way too much or way too little, you should be within the margin of error...maybe 5 degrees. Close enough.

Do take care to confine it to the CPU. If you use too much, it may squish out.

If any squishes out, you've clearly used too much. Err on the side of too little. You can always redo it with a little more if unsatisfied, but dealing with too much is an ordeal.

Some paste is tackier than others. Might be like mayonnaise. Might be like jam. Might be like peanut butter.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

make sure the Dark Rock cooler doesn't already have a thermal pad or paste pre-applied.

if manually applying;
use just about the size of a pea, slightly less usually.

most pastes are okay to overdo a bit.
unless they are based on some conductive material some spilling over the edge won't do any damage, but may be difficult to clean up later.

be quiet! is a very high quality manufacturer so i would imagine their included paste would be more than adequate.

but if looking for a 3rd party paste;
Tom's Best Thermal Pastes 2021

i have used the ProlimaTech PK-3 on my latest build and it dropped temps a few degrees vs my old Arctic Silver 5.

 

[geofelt]

What is your cooler?

No, do not use all of the paste!
If you do, it will ooze out and make a mess of things.
The extra should be good for several remounts .

The paste that comes with a cooler is fine.
Differences in pastes are minor.
A small drop in the middle will spread out under heat and pressure.
A small drop or bead allows this to happen without trapping any air bubbles.

The purpose of paste is to fill in microscopic air pits in the mating surfaces.
Air is a poor conductor of heat; paste is better.
But, paste is not as good as metal to metal contact so the less paste the better.

Remove the mylar protective covering from the base of the cooler.
When clamping down, do so evenly.
Tighten the screws a bit at a time to get the cooler to seat evenly.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Put about corn kernel or pea size blob in the middle as mentioned, then install the heat sink. Alternatively you can use a credit card or similar and spread it around the heat spreader of the CPU.

Ultimately though, the bare minimum you should have is a circle that touches the edges of the heat spreader. You can mount the heat sink, wait a bit, then remove it to verify if you want. Do not worry about having "too much" so to speak, as if you apply sufficient mounting pressure, the paste will just ooze out. This is obviously a problem if you don't want a mess or are using something like liquid metal. But most recommended pastes these days are electrically non conductive.

 

[Dylan Beckett]

Thank you all for your help with this...

I've seen more videos and now I'm thinking maybe I should do a two step process....

A) spread a very thin layer over the entire surface as suggested above.... and then
B) Also do the pea/blob?

What do you think?

Shouldn't be too much ooze and I can cover the edges to prepare for that?


Particularly useful points from above...

make sure the Dark Rock cooler doesn't already have a thermal pad or paste pre-applied.

unless they are based on some conductive material some spilling over the edge won't do any damage, but may be difficult to clean up later.

be quiet! is a very high quality manufacturer so i would imagine their included paste would be more than adequate.

Remove the mylar protective covering from the base of the cooler.

Cheers

 

[Lafong]

A) spread a very thin layer over the entire surface as suggested above.... and then
B) Also do the pea/blob?

What do you think?

Shouldn't be too much ooze and I can cover the edges to prepare for that?

What do I think?

Not much.

Why complicate issues or dream up procedures?

Standard newbie procedure is to use too much. More of anything good is always better, right?

If anything oozes, you used too much by definition.

 

[hotaru.hino]

A) spread a very thin layer over the entire surface as suggested above.... and then
B) Also do the pea/blob?

What do you think?

Do one or the other. If you want to verify the application, remove the heat sink after mounting it in place (e.g., screwing it down or clipping it on) and verify that you have at the minimum a vaguely circle blotch that touches the edges.

 

[geofelt]

A two step process may well allow air bubbles.
A small drop is sufficient.
Under heat and pressure, it will spread out.
It need not end up covering the full die.
The heat generating parts of the cpu are in the middle.
It really is hard to use too little.

 

[Dylan Beckett]

A new question then my reaction to above...

I think I'm going to just go with spreading it thinly with some credit card type thing....
However, I kind of forgot to think about what to spread it on with?

Any suggestions for a good DIY solution that you might have around the house?

I don't think I have any old bank cards as I cut them up... but I would have thought something thinner with a little bit of flex might be better anyway?

I want to do it pretty soon now but not sure what to use - I don't want to waste the paste/mess it up and need to go buy more.


@Lafong
@hotaru.hino
@geofelt

Thanks for your info above....

Do one or the other. If you want to verify the application, remove the heat sink after mounting it in place (e.g., screwing it down or clipping it on) and verify that you have at the minimum a vaguely circle blotch that touches the edges.

Dude - isn't that a terrible idea? You'll mess it all up and have extra layers in some spots, all of it ripped off others?

A two step process may well allow air bubbles.

Yeah I think you're right there. Your comment pushed me over the edge - I'll just spread it on evenly with the card thing!


Thanks guys


Cheers

 

[geofelt]

How evenly can you spread using a card?
That is why I advocate the single drop method.
It is the easiest to do.
But, opinions vary and really, any method works reasonably well.

 

[alceryes]

Hello

I am putting together my new 12700K build and I’m a little nervous as I’ve never had to Paste and mount a CPU before.

I’ve seen various videos with strongly opposing opinions on how to/how not to apply the thermal paste before you clamp down the CPU… but I have a question.

My understanding is that they give you at least twice as much thermal paste as you’ll actually need – in case you stuff up? As long as I lay down some soft plastic or something to really protect the surface of the motherboard around the CPU Block…. Is there any reason I can’t apply ALL OF THE thermal paste?

Spread it all out evenly, flattened out like icing on a cake. Then gently place the CPU down, clamp it and clean up all the excess that will squish out?

AS long as I try to keep it super level and press it down gently - wouldn’t this be the most surefire way to ensure the most uniform proper thermal paste distribution possible?

I’ve seen so many videos where they pull up old CPU’s or GPU’s etc and the thermal paste is never uniformly flat across the whole surface – it’s awfully irregular with huge areas totally bare or as good as.

So – what do you think – good/bad idea? What would you suggest I do for my first paste job?

I’m also curious – will the paste that comes with the CPU be ok to use or do I really need to buy something else? If so – what is good value but good quality? How much roughly should it cost?


Cheers!

1. Pea-sized ball is the maximum you should use but you don't even need that much.
2. Spread it out very thinly NOT thick like the icing on a cake.
3. Do NOT leave anything on the motherboard around the socket like 'soft plastic or something'.
4. Once you place the heatsink on the CPU you should immediately clamp it down. You do NOT take it back off to clean up residual spill over TIM. When the TIM is spread properly, your best seal will be your first seal.
5. If you take the heatsink off after your initial seal the TIM will deform due to surface tension, adhesion, and cohesion. (see 4). It will naturally look uneven.
6. There shouldn't be much if any TIM squished out the sides (see 1) but, if you can get to it with the heatsink in the way, without the potential of just spreading it around more or to other components, then go ahead and clean it up. Otherwise just leave it.
7. The OEM TIM is usually sub-standard. You will probably lose a couple/few degrees cooling potential (which is no big deal) and you will need to replace it sooner because of drying out (a bigger deal).

 

[hotaru.hino]

Dude - isn't that a terrible idea? You'll mess it all up and have extra layers in some spots, all of it ripped off others?

No, the purpose of TIM is to fill in the air pockets between the microscopic imperfections of the heat spreader and heat sink. Sure, you could argue you could lose some of that pulling the heat sink off, but I doubt it's measurable enough to matter. If anything, you could just get something like a credit card and spread it around again.

The purpose of the test is to verify the amount you put down is sufficient enough once the heat sink is mounted.

 

[Zerk2012]

A new question then my reaction to above...

I think I'm going to just go with spreading it thinly with some credit card type thing....
However, I kind of forgot to think about what to spread it on with?

Any suggestions for a good DIY solution that you might have around the house?

I don't think I have any old bank cards as I cut them up... but I would have thought something thinner with a little bit of flex might be better anyway?

I want to do it pretty soon now but not sure what to use - I don't want to waste the paste/mess it up and need to go buy more.


@Lafong
@hotaru.hino
@geofelt

Thanks for your info above....



Dude - isn't that a terrible idea? You'll mess it all up and have extra layers in some spots, all of it ripped off others?




Yeah I think you're right there. Your comment pushed me over the edge - I'll just spread it on evenly with the card thing!


Thanks guys


Cheers

1st Don't listen to anybody that tells you to remove the cooler, look at it and reinstall it, this can trap air bubbles never do that! It's fine if you just would like to look but then clean it all off and reapply.

2nd your way overthinking a simple process, pea size paste in the middle, everything is fine.

3rd their 100% no reason to buy extra paste, most of the high dollar paste dries up quicker than stock paste. I have never had to change paste on a CPU cooler and been doing this longer than a lot of people here are old.

4th your going to need to get this.
https://www.bequiet.com/en/contact/lga1700mounting

EDIT on 4th you were going to use the pro 4 cooler correct?

 

[boju]

Trouble with pea in middle, if you're not dead on straight with heatsink the paste will start spreading in some other direction you don't want and won't be centred. It's a chance you take. Can make sure by spreading yourself, no issue doing it that way if you want. Several builds i did it that way, i7 920 oc 4ghz noctua d12, 2600k 4.5 noctua d14, 11600k noctua d15 & 2x 11400 noctua 12a, default turbo. idle temps mid 20s, ibt stress between 78~81c for all builds.

I spread it using glad rap on finger pulled tight for smooth surface. Small pea size drop covers all over (lga 1200 size ihs). I don't go to complete edge of ihs, leaving a mm or so to allow room for extra spread if any.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Everyone says "don't pull up the heat sink to verify if the spread is good!" or "if you remove the heat sink, you must clean off the thermal paste and re-apply it, or the cooling performance suffers!", but I haven't seen any actual evidence that this happens to such a degree where it's harmful. So I decided to go look up if anyone did test this out

tl;dw what I can glean from this is using freshly applied thermal paste, you can pull off the heat sink for a peek to see if the coverage is good.

And now that I remembered, I did this on my current machine because the paste I used pumped out and I wanted to make sure the new stuff had good coverage. And half a year later, the CPU (Ryzen 5600X) can run a Cinebench 23 and sit around 62C in a 23C room, using an Arctic Freezer 34 Duo. I think peeking at the spread didn't really do it any harm.

If it helps you sleep better at night, by all means, clean and replace the paste every time you remove the heat sink regardless of the circumstances.