Question Thermal paste on CPU vs other components in laptop

[Kyo1156]

Hey, I'm replacing the heatsink in this laptop, but for some reason when I removed the old one, the contact points for thermal paste were all different colors and the CPU one looked like a weird texture. Take a look in the picture

Anyone know why this is? Do laptops do something special with the heatsink depending on which components its contacting? Or can I just use regular CPU thermal paste everywhere it was before?

Thanks a lot in advance 😀

 

[CountMike]

Hey, I'm replacing the heatsink in this laptop, but for some reason when I removed the old one, the contact points for thermal paste were all different colors and the CPU one looked like a weird texture. Take a look in the picture

Anyone know why this is? Do laptops do something special with the heatsink depending on which components its contacting? Or can I just use regular CPU thermal paste everywhere it was before?

Thanks a lot in advance 😀

Yes. in most cases at člleast some use different paste, Direct(exposed) die chips need thin paste, that one on top left looks like liquid metal. Memory and VRM chips and where there are several covered by same heat sink cant be all identical height so you need thicker paste or heat transfer pad,
Also look at underside of heat spreaders to see which kind of contact they made with chips,

 

[Kyo1156]

Yes. in most cases at člleast some use different paste, Direct(exposed) die chips need thin paste, that one on top left looks like liquid metal. Memory and VRM chips and where there are several covered by same heat sink cant be all identical height so you need thicker paste or heat transfer pad,
Also look at underside of heat spreaders to see which kind of contact they made with chips,

I see, thanks so much for the info. Could you elaborate a little more on the thick vs thin paste and the DIE chips/head spreaders? The laptop's heatsink is all one piece. In the photo, I've taken off the stock heatsink the laptop came with, and bought an identical one from the official manufacturer to replace with, so as long as I use the same pastes they used, shouldn't everything fit naturally?

 

[hotaru.hino]

Looking at this, the CPU is using a liquid metal TIM. If you cleaned it up, make sure you damn well cleaned it up because it could short something out. If you want to use a liquid metal TIM to replace it, I suggest Thermal Grizzly's Conductonaut.

Otherwise if you want a single thermal paste to use and not want to muck around with liquid metal TIMs, then you actually need a thicker paste. Why?

• The paste will expand and contract due to changing thermal loads. This can cause the paste to creep in something called pumping out. Thinner pastes pump out more easily than thicker ones.
• Laptop cooling solutions typically have a lower mounting pressure than desktop ones. This means there's less overall contact of the heat sink to the part which could allow the thermal paste to find more ways to creep out if given the opportunity.

So thermal pastes I recommend for replacement are either Arctic's MX-4 or Thermal Grizzly's Hydronaut. You might find reviews for say Thermal Grizzly's Kryonaut or Noctua's NT-H1 due to performance. Do not get these for your laptops as Kryonaut degrades at temperatures above 80C (which your laptop will likely hit still) and both are thinner pastes.

The VRM and VRAM chips need something like this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UTX7K2E/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1