Was this the right amount of Thermal paste on 2011-ver3 E51650-3 and Noctual NH D15

[PeterZ640]

I was getting individual core temps of 32C to 33C after a few minutes and 36C to 37C after an hour running. (as seen on the Monitor page of Intels XTU prog.) and a Package Temp of 44C.

I followed Noctua's NH-1 thermal paste instructions of 4mm to 5 mm diam Pea in the centre, but measured about 4.5mm then made it slightly oblong to match the cooler heatsink shape.
( note 4.5mm was a guess of a little as possible but compensated as the 2011-3 CPU is a lot bigger than the iCore7 style shape.) place the cooler down, then roteated it either way a couple of times and bolted it down a few turns either side until it was 0.5 Nm torque - the springs on the cooler fixing frame were just compressed.

Do you think this was too much paste? Or just about right ?

There was no overspill around the CPU. But looks like a tiny build up where the Cooler face ended.

I thought it looked pretty good as is overed all the area consistently and covered each zone the heatsink pipes would have sat over.

Pics of CPU and Cooler IHS faces once removed:-

http://i1379.photobucket.com/albums/ah159/Submariner5DIII/1st%20Heatsink%20Tehrmal%20Paste/image_zps7rlgtlju.jpeg~original

http://i1379.photobucket.com/albums/ah159/Submariner5DIII/1st%20Heatsink%20Tehrmal%20Paste/image_zpsi2ynuscb.jpeg~original

Obviously I had to rotate it a bit to release it.

 

[CountMike]

As long as it doesn't leak over the edges it's quite enough. Center is most important because CPU core is directly under it. It's at most 15 x 15 mm and it's hottest there.