What will happen if we don't have Thermal Paste?

[Dinosauce]

What will happen I'm using a hyper evo 212 and will it come with a thermal paste?

 

[byza]

Yes it will come with paste.

 

[Dinosauce]

Oh is it good enough? The paste that comes with it?

 

[byza]

Yes it's decent paste. I like to stick the paste in an air/water tight bag and put it in warm water for about 10 minutes to warm it up so it spreads easier when you attach the cooler. Make sure your hands and everything is try before you apply the paste, you won't want water anywhere near the motherboard or CPU.

 

[Dinosauce]

Thanks 😀

 

[christopherjames]

What will happen I'm using a hyper evo 212 and will it come with a thermal paste?

Not applying thermal paste would be like running your car without any motor oil.

 

[byza]

What will happen I'm using a hyper evo 212 and will it come with a thermal paste?

Not applying thermal paste would be like running your car without any motor oil.

I know someone who wanted to change their oil, so they drained it, then realised they didn't have any new oil so they jumped in their car to drive to the shops. They didn't get far :lol:

 

[Pinhedd]

Yes it's decent paste. I like to stick the paste in an air/water tight bag and put it in warm water for about 10 minutes to warm it up so it spreads easier when you attach the cooler. Make sure your hands and everything is try before you apply the paste, you won't want water anywhere near the motherboard or CPU.

That's a neat trick, but it's unnecessary. If the cooler is attached with proper force on the mounting springs the paste will spread itself out when the CPU warms up for the first time.

 

[byza]

Yeah it's not necessary but the Cooler Master paste is a bit more viscus than some other pastes so it does help it spread initially for better contact.

 

[Davil]

I wouldn't necessary liken running a car engine with no oil to using a cooler with no paste. The purpose of the paste is just to fill in the tiny gaps between the metal so that heat transfers more efficiently. If you have 2 surfaces that are fairly smooth touching with enough pressure should do just fine, really if they were perfectly smooth no thermal paste would be ideal.

 

[byza]

You are right that it will run without paste and if they were perfectly smooth you wouldn't need paste, but cpu's will still ususally overheat pretty quickly without paste, especially if you load them at all. It's really more like running a car without any fluid in the radiator. It won't necessarily seize and would survive very short runs but it's going to overheat if used for any length of time.

 

[randomizer]

That analogy doesn't work either because the fluid is the primary mechanism for transferring heat to the radiator, but thermal paste simply improves (or impedes) heat transfer.

 

[Pinhedd]

I wouldn't necessary liken running a car engine with no oil to using a cooler with no paste. The purpose of the paste is just to fill in the tiny gaps between the metal so that heat transfers more efficiently. If you have 2 surfaces that are fairly smooth touching with enough pressure should do just fine, really if they were perfectly smooth no thermal paste would be ideal.

Perfectly smooth would be very, very bad.

Two perfectly smooth surfaces of metal that are brought into contact will weld together. This is called cold welding.

 

[jmanusa6]

No need to spread the thermal paste, just invites possible air pockets. Just a small pee sized dot in the middle of the cpu and carefully mount the heat sink without letting move around to much.

 

[Dinosauce]

So where should I ut it in the middle, two lines, or spread it out?

 

[Pinhedd]

So where should I ut it in the middle, two lines, or spread it out?

A small pea sized dab in the middle. Apply heat sink. Secure firmly. Enjoy

 

[byza]

So where should I ut it in the middle, two lines, or spread it out?

A small pea sized dab in the middle. Apply heat sink. Secure firmly. Enjoy

I prefer the single dab in the middle method too.

Cold welding would actually be ideal for heat transfer, just would be a pain as you couldn't change the cooler.

Given that most coolers aren't actually that smooth, thermal paste is the primary method of heat transfer between the heat spreader and the cpu cooler. Also heat spreaders tend to be slightly convex or concave, so again thermal paste is needed to fill that gap.

 

[Davil]

One small dot in the middle is the easiest way for sure. I prefer to spread the paste and it works just as well if not better at times. Some pastes actually require you to spread them. You shouldn't really be able to trap air in the paste either if you're applying the appropriate amount of pressure or if you just place it on, rotate it slightly each way and clamp it down.