Thermal Paste Spread Under Glass

How long does thermal paste last once you have used it once, eg I have a tube about 2 or 3 years old

Great test idea
I always wondered how much Thermal paste there is out there in the whole world in half used tubes!

I really think you should be using acrylic that you can screw into the mounts, and perhaps thicker so there's less flex to it. I can't say for sure but I doubt you're applying as much force to is as a fully mounted cooler is applying to the surface of the CPU... I'm not sure that the results would be different but the fact that it takes that much effort to spread that much thermal paste across the CPU plate says to me that you're probably not getting anywhere near the amount of force that's actually being applied when you mount a cooler, you shouldn't need that much thermal paste to just barely cover everything. I imagine that just one pea size amount is capable of covering the entire surface of the CPU the pressure and forces being properly emulated.

My theory is that the pea size dot would actually spread across most of the CPU, leaving only the corners untouched.

Thank you so much! I was very scared of doing anything myself inside my laptop but it was overheating and wheezing recently, it just needed a good clean up and a bit of new paste. It took me forever (my sinks were attached with two big fans, it was a struggle) but finallyI managed to clean everything up, add new paste and now laptop is running quieter and doesn't get so freakishly hot. THANK YOU!

Way too much paste you applied for many of those methods.

I don't care what Steve from GN or what derbauer says. Manually spreading does create air pockets I seen it time and time again even from testing done by Puget Systems so I will always either go for the X or a bunch of random blobs.

This one is X! Because, it turns Squared.

I trust the X the most

Do a steric sign please.

iam always using the buttered toast but a little bit thicker.
and taking 10min of my time to spread it perfectly.

I drew a micron symbol on my cpu... still working.

I think you had buble in the centre because you press on class not in the centre but on the edges of glass so it bends

"Butter the toast, dollop the jam"

Incredibly helpful/interesting. The effect on temps is debatable, but it's still nice to have a better idea how well the paste is applied, simply a matter of OCD more than actual results. Very cool idea and very well illustrated to us! Thank you!

ppl still haven't figured out how to apply thermal paste just spread it over the whole CPU-GPU and that's it even if it's litle more all the excess will get pushed out but with applicator that comes with pastes you can make very thin application btw that's why all pastes come with applicators

Great idea using the transparent plexiglass for showing the thermal paste spread. Thank you

Hey Nick, X + Small Pea in the middle is the best , try it ;)

I swear I've seen a similar demonstration a long time ago.

I heard you saying the channel name and I was like what - the clitorite

Big takeaway for me on watching this video is I do not use enough thermal paste heh. I think as a new PCbuilder for me there was anxiety that I would screw it up or over do it and have thermal paste go all over. Love the video and thanks!

Well if you don’t care about getting thermal paste all over your board and socket then just throw a entire tube on there. While thermal paste is usually non conductive would you want to chance it with a 500+ cpu. I put some on install the AIO then take it off check the coverage then add a little more if needed.

After years and years the best is butter spread and tiny dot in the midle after the spread. With this metod you eliminate bubbles, make 100% coverage, and you will not question yourself if you did it correctly... and in 99.9% temperatures are lovest of all metodes...
PS: sorry for bad English ❤

X is the best method i see
and jam with a toast
also 1 arctic mx 4 tube worked for almost 4 times nice

Gotta redo all these with same methods, but lesser amount of paste.

🤟😎

I've been toaster all my life! Guess from now on I will be X-er

Great way to test. Doing the X right now!

If you create an X plus a small cross centered you get the best result. Noone is showing this.

I always spread the paste with a tool to get the perfect thickness and make sure it has complete coverage.

It makes a huge difference if your hope-and-splotch method doesn't get complete coverage. And by spreading yourself, you know you've done the job. No guesswork.

And the final time that happened to me, I tried lifting the cooler off the chip and nearly damaged the chip when there was enough adhesion to rip the chip out unexpectedly.

20 years of building PC's and fixing electronics, air bubbles do get captured and over time can push paste out when the gasses warm and expand but don't escape causing a cavity. Most the time the gasses do escape and you see little splatters of thermal paste where the gas escaped. Seen it plenty of times

With all that said, CPU's made in the last ~5 years are noticeably flatter than they where before. Older CPU's are almost comically wavy and can EASILY capture an air pocket

Seems like an X with dots in the wedges would be the way to go.

religious people are everywhere and insist on mystifying everything. Gym, running, guitar tuning photo processing, abso-bloody-lutely everything. As for this particular religious topic. 30 years ago we didn't have that problem. You just put a small dab of paste on the CPU, spread it with your finger to make sure it's even and thin, so there is no squeeze out when the radiatior's pressure comes in. Sorted. But now it's a bloody holly war over a thermal paste application...

i draw a vertical line with 2 balls at the bottom ...if u catch my drift ;)

X method is the clear winner but the buttered toast with a dollop of jam is also very good but requires a little more work.

So you actually don't need thermal paste?

Best patterns:
1. Medium dot
2. X
That's all

An x with dots in the quadrants is where it’s at, folks

I love my thermal paste to be a smiley face. :)

I can't help but cringe whenever I see people making a big deal about air bubbles. With all that pressure of a heatsink clamped down to the a CPU(which, by the way, is A LOT more than you get pushing the sides of a piece of glass with your bare hands), it's just not really a thing... Moreover, if there are ever some air bubbles left, those will expand and find their way out as the CPU will get hot. That's just how thermodynamics works, air(which is made of several gasses) expands when heated and want to get out.

Now for the methods of applying, we used the X method(not going all the way to the corners) when I had my computer business a few years ago. The reasons were that it was quick and easy to do, easy get consistent applications across multiple systems and between different technicians, it (usually) covers the whole heat spreader and also spreads fairly evenly across the surface.

I believe the large pea method will produce the most consistent results as far as spread is concerned. For beginners, I highly suggest using the pea method, it's the easiest and safest method IMO.

How about making a square ? Although it maight be less efficient than the X

A tiny line between IO and the 2 CCDs for ryzen works best effectively and economically.

A tiny line over rectangular die for Intel is also best economically and effectively.

The one needs to know what is actually under the CPU cap in order to apply methods above properly.

I use square method

Mam taki! I5 ,win 10, 16gb ddr3 i woasbie dokupiłem kolejne 16GB ddr3! Ciekawe jak będzie 😎

This paste is too watery, wonder how's it going to be with the thick