How to Best Apply Thermal Paste

“Pea” works for me too, I think I will stick to that method 👍🏻👍🏻🙏🏻

Is it possible to utilize a Q-Tip to evenly distribute the paste onto the CPU initially?

I recommend to try phase-change material Honeywell PTM7950. It comes as a sheet and you don't have to mess around with any applying dots, dashes or crosses. Just cut out a piece the size of the IHS/core and stick it on. Also don't have to worry about whether the paste is too little or too much - it will be just right. In addition, it lasts longer, performs works better than traditional pastes and there is no pump-out effect.

Note to the world do not use a thermal pad trust me the damage was not a good one. So i used the smile face, Just because i could.

The test does not represent the reality, because when we screw, we don't have 4, 8 hands to screw at the same time.

Considering the corners were always the bits that were short on compound I would have liked to have seen an "X" tested to see if that solved the issue or if it caused too much over spill

no x method?

thanks for your video. I had to fix hubby's computer and had no idea what I was doing, all I knew was the cpu fan wasn't doing its job due to an overheat error so I bought a new one, I was a bit nervous about the thermal paste thing. Thanks again so much!

Thank you very much for this video, very useful :)

With the line method what about trying 2 lines instead.

i have best results with an X

very good video, great idea with the glass

Thank you fantastic.

thank you for the info. going to do this for the first time and it really gave me a sense of what to expect. Thank you so!

I have an old Thinkpad which started crashing while gaming. No jerking or anything. Simply crashes. Opened it up an notice the CPU has heat compound/sink attached but the GPU-plate which is like 5mm away isn't connected. Many teardown videos of the same model re-confirm this is by design and not a manufacturing defect. One would hv thought GPU r the largest heat producer so it too would be included into the heat-sink-away-apparatus.
Finally my question - what would happen if i put a little extra paste so as to include the GPU into the heat-away-scheme ?

I think ALL of u are missed the very basic. In the demo we use kinda equal pressure on the glass, thus causing even spreading. In reality though remember we either screw-on and/or clamp the heat sinks. While installing the sinks the unequal pressure is going to make the paste spread unreliably. So STOP wasting time on the the pattern.

This is what i suggest. Spread very very little paste on the entire CPU-plate for full coverage. Then put a mirco drop in the center (and else where if u wish). Now install the heat sink.

When u hv full coverage of the cpu-plate the paste conducts the heat away which is way better than air or even direct metal-to-metal contact. The last micro drops ensure there is room for the plates to micro expand/contract. Never screw/clamp tightly !

PS - this is purely based on my practical knowledge and i have never done this. So try this and let the whole world know n gain from it :)

Hello,

I tried all kinds of methods, the best results i've had was in the following way:

Take the cooler and spread compound with a spatula on the contact area, where the cooler's heatsink would be touching the CPU, but i always leave like 1mm gap to the margin, due it spreading under pressure.

Why? because thats what is important, the heat transfer, if you for example spread the paste on the entire CPU case, but u have a smaller contact heatsink area on the cooler, its gonna retain heat in the thermal compound that isn't touching the heatsink, instead of being cooled off by the cooler's ventilator.

Hope you guys get what i'm trying to say, try it out, never failed me and as a plus you get to spare some compound too.

Remember 1 thing tho, having not enough paste is worse than having too much (although ofc having exageraged amounts is also bad), so give it a few tries until u get the right amount, start with very small amount, place it, lift it up and then adding just a tat more where it needs, you'll be fine.

I own Asus G513qy advantage edition with RX6800M and Ryzen 5900HX. Currently I have Grlid VC Extreme on CPu and GPu. GPU max hotspot was 103c and after last repaste max hotspot 99c (mostly 98c max), and cpu maxing 97c. And yes Asus stock LM paste was going to 102c gpu Hotspot!

I think in some months try repaste again and hopefully have better luck with bit better Temps.

I made amazon order for two products I read should be good:

1. Syy157 (8 grams)
2. ICEBERG THERMAL PLUS (7 Grams)

I think go hybrid one for gpu and one for cpu, what you would suggest? Which to use on what die?

Your honest help appreciated!

All methods used here have too much material used. A small pea is all you need. You dont want to much because when you tighten down it will leak more then the push glass method shown here. Dont want that stuff dripping over the edge at all. But I like the glass showing us the spread it really helps see it. artic freezer doesnt even cover full cpu and has insane cooling results. They state no need to cover entire chip.

he ho cyberpunk, la !

I always started with a blob in the middle and used my finger wrapped in a plastic bag to spread the paste consistently over the chip. Using a bit of pressure to ensure the compound fills any small imperfections in the surface of the chip.

Does it matter if the whole chip is covered?

Good video! 💯

you didn’t use the X!

A good video showing different methods and the results, but you still have people complaining that you are doing it wrong.

I always see great methods but like the dot, the X, the spreader seem to push the thermal pasted over the GPU. Is that okay? Even if it’s a little bit?

I have always spread it as thin as I could across the whole cpu. never had a problem

When you apply new paste can you remove the heatsink to see if it spread evenly and when you do have reapply it? I heard that you repply the paste everytime you remove the heatsink

Some CPU cooler comes with pre-applied thermal paste. why not try to put the paste on the cooler rather than the CPU itself, so you can have full coverage of the cooling surface.

You're doing nothing. What if I don't apply paste at all? It does nothing. The layer is too thick. Thank you for reading.

need to see the X method will be nice :)

Rectangular shaped CPU Die - Line Method, covers the die more in length wise & little in breadth wise.

Square Shaped - X or Pea or 5 Dots,
Covers the die from center to outwards in circle shape.

Spread Method is too time consuming & Messy ,lot of thermal paste is just stuck on spreader - not good when you have very less thermal paste available.

Thanks for the video !!

Very nice video. Thanks.

25 years ago I was taught that too much thermal paste was worse than none at all. I never questioned that axiom but realize now that I should have. I would have appreciated a comment on the downside of using too much. Thanks for the content.

If you put too much on, it will only be a problem if you ever have to take the heatsink off. I did put too much on and 2 years later when I had to upgrade the CPU cooler, it stuck to the heatsink an thermal paste got all over the pins. How fun it is to clean it all off. If you don't use enough, your PC will shut down from over heating.

5 dots seem to be the best method without risk of air bubbles. I personally do a single sized dot in the middle, and 4 smaller ones at the corners.

sad face? Cross?

Did you really just cover the shit up with a glass slab and called it a day you lazy pos!!

Why not an
x shape diagonal

I still can’t see through the glass!

im going to do an X next time i spread.

In all honesty there is not a lot of difference between the top 5 methods in regards to temperature ratings, guess it really boils down to your own preferential choice, some say depends on what your using the processor for gaming video editing or lesser hard working applications, also another big factor is your compound your using, why skimp and risk blowing up your processor just buy a decent Compound like Thermal Grizzly or Artic MX-4.

" X "

You forgot an X method

It's a nice test.. but it would be nice to see the pressure put on the cpu at this point..
Because if you tighten it more (inscrease the pressure on it) it spreads more....

It would be nice to have a mountable bracket with glass where you could always tighten it the same way (have the same pressure on the CPU)..

Hand pressure is always different so the test has this flaw but otherwise good video.

Your test is meaningless if you're not going to fasten the glass down to the same spec as a heatsink would be.
Plus, temperature testing is the only test that matters.

What I do is I kind of do a smiley face except where the eyes are theirs another mouth so like this in a way (-)

:)