Thermal Paste

[adsci]

Hi!

im somehow unsure on the correct usage of thermal paste on a processor
like the athlon 64 4000+ which has a big heatspreader on it.

in some howtos in the net it says:

a) put a small amount of paste on the middle of the processor and
install the heatsink (which will spread the paste to a circle under it)
http://www.arcticsilver.com/ceramique_instructions.htm

or in some others it says

b) put a small amount of paste on the middle of the processor,
distribute it on the processors top until its a thin film and install
the heatsink.
http://www.directron.com/p4install.html


both howtos are for pentium 4's

which is correct?
or better?

Thank You!

Marcel

 

[nos1eep]

It is further alleged that on or about Mon, 20 Feb 2006 19:08:26
+0100, in alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt, the queezy keyboard of adsci
<[email protected]> spewed the following:

|Hi!
|
|im somehow unsure on the correct usage of thermal paste on a processor
|like the athlon 64 4000+ which has a big heatspreader on it.

Put paste on both sufaces, spread thinly with a razor blade, install.
It doesn't take much, but be carefull and do not scratch the sufaces.

 

[Bob Knowlden]

I guess it depends.

The 4000+ is similar to a P4, as both have largish metal heat spreaders
covering the silicon.

For Arctic Silver,

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

I believe that Arctic Silver is more paste-like than their Ceramique
product. It flows less, and has to be spread more uniformly before
installing the heatsink. (It can also be quite sticky. Take care not to pull
the CPU right out of its socket if you ever need to remove the heatsink.
That might damage the CPU, by bending its pins or worse.)

One syringe of (plain old white) thermal compound I bought under the Cooler
Master name came with a blank credit card. That can be used like a single
edged razor blade, and it's much safer; it won't scratch the heatsink or CPU
heat spreader.

However you get there, the goal is to get the thinnest practical layer of
heatsink compound between the CPU heat spreader and the heatsink. The
compound has a higher thermal conductivity than air, but metal is much
better. Ideally, the heat spreader and the heatsink would be flat to
micrometer tolerances(micrometre, if you're not in the US), permitting
metal-to-metal contract, and you'd use no compound at all. That's not an
option for most of us, so a little goop fills the gap.


Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

 

[Brian K]

Hi!

im somehow unsure on the correct usage of thermal paste on a processor
like the athlon 64 4000+ which has a big heatspreader on it.

in some howtos in the net it says:

a) put a small amount of paste on the middle of the processor and
install the heatsink (which will spread the paste to a circle under it)
http://www.arcticsilver.com/ceramique_instructions.htm

or in some others it says

b) put a small amount of paste on the middle of the processor,
distribute it on the processors top until its a thin film and install
the heatsink.
http://www.directron.com/p4install.html


both howtos are for pentium 4's

which is correct?
or better?

Thank You!

Marcel

I have a nephew-in-law who is an IT guy. I recently asked him about
this and he said that thermal tape is better now. He's seen too many
processors meet an early end from gunged up thermal paste. Jeff told me
that the thermal tape is made better then it used to be. You just cut
off the size you need, peel of the release paper and apply to the
processor. The only thing I forgot to ask him is how expensive is a
roll of thermal tape, and what do you do with the surplus if your needs
are only for one machine?

--
________
To email me, Edit "blog" from my email address.
Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951

 

[Adagio]

Hi!

im somehow unsure on the correct usage of thermal paste on a processor
like the athlon 64 4000+ which has a big heatspreader on it.

in some howtos in the net it says:

a) put a small amount of paste on the middle of the processor and install
the heatsink (which will spread the paste to a circle under it)
http://www.arcticsilver.com/ceramique_instructions.htm

or in some others it says

b) put a small amount of paste on the middle of the processor, distribute
it on the processors top until its a thin film and install the heatsink.
http://www.directron.com/p4install.html


both howtos are for pentium 4's

which is correct?
or better?

Thank You!

Marcel

 

[Adagio]

Hi!

im somehow unsure on the correct usage of thermal paste on a processor
like the athlon 64 4000+ which has a big heatspreader on it.

in some howtos in the net it says:

a) put a small amount of paste on the middle of the processor and install
the heatsink (which will spread the paste to a circle under it)
http://www.arcticsilver.com/ceramique_instructions.htm

or in some others it says

b) put a small amount of paste on the middle of the processor, distribute
it on the processors top until its a thin film and install the heatsink.
http://www.directron.com/p4install.html


both howtos are for pentium 4's

which is correct?
or better?

Thank You!

Marcel

If you buy the processor + heatsink package the heatsink already has thermal
interface material on it. AMD do not recommend thermal grease.

David

 

[Adagio]

If you buy the processor + heatsink package the heatsink already has
thermal interface material on it. AMD do not recommend thermal grease.

David

PS See Thermal Interface Material Comparison: Thermal Pads vs. Thermal
Grease

Publication # 26951 Revision: 3.00

Issue Date: April 2004


Sorry about the first blank post!!

 

[Bob Day]

Hi!

im somehow unsure on the correct usage of thermal paste on a processor
like the athlon 64 4000+ which has a big heatspreader on it.

in some howtos in the net it says:

a) put a small amount of paste on the middle of the processor and
install the heatsink (which will spread the paste to a circle under it)
http://www.arcticsilver.com/ceramique_instructions.htm

I've never trusted that method. It seems to me that unless you get
the bottom of the heatsink exactly parallel to the CPU, the glob of
thermal paste will be squashed to one side, and not evenly over the
surface of the CPU.

or in some others it says

b) put a small amount of paste on the middle of the processor,
distribute it on the processors top until its a thin film and install
the heatsink.

That's what I do, although spreading Arctic Silver 5 takes a little
effort, but it's always worked very well.

-- Bob Day
http://bobday.vze.com

 

[adsci]

I've never trusted that method. It seems to me that unless you get the
bottom of the heatsink exactly parallel to the CPU, the glob of
thermal paste will be squashed to one side, and not evenly over the
surface of the CPU.

hehe, i dont trust that method too my main problem is that i cant
really check how it worked out after installing the heatsink (because
when i do the advantage of the method is gone - lower chance of air
bubbles).

that makes me a bad feeling while pressing the power button...