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 Post subject: thermal grease application. Suggested method?
PostPosted: Tue 06-16-2009 8:39PM 
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I'm wondering if anyone has a preferred method of applying thermal paste to a CPU and heat sink. I've got an HDT (Heat-pipe Direct Touch) heat sink that i'll be installing on top of an intel q6700.

Never installed a heat sink before, so this should be fun. I read this article here. Does anyone have any other advice? Thanks!

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 Post subject: Re: thermal grease application. Suggested method?
PostPosted: Tue 06-16-2009 9:03PM 
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Never installed a HDT heatsink before but I usually put a dab in the middle of the proc and use the end of a credit card to spread it evenly out.

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 Post subject: Re: thermal grease application. Suggested method?
PostPosted: Tue 06-16-2009 10:00PM 
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Whenever I installed my HDT heat sink, I spread the thermal paste over the entire CPU heat spreader. After I was sure the entire CPU was covered, I started skimming of the paste a little at a time until I was able to get the least amount of paste on the CPU as possible. Remember, if you put your heat sink on and then have to remove it, it is advised to reapply/make sure all the compound is spread evenly again. If you don't you risk getting air bubbles between the HS and CPU.

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 Post subject: Re: thermal grease application. Suggested method?
PostPosted: Wed 06-17-2009 6:48AM 
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in an effort to prevent any air bubbles from forming, I put a moderate blob in the center of the heat transfer zone of the processor and evenly press the heat sink down onto the processor. I have never had an issue of using too little thermal paste, and I think that if you spread the paste over the processor before applying the heat sink, you are at a greater risk of having inadequate heat transfer and forming air bubbles than if you let the heat sink do the spread for you.

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 Post subject: Re: thermal grease application. Suggested method?
PostPosted: Wed 06-17-2009 9:22AM 
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I usually just put a blob about the size of a rice kernel on the cpu and spread it evenly over the surface with a library card or something.

I'd only lap the HS if you're planning on doing some pretty decent oc'ing. Get a piece of glass from hobby lobby to set the sand paper on and it'll help you get a really uniform surface, if you decide to lap it.

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 Post subject: Re: thermal grease application. Suggested method?
PostPosted: Wed 06-17-2009 5:47PM 
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You can't just put a small dab on an HDT heatsink. There are gaps between the heatpipes that would take all the compound and none would get to the other heatpipes.

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 Post subject: Re: thermal grease application. Suggested method?
PostPosted: Thu 06-18-2009 8:38AM 
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 Post subject: Re: thermal grease application. Suggested method?
PostPosted: Thu 06-18-2009 10:29AM 
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Kingkoopa wrote:
You can't just put a small dab on an HDT heatsink. There are gaps between the heatpipes that would take all the compound and none would get to the other heatpipes.


That's why you spread it before you mount it. So you can add more if needed. The rice kernel was just a rule of thumb/starting amount.

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 Post subject: Re: thermal grease application. Suggested method?
PostPosted: Thu 06-18-2009 11:53AM 
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What I just did with mine was spread a small amount on the processor then added an additional bit in the center of the processor and applied the heatsink, I am idling around 40 C and never get above 50

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 Post subject: Re: thermal grease application. Suggested method?
PostPosted: Thu 06-18-2009 11:54AM 
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Read the directions for your thermal paste and cooler. Different thermal compounds work better by spreading and others like Arctic Sliver 5 are better by using a drop and having the pressure spread it. I'm still looking for the article that just compared about 10 different compounds and the different application methods.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=170&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=5
Would be your best bet for a comparison.

EDIT:
Found the link
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTYyNywxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==


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 Post subject: Re: thermal grease application. Suggested method?
PostPosted: Thu 06-18-2009 12:52PM 
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The above link mainly showed that pretty much all aftermarket thermal pastes are reasonably close, with a maximum difference of 3.9degC. Unfortunately, the next sentence is practically all I found when it comes to application methods in that article.

HardOCP.com wrote:
"When it comes to applying thermal paste we saw that different pastes respond differently to the various methods. A good rule of thumb when using a paste is if the paste is thick spread it out and if it’s thin in consistency let the heat sink do it for you."

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 Post subject: Re: thermal grease application. Suggested method?
PostPosted: Thu 06-18-2009 1:20PM 
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Here's what i'm going to do tonight. I'll try to fill in the cracks on my heat sink with thermal paste, then scrap the excess off, then draw two lines with the past on the coils, as seen in one of the images above, install the heat sink, take it off and see how it spread. then i'll clean everything off with isotropol (sp) alcohol, and repeat. That sound like a good idea? or should I just do it once and hope that that is good enough? Thanks!

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 Post subject: Re: thermal grease application. Suggested method?
PostPosted: Thu 06-18-2009 1:41PM 
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if you do that, it will be just fine, unless you want to make absolutely sure

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