Hello guys I need your help in understanding what is the most optimal usage of thermal paste. A few days back I bought H100i 2nd hand from a friend of mine (so I know he isn't sending me a faulty product). Now he used this cooler on his own machine before so the paste that was applied by Corsair is obviously gone, so he wanted to be nice and he applied a thermal paste called Arctic Ceramique on the cooler in sort of like a square shaped fashion so I use it without applying it myself but I'm unsure if this is okay. People seem to apply the thermal paste not on the cooler but on the cpu itself.
What is your opinion will I have trouble if I don't apply any thermal paste on the cpu and just use the one already applied my friend on the cooler. I do intend to overclock my cpu to about 15%-25% of it's stock clock
Thanks in advance
I would say apply paste as seen in the DIY videos from teksyndicate (right TS?) and i believe ceramique is good but mx4 slightly better. Dont judge me personally I'd like to see other answers as well.
Well, in a square-like fashion sounds like that could result in an air-bubble over a hot-spot of the CPU.
This vid should help
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hNgFNH7zhQ
So your basically saying I should clean it and reapply instead of using as he applied. This will make it necessary for me to buy a paste + cleaning stuff is it really worth it? The paste he used isn't particularly a bad one though I kind of understand the deal about having air bubbles
i would say re-apply. that would be my main concern especially with OC in mind.
Well, all you'd need is a tube of thermal grease, which can be found from $2 - $10, depending on brand and whatnot. You can clean it off with coffee filters and alcohol, which are pretty common house hold items.
Thank you for all your responses so far, I was searching this around the web and I came across something interesting, here is a word for word quote from a Corsair guy about ideal application of Thermal paste for H100i:
"With our coolers using a small bead or ball may not be enough to provide the proper thermal transfer. With any of our coolers you will want to use TIM that is thicker than AS5 and will not need time to seat. I would suggest using Shin Etsu TIM on most of our coolers or if its not available then you can mix AS5 and the Silicone H/S compound that is white at about 50/50 ratio for best cooling and you will want to put a thin even coat on the cooler or CPU enough to white wash the surface but not so much it flows over."
So does he advocate for spreading the compound to the surface of the cpu? Odd, because Arctic recommends a blob in the middle too. What do you guys think?
Btw I don't have Shin Etsu TIM's in my country, I have access to Noctua NTH1, Arctic MX-4, Ceramique, TG-1 maybe a few more but not Shin Etsu. Which do you favor the most?
Thanks :)
Completely clean both the CPU surface and the heatsink with Isopropyl aclohol and coffee filters. Make sure all of the thermal paste is removed, and both surfaces are contaminant and fingerprint free.
As for the thermal paste itself, the best available is Promilatech PK1. It outperforms all other compounds out there, aside from the $25 Indigo Xtreme thermal pad. I use the grain-of-rice method, where you put a line, barely smaller than a grain of rice, right in the middle of the CPU. When the heatsink applies pressure to the paste, and it is dispersed, the "grain of rice" covers the rest of the CPU with an even and thin layer. PK1 is the best, as mentioned earlier, but all modern compounds will work within 3 degrees C of each other.
Apply your own paste.
When I apply paste, I use Arctic Silver paste remover and purifier on both surfaces (Alcohol can be a bit harsh on your components overtime from what i've heard.)
Then I apply IC Diamond. A small pea sized dab is what I do.
People say that IC Diamond scratches the Die surface since it's made from Artificial Diamonds, but whatevs. If your CPU has a head spreader, it doesn't really matter.