I know what you're thinking: "Yet another thermal paste bullshit thread about some basic bullshit thermal paste technique." Wait one second, I say! This one is slightly different!
My question is not how to spread thermal paste and how much to put on the CPU, but it is actually about the transfer of heat and the consistency.
I researched this a lot, and I have approached y'all because the majority of y'all here are masterminds in the computer field.
Okay, enough bullshit: here are my questions.
1. The pea method of applying thermal paste does not cover the edges of my CPU when pressed against the heatsink. How imperative is it that every square millimeter is covered when applying thermal paste?
2. My stock AMD Heatsink and Fan had preapplied thermal paste on it that covers the entire CPU. Does the preapplied and total coverage thermal paste work significantly better than the pea method?If so, shouldn't I attempt to cover the corners?
3. What happens if I were to overapply thermal paste, and it was pushed over the edges of the CPU?
4. Do you have any miscellaneous tips to give to first time therma paste users?
Thanks for the help guys! I really appreciate it.
I'm gonna do this quickly
1) Not entirley imperative: it doesn't matter too much if a liitle bit at the edges is left, remember, less is more and there is usually less heat around the edges of the cpu's heatsink.
2) The pre- applied thermal paste will cover the entire cpu, but will commonly use too much and, a verly low quality thermal paste, meaning any aftermarket paste is usually a couple of degrees cooler, even if applied slightly incorrectly.
3) Now, that one depends on wether or not the thermal paste is conductive, if it is, you may be screwed.
4) Less is more; clean both surfaces with high percentage alchohol (prefferably 99% isopropyl rubbing alchohool, or better) before applying the thermal paste; and finally, the amount required depends somewhat on the surface area of the cpu and heatsink, you may not be using enough.
Okay, thanks for the help. I have one new problem.
I installed the Hyper 212 EVO just now, and now I am having ridiculous lag in Day of Defeat Source and BF3. What happened? I moved my two sticks of RAM over one notch, but that couldnt be the problem. What do you think happened?
Perhaps you didn't correctly re-install the ram when you moved it over. Check to see if windows, or whatever os you're using has recognised all of it. I somewhat doubt that you have installed the cooler incorrectly. I'm a little bit confused here as well, sorry.
The chip itself is smaller than the heat spreader so there isn't as much heat at the corners as the middle.The pea method doesn't spread all the way to the corners but it is not really needed.
You can always use the X method if you want a square spread.Just remember to put as little as possible with the X method.
Unless you put an extraordinary amount it won't spill out.Even if it does most TIM don't conduct electricity.You shouldn't be using an electrically conductive TIM if you aren't extreme overclocking anyway.
1. Having thinner layer in the center is more important than covering the entire heat spreader. Just look at the photos of CPUs without IHS to see sizes of actual chips.
2. Pre-applies thermal paste is just "there". It works but worse than pretty much anything else.
3. It means that the layer of thermal paste is thicker which results in worse thermal conductivity and higher temperatures.
4. Don't use stock coolers.
What motherboard do you have? installing tower coolers on motherboards that dont have mosfet heatsinks can make them over heat throttleing the cpu becase the stock heatisnk was blowing air over the motherboard cooling the components a tower cooler dosent.
What cpu temps are you seeing with the 212evo installed (use HWiNFO64 for temps http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/hwinfo64.html )