Finally came around on thermal paste application methods after a bad repair job

I used to be the guy who would put a pea sized dot in the middle and call it good. Always thought the spreading method was a waste of time. Last month I had to redo a CPU on a gaming PC that kept hitting 90C under load. Pulled the cooler off and the paste had only covered about 60 percent of the IHS. The hotspot was right where there was nothing. So I spread it evenly with a plastic card this time and temps dropped 12 degrees. Now I spread every time. Has anyone else seen a big difference switching methods?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_sage15d ago

Oh man, same thing happened to me on my first Ryzen build a couple years back. I was so sure the pea method was fine but after pulling the cooler I saw bare spots around the edges (which is where the chiplets sit on those CPUs). Switched to spreading it out with a little spatula and my temps dropped about 10C under load, never looked back.

blair99015d ago

Wait, didn't the thermal compound you use make a big difference too? I tried a cheap tube first and got hot spots even with perfect application.

the_elizabeth15d ago

Yeah, cheaping out always bites you in the ass somewhere.