At 11:21 AM 6/16/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>Is there a good place to go that shows some pictures of what a CPU should
>look like w/ thermal paste applied?  I tend to be one of these individuals
>that when it comes to anything that involves pastes in a tube, I use
>either too much or too little.
>
>I don't want to have to disassemble the PC I am building multiple times to
>apply more or remove excess paste.  The directions I have been reading
>from building instructions on multiple sites follows along the lines of
>"apply thermal paste but not too much for it may cause problems with your
>CPU."  Do I just put a dot of it on the CPU (AMD ATHLON XP) and if so, on
>which part??

You really don't need very much, all you want is enough to fill the voids
in the contact area. What I do is put the CPU in its socket, put small dot
on the CPU, then mate the heatsink up to it, then pull the heatsink off and
see how well it spread out. You want to have it spread out just as much as
the contact area between the CPU and heatsink. Anymore is a waste. If you
applied too much, carefully wipe away the excess. Not enough, put a very
small amount on the uncovered areas.

Different thermal pastes will behave a little differently. I use Arctic
Silver which is more like a cream than a paste, so it spreads out very
well. Some thicker greases or pastes may require you to put several very
small dots around the contact area to get it to spread out.


Russ Poffenberger
Credence Systems Corp.
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