Applying thermal paste?

[imported_Neptune]

A few weeks ago i took apart my dell so i could give it a good cleaning. I took the heatsink off of the cpu to dust it. I cleaned up the thermal paste and re-applied it. On my first attempt i put a bit of thermal paste (OCZ thermal compound), the size of a grain of rice, on top of the cpu and then screwed the heatsink on.

When i booted up the computer, the front fan (which is situated right next to the cpu heatsink) started SCREAMING. It was much louder than any other computer i've heard, and you could feel it sucking air in aggressively.

So i booted it down, figured it was the cpu overheating, and tried to reapply it again. When i took the heatsink off i found that the thermal paste had only covered about a quarter of the cpu's surface. I re-applied it, this time adding 4x the amount of thermal paste. I screwed the heatsink in, took it off again to make sure the cpu was covered (it was) and screwed it back in a final time and booted up. The fan doesn't go insane like it did before, but it is now slightly louder (in games) than it was before I took it apart.

This is not to mention the shutdown problems ive had when building my brothers pc.

My point of this is just that ive had very bad experiences with thermal paste. I am asking those that have a lot of experience with thermal compound: I have an ocz thermal compound (grey coloured) and one that came in a plastic packet (white) just wondering which should I use, and how exactly do I apply it?

[Flt. Sgt. Powderhound]

Re: Applying thermal paste?

You put the right amount on first time, but you didn't rotate the HSF back and forth on the CPU to spread it; putting too much on will have been counterproductive, as TIM is only supposed to fill in the tiny undulations on the surface of the HSF and IHS.

[Busby, Paul (Bicci)]

Re: Applying thermal paste?

i generally get a small piece of plastic (broken old credit card type object) and spread a very thin and even layer (about 1/3 - 1/2 a mm).

What kind of dell machine is it? Some of them have pretty unusual designs which integrate multiple coolers into one, maybe the cpu cooler does more than just the CPU?

If not are you sure you fixed it down correctly, if you didnt that would explain the compound not spreading correctly. How does it clip to the motherboard?

[megawhompertoo]

Re: Applying thermal paste?

for dual-core cpu's, i apply a thin line running about 75% of the width (top to bottom) of the die, then place the hsf back on and rotate it 25-35 degrees clockwise and ccw. the hottest area in a dual core cpu, after all, is not dead center on the die. i remember seeing some thermal images online of how the heat is distributed. if i get done with my **** paper, i'll try to find 'em later.

edit: if your pentium d is one of the older 90nm 8xx series, it's a schweaty, schweaty cpu and you're going to have to make sure you get your paste and hsf on there correctly. the 65nm respin (9xx) was not terribly better computationally, but it did cut down drastically on the heat--I ran my pd 915 at 3.8ghz (lolz, $58 dollars from newegg) stable, on air, until the e6600's started tumbling in price.

[imported_Neptune]

Re: Applying thermal paste?

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Its a dimension 5150. The big black thing in the middle is a piece of plastic that covers the giant heatsink. To the left of it, where the sata connectors are over, is the fan that acts as a case fan and cools the heatsink.

On the right side of the heatsink, the big plastic thing has a kind of pivot, so it acts like the hood of a car. The left side is screwed all the way down, so i dont know if I could have messed that one up.

Anyway when i built my first pc, i did do that credit-card trick, but that is when i got the shutdown issues because the q6600 overheated to 90 C +. And it was a very thin layer, spread out evenly.

The thing is everybody has a different opinion on how to apply the thermal paste. I'm just not sure which is the best.

(btw i know my slot fan isn't plugged into the psu - too noisy)

Edit: mega, I think the name of my cpu is "presler," and i dont know any other details about it other than the speed (3 GHz).

[Wizrdwarts]

Re: Applying thermal paste?

You have a 65nm Pentium D then. And the fan does both case intake and CPU cooling.

[TheHeartSmasher]

Re: Applying thermal paste?

With the Dell's you will want to use Thermal Grease instead, putting it on the processor and the heatsink, a little dab of thermal compound will only last a little while, then your processor temperatures will start to rise again. Thermal grease solved the problem :).

[Kreepy Kitteh =^o.O^=]

Re: Applying thermal paste?

I think I have been doing it wrong D=


Someone on OCN always told me to put a little dot about the size of a rice graniel in the middle and the pressure of the heatsink will be enough to spread it out.. i always endup with a big circle in the middle of my heatsink.. so I don't know if that is enough...

[Busby, Paul (Bicci)]

Re: Applying thermal paste?

Well the chip itself doesnt take up the entire top of the CPU so there a chance it will have spread enough. If the spot of grease/paste has spread out and covers 2/3rd or more you will probs be safe, but this is just a guideline.

Rememer when putting heatsinks on, if the pressure to the CPU isnt even then the cooler probably isnt making contact to the maximum of the chip.

[Wizrdwarts]

Re: Applying thermal paste?

Yeah, most of the space is because of the pins and the integrated heat spreader. Even on Intel's stock heatsink, the paste only covers a medium sized circle on the CPU.

[signa]

Re: Applying thermal paste?

Megawhompertoo is correct.

see here for instructions: http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_s...structions.htm

direct link

[Busby, Paul (Bicci)]

Re: Applying thermal paste?

Megawhompertoo is correct.

see here for instructions: http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_s...structions.htm

direct link

There is no specific one correct method, there is a few different ways of doing it. Sometimes you have to use slightly different methods due to the cooler. I have always had better results using the credit card than the blob + twist method, albeit the difference was only a few degrees but still.

[imported_Neptune]

Re: Applying thermal paste?

Umm i was wondering what is the difference between thermal grease and thermal compound or paste. Which am i using? My little syringe type thing says OCZ Ultra "silver thermal compound" and the other is just a white substance in a clear plastic packet. The original paste that was on my cpu was white... So should i not be using the OCZ?

Yesterday all i did was browse the internet and my stupid fan started acting up again. The fact that my cpu doesnt have a built in thermometer (afaik) makes this even harder.

I know dells don't like their users to do "oc stuff" but is there a way to get around it and control my fan speed?

[Hellsent 2.0]

Re: Applying thermal paste?

Ditch The Dell?

[megawhompertoo]

Re: Applying thermal paste?

Umm i was wondering what is the difference between thermal grease and thermal compound or paste. Which am i using? My little syringe type thing says OCZ Ultra "silver thermal compound" and the other is just a white substance in a clear plastic packet. The original paste that was on my cpu was white... So should i not be using the OCZ?

Yesterday all i did was browse the internet and my stupid fan started acting up again. The fact that my cpu doesnt have a built in thermometer (afaik) makes this even harder.

I know dells don't like their users to do "oc stuff" but is there a way to get around it and control my fan speed?

speedfan 2.x might be compatible with your dell. if so, it should give you a ballpark readout of your CPU temps.