How to properly apply Thermal Paste?
How to properly apply Thermal Paste?
I see some people that have applied thermal paste to their cpus complain about there being cracks in the paste or something after applying it and it causes the cpu to overheat etc, how can I avoid this when I go to apply my thermal paste? I've never done it before because I had someone do it for me, now I'm experiencing heat issues and I think it's the thermal paste because it hasn't been swapped out in over 2 years and I'm getting 95c temps. What is the proper way of doing this? What type of cloth should I use to clean the cpu & do I absolutely need a esd bracelet? Also I'm not overclocking, nothing in my system is overclocked. 1 other thing is that I've been having issues with is performance for the past few months, if this is my cpu overheating etc can it permanently damage my cpu? I'm worried that I neglected it for too long and that it's damaged because I didn't know before. I'm using an i7 8700k.
This thread is going to become extremely hot very soon. It always forms a pea-sized spot in the center each time. I've used this technique on Intel CPUs many times. To get rid of it, I apply a small amount of contact cleaner to the middle of the chip and then wipe it away with a damp cloth.
The temperatures hit 95°C in specific situations. You have a cooler that handles this heat. The paste you use is important—99% isopropyl alcohol works well for cleaning, and you’ve found success with Kryonaut and mx-2 pastes. Your preference leans toward the texture of Kryonaut, but it’s fine with others too.
Pea-sized globs aren't suitable for all thermal pastes and aren't ideal for big dies. Even Thermalright advises against using a pea-sized amount for their TFX. They suggest five such globs—four at the corners and one in the middle. *Note*: The corners are positioned equally from the center to the edge, meaning you should place them halfway along each diagonal.
Wouldn't the paste slide down the edges? I'm using grizzly kryonaut.
Centered around the middle and near the edge, roughly balanced. Something like this or that.
I've applied this paste to my cooler for roughly three years and it's still holding up well... I'm keeping good temperatures. A small drip around the edge is fine as long as the paste isn't conductive. A little extra is better than none, but avoid covering everything completely since that makes cleaning later a hassle. The technique isn't crucial as long as most of the die gets covered. Pressure during mounting matters more than the paste type or amount. I think Gamers Nexus did some testing on this stuff.
If it isn't the paste, what other factors might be contributing to your heat problems? I'm not sure if it's related to me, but I just want to avoid needing a new CPU.