New CPU - hotter than old cpu ?

[AxlxA]

So this is how much artic silver 5 i put.

When I put down the heatsink and removed it(because i had to reseat the hsf) i saw that the paste got spread over a small vertical area.



Temp right now goes about 38C idle. My old E4500 went about 34C. Should I redo the thermal paste?

[73GMCSprint]

Looking at your pic, I'd redo it. It looks like you know less is better, but I'd say it needs to be spread out a bit more. 38C seems a bit on the high side, though not too worrisome, for idle temp.

[cvrefugee]

http://processorfinder.intel.com/det...px?sSpec=SLA95

http://processorfinder.intel.com/det...px?sSpec=SLAPL

Hmm, 2.2GHz vs 3.0GHz...but also 65nm vs 45nm.

[Kip_6666]

Try spreading the thermal grease over the heatspreader. But then again, 4 degrees is nothing to worry about. Just keep an eye on the max temps.

[chaos386]

You should definitely spread it out (the edge of a credit card works wonderfully for this sort of thing). Right now, you're restricting the heat transfer area to that small line.

[Susurrate]

With a new CPU or heatsink I like to buff the thermal paste into the contact area with a cloth or paper towel and then apply a thin layer of the paste using a business card or something.

[Viper007Bond]

I put a grain or two of rice worth on it (at least to start with -- I add more as needed) and then spread it out evenly over the whole thing (as thin as possible) with an exacto knife so that I can't see through it. Then I put my CPU down on it.

That way I know for sure there's no gaps or anything.

[matt2000]

I used the little plastic card that came with my compound (not the same one though) and generally followed the instructions. My AMD idles at about 43 so whatever.

[Vette Boss]

Best method is to put a small (1/2 grain of rice) blob on the CPU, place the heatsink then rotate it side to side a few times, until the bond feels strong. Then you secure it down using provided hardware.

I've done several tests and this method always gives best results.

[AxlxA]

Okay I redid it just now. took 30 mins.

1) Cleaned off artic silver 5 with coffee filter paper and then cleaned it with 70% isopropanol. Then let it dry really fast.
2) apply slightly more AS5 down the line like the pic above. Maybe 1.5x as much before.
3) Credit card the hell out of it! as thin as i could without wipping it entirely off the cpu. I didn't get it to the heat spreader though.... didn't quite know how to do that.
4) Put the Artic Freezer 7 Pro on, twirl it a bid(but can't do much because the legs are preventing proper contact with cpu and hsf without properly securing it onto the chip/snap it onto the board.
5) cleaned up shit and reboot.

Now: 33C idle! amazing!!! That's what I wanted. Thanks guys.

[cvrefugee]

I usually just put a blob in the middle, since the heatsink will generally spread it out combined with the heat. Never had a heat issue with that method. When you spread it, you should be careful not to get too close to the edges or else it may seep out onto the board.

With dual-core CPUs, you just put a line of thermal grease down the middle, exactly how you have it in your pic.

[MadCow809]

this is how i do it :

[AxlxA]

that looks pretty thick man.

[MadCow809]

Hm.. It does look quite thick in the picture.

It's actually thinner than it looks, but I always like to give a generous amount of paste. It's sitting around 40c or so, just within the acceptable threshold limit.

[AxlxA]

Actually Mine's almost like that except when I spread it with a credit card, the spreading force wasn't balanced so the edges had less paste than the center area. Anyways, I figure i spread it thin enough the HSF will squeeze them more evenly. Like I said before, my temps definitely went down by a few degrees. I've got my desktop sitting next to my living room window so it's cooling down even further when I have it open at night. Day time it's kind of warm outside so really can't help it.

[BlitzR]

I followed Artic Silver's instructions for applying their thermal paste (though I may have used too much) and my Q6600 gets around low 30s @ idle and low 40s @ load but its a bit cool around here at the moment.

[der_jackal]

Originally Posted by MadCow809

this is how i do it :

<snips>

That's about where I'm at thickness wise and I get mid / low 20s on idle with mah e6700 2.66 (speed stepping on) and high 30s under load.

[AxlxA]

I guess the other factor(huge factor) is what's in side the case and the airflow.

I have 4 harddrives in this case. 2 of which are just sittin in front of the processor HSF without any fans on those hdd. and they get about 40C idle. The 2 other hdd are my main drives which has a fan blowing at them to bring it down to 30C. I also have an 8800GT but it's not really giving too much heat, about 44C. Case temp is about 37 C so i guess case temp matches cpu temp quite a bit.

[essentialatom]

I think I need to redo mine. I put it on a bit thick, though I found that the thermal paste I used wasn't very easily spreadable at all - is that normal? I found that when I tried to use a credit card to spread it out it barely spread, instead it was pretty sticky. I used OCZ Freeze...