How To Apply Thermal Paste To A Cpu Spread

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Heat management is important to consider when constructing or maintaining your computer. Too much heat can spell death for your sensitive components, and if you're overclocking it's even more of an issue. Knowing how to apply thermal paste correctly is one of the foundations of proper computer cooling.

1
Choose a good thermal paste. Most of the basic thermal greases contain silicone and zinc oxide, while more expensive compounds contain heat conductors such as silver or ceramic. Silver or ceramic thermal greases facilitate more efficient heat transmission. However, the basic thermal grease will sufficiently fill the needs for most applications.
- If you are planning on overclocking your computer, try to get thermal paste composed mainly of silver, copper, or gold. These are the most conductive metals commonly used in thermal paste.
2

Clean the CPU and heat sink surfaces. Wipe the surface lightly with a cotton ball or cotton swab dampened with isopropyl alcohol. The higher the percentage of alcohol the better. 70 percent is good but 90 percent is better (if you can find it).^[1]

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3
Sand the heat sink and processor surfaces if necessary. Ideally, the two touching surfaces will be perfectly flat, which would completely eliminate the need for thermal paste. If your heat sink base is rough, you can wet-sand it with fine grit paper or emery cloth it to make it smoother. This isn't necessary unless you are aiming for the ultimate in cooling performance.
- Thermal paste is designed to fill in the gaps and imperfections on the surfaces that you are joining. Since modern production techniques cannot make surfaces without imperfections, thermal paste will always be necessary.
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1
Place a tiny drop of thermal paste to the center of the cooler base. The bead of paste should be smaller than a BB or a grain of rice. If you've read that it should be "pea-sized", that is far too much paste, and you will end up with paste on your motherboard.^[2] ^[3]
- There is no need to spread the paste for circular coolers, as the pressure of being applied will spread it evenly across the surface.
2
Attach the heat sink to the processor. Install the heat sink with even pressure from all sides, and the bead that you placed on the surface will spread over the entire contact surface. This will create a thin, even layer that will fill any gaps but avoid excess build up.^[4]
- As heat is applied, the paste will become thinner and spread more towards the edges. This is why using a small amount of paste is important, as a little goes a long way.
3

Avoid removing the heat sink after installing it. It can be difficult to check if your paste has been applied correctly. If you break the seal that is created when you install the heat sink, you will need to restart the process, first cleaning off the old paste and then reapplying it.
4

Reconnect the fan to the motherboard. The CPU fan wire should be plugged in the CPU fan socket because it mostly has the PWM function which allows the computer to adjust the fan speed automatically without changing voltage.
5

Boot the system. Check that the fan is spinning. Enter the BIOS by pressing F1 or Del key during POST. Check if the temperature is normal, CPU temperature should be below 40 degree Celsius when idle, same for GPU.

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1
Apply paste to the base of the cooler. Applying paste to a square cooler is a bit more challenging than a round one, because simply placing a dot and applying pressure will not result in full coverage. There are varying approaches that people claim allegiances to, so we'll cover a few of the more popular ones:
- The lines method – Place two thin lines of thermal compound on the base of the cooler. The lines should be parallel and spaced so that they are each placed a third of the width of the processor. The lines themselves should also be about a third of the processor's width in length.
- The cross method – This is very similar to the previous method, but the lines are crossed in an "X" pattern instead of parallel. The length and thickness of the lines should be the same as the previous method.
- The spread method – This is one of the most popular and effective methods, but takes a little more effort. Place a small amount of thermal paste onto the base of the cooler. Using a plastic finger protector or a plastic bag, use your finger to spread the paste evenly across the surface. Make sure to cover the entire surface that will be in contact with the processor, and ensure that you do not apply the paste too thick. In most cases, the paste should barely hide the metal underneath.
2

Install the heat sink. If you are using either of the line methods, apply even pressure to the heat sink as you install it to ensure that the paste covers the entire surface. If you are using the spread method, you MUST install the heat sink at a slight angle to prevent bubbles from forming. This is because the paste is usually spread too thin to compensate for bubbles after pressure is applied.
3

Reconnect the fan to the motherboard. The CPU fan wire should be plugged in the CPU fan socket because it mostly has the PWM function which allows the computer to adjust the fan speed automatically without changing voltage.
4

Boot the system altogether. Check that the fan is spinning. Enter the BIOS by pressing F1 or Del key during POST. Check if the temperature is normal, CPU temperature should be below 40 degree Celsius when idle, same for GPU.

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Question

I still don't get what thermal paste does. How does it work?

Luigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. He is also the host of the Computer Man Show! broadcasted on KSQD covering central California for over two years.

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Question

What's the easiest way to remove thermal paste?

Luigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. He is also the host of the Computer Man Show! broadcasted on KSQD covering central California for over two years.

Computer & Tech Specialist

Expert Answer
Question

Is applying thermal paste necessary?

Luigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. He is also the host of the Computer Man Show! broadcasted on KSQD covering central California for over two years.

Computer & Tech Specialist

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Yes, it fills in the gaps between the CPU and the heatsink. If there are air particles in there, your CPU won't cool off the right way. You really can't skip this step if you're building a PC or replacing a part.
Question

Can you put on too much thermal paste?

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Yes, it is possible to put on too much thermal paste, and if this happens, then it'll end up on other components, which may decrease the effectiveness of the CPU, etc. However, it's not harmful if this happens unless there is so much paste it's seeping everywhere. Aim for a tiny blob about the size of a grain of rice, and no bigger. Clean off anything more.
Question

Do you need to apply thermal paste?

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If your CPU is running too hot, then the thermal paste is an important aspect of keeping down the temperature a bit and preventing the CPU from trying to throttle (slow down) in an attempt to cool itself. Most computer-build experts think that it's not a great idea to skip adding thermal paste to a home-built computer. Occasionally, you'll need to remove any dried-up paste and add new paste for the best performance, it's not just a one-off thing.
Question

How important is it to use thermal paste?

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Question

What is thermal paste for computers?

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Thermal paste is a paste that contains either silicone and zinc oxide (the cheaper versions), or silver/ceramic (the more expensive ones). Thermal paste is applied to the CPU and heat sinks to improve their ability to cool down and conduct heat efficiently. If you tend to overclock the computer, use a more expensive thermal paste containing silver, copper, or gold.
Question

What is a cooler? I have a square processor and a round heat sink.

A cooler is a general term for the heat sink and the fan that sits on top of it. This 'cooler' does just that, cools the CPU.
Question

My CPU often shuts off. My neighbor says that there may not be enough thermal paste on my CPU. If I apply more thermal paste, will my CPU stop overheating and shutting off.

George Osborne

Community Answer

Possibly. Thermal paste can sometimes harden, which greatly reduces its effectiveness. If this is the case, you will need to remove the old thermal paste, clean the surfaces and then re-apply new thermal paste. Note that, if you remove your CPU cooler for any reason, you should always apply new thermal paste. It could also be a problem with your CPU cooler itself. In this case, you would need to purchase a new CPU cooler, remove the old cooler, clean the old paste off of the CPU, apply new thermal paste, and then attach the new cooler. Finally, it could also be a problem with the airflow in your computer case. Make sure you have enough case fans and that they are not set up in a competing configuration.
Question

Can I use a CPU cooler without thermal paste?

George Osborne

Community Answer

It is never okay to use a CPU cooler without a layer of thermal paste between the cooler and the CPU. If you do, the heat will not transfer properly from the CPU to the cooler, and the CPU will eventually get hot enough to cause permanent damage.

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Thin thermal paste is ideal while thick thermal paste decrease the heat transferring rate. Thermal paste is for filling the gap between the chip and the heat sink, also the tiny up and down on them.
If latex gloves are used to spread the thermal paste across the designated surface, make sure they are the powder free type. If powder and thermal paste combine, the heat sink will be degraded severely.
After cleaning the surface with alcohol, do not touch the surface with your bare finger. Your finger has its own oils that will damage the surface and harm the coolers.
Keep in mind, oftentimes the thermal paste has what is referred to as a "burn-in-period" in which the paste gets more efficient and continues to lower the temperatures. Sometimes, this period is very short but oftentimes it could be as long as 200 hours.

Using oil based cleaners to clean your surfaces will ruin your coolers performance. They will prematurely and permanently fill the spaces the thermal paste is intended to, not allowing the paste to do its job. If the oil based cleaner is used and thermal paste is placed on top of it, the coolers will never work efficiently.

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If you want to apply thermal paste to help your computer stay cool, wipe the surface of your CPU and your heat sink with a cotton ball dampened with isopropyl alcohol. Apply a tiny amount of thermal paste to the center of the cooler base on the heat sink. Attach the heat sink to the processor, then reconnect the CPU fan wire to the motherboard. Keep reading to learn about the different strategies for applying thermal paste to a round or square cooler!

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