How do I put on thermal paste?

[aetherh4cker]

Building my first computer, there is only one thing I'm nervous about: That's the processor, heatsink, and thermal paste.

I've seen different ways of putting it on and now I'm not sure.

I'm getting the Abit IP35, Q6600, and Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme. I'm kind of worried about the large size of the heatsink, and would like this to go as well as possible.

I was planning on putting a very thin layer on the heatsink itself and spreading it with a credit card. Then putting a small "blob" in the middle of the processor and letting pressure spread that one out.

Should I use the thermal paste that comes with the Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme, or the Artic Silver 5 that I've had sitting around for about 12 months (never used).

... and I could really use advice put putting on the thermal paste, and putting on the heatsink.

I get the parts on Monday and would like to be as prepared as I can.

[Black.Ice.]

Dun know why you would need to put on thermal paste if your HSF already has it.... But that's just me. My Zalman didn't come with any so I don't know much about that.

But if you are going to put thermal paste on it, I would suggest using the "drop" method, where you just squeeze a tiny bit of paste onto the CPU. The pressure should take care of the paste distribution. I did it for mine and it cools perfectly.

It seems like you are too worried about the amount of thermal paste. In actuality, you only need a small amount because if there is too much, the sheer amount of paste will generate even more heat and there will be less heat transfer. Less is good.

[vernong1992]

Arctic Silver 5 is probably better than the crap they give you

just put a Pea size since your with a Quad-Core (if your dual core go with the rice drop)