System build mess up questions

[Gabb]

so yeah my system building is about half done...had a lot of mess ups along the way and just wandering on your guys opinions ( long rant )

1. Of course for months Ive been worried about the whole HSF/thermal paste install and of course the worst case reality comes to pass. First I cleaned the bottom of the tuniq tower 120 and the top of the CPU surface with isopropyl alcohol ( spelling? ). Then I applied the MX-1 thermal paste in a horizontal line like Arctic silver suggests but it came out too fast and I ended up having to scoop some of and the total amount was a BIG rice sized grain. So I mount the tuniq after much frustration ( wonder how tight you have to make it since I keep hearing complaints of the screw heads popping off on newegg ), but its flimsy and I after contact I lift up after a minute to see the thermal pastes bad distrubution so I press it down harder. Later on curiosity gets the best of me and I lift it up briefly once more to see the paste which has become more sticky and I break the sticky contact ( the paste in a spread out shape with spikes sticking up from the recently broken seal ) and so Im like really panicking at this point so I just press it down harder and twist degrees hearing the metal grind softly. Hopefully no air bubbles were left...but Im definately not going to go check again, hopefully I will get good temperatures otherwise I have to unmount the whole thing again....just wondering do I clean all the thermal grease off with alcohol again?

2. Not knowing what screws to use I figured to use the 1 inch long screws and 3 out of 4 fit in perfectly the other giving me heavy resistance. Afterwards I suddenly discover the PSU box came with mounting screws which are like 1/12 the length of the inch long screws I used previously. I install them instead hoping no damage was done by that 1 inch long screw that went in half way....

3. Had to pause...tomorrow trying to figure out what screws to use to mount on my mobo, do I screw them in tightly?...not too tightly?

[Gabb]

no comments? anyone experience same problems?

[TRDCorolla1]

The best way is to power up the PC and monitor the temps from there. As for screwing in the motherboard, just tighten them so they're snug. Like once you feel pressure, just do like half a turn more and you're done. The motherboard isn't going anywhere once it's in there and it's stationary so the likelyhood that the screws will come loose is nearly impossible.

The thing with that paste is that it had time to settle between the CPU and the heatsink itself. I feel when you lifted that up, it broke some of that inital bond. But power it on and monitor the temps. The heat will sometime meld the thermal stuff together again. Are you finished with the build yet?