Still seeing people use thermal paste like it's peanut butter on a sandwich

I cracked open a client's gaming PC yesterday and there was so much paste it had squeezed out over the sides of the CPU and was caked onto the socket pins. A pea-sized dot in the middle is all you need, maybe a line for Ryzen chips, anything more just makes a mess and hurts temps.

3 comments

3 Comments

pat_murray537d ago

Oh, come on now! I've got to push back on this a bit, @shanec61. That hour of cleanup is nothing compared to the peace of mind knowing you've got full coverage. I've been building PCs since the Pentium 4 days and I've seen more failures from too little paste than too much. A generous spread might look sloppy, but it guarantees every tiny gap is filled, especially on those uneven IHS surfaces. Sure, a pea in the middle works for flat chips, but Ryzen has those chiplets on the side and a little extra never hurt anyone. I'd rather wipe off a mess than risk a hot spot frying a core because I was stingy with the goop.

shanec617d ago

Brutal. That's an hour of cleanup right there.

phoenix_martin407d ago

Pat's got a point about the extra paste being insurance, but man, it's like watching someone use a whole tube of caulk to seal a single window. Feels like overkill until you see the draft. Funny how the same thing happens with everything from glue to sunscreen. People either use way too much or barely any.