What happens if you use the WRONG amount of thermal paste? 

i did that to my laptop, i applied what seems like the right amount but was not getting the temps I want, then I just put a giant blob and it was cooler

Yes exactly, however when you're using liquid metal or an electrically conductive thermal paste (like the Arctic Silver 5) you have to make sure the compound doesn't leak onto the motherboard when screwing back the heatsink. Most thermal compounds like the Arctic MX-4 or Noctua NT-H1 however are not conductive so this isn't a problem in most cases

Yeah, if you don't understand physics.

@@tcolondovich2996 .... all i did was apply the amount of thermal paste the videos recommended and that didn't work so I added more.

@@vanskis7618 That's completely beside the points I've made. I'm not sure if you read my comments at all.

I know its kinda nuts but if you think about it metal to metal, no matter how flat they are, its always more gaps than real contact.

The die under the IHS is much smaller than the IHS, the little dot covered most of the area where the die under the IHS is located, which is what matters the most, but it is always better to have most of the IHS covered in paste to optimize heat transfer

Its preventing the hot metal from the heat sink to make contact to the cpu.

@@dedpul5071 It's the other way around, the heat sink is supposed to sink (move) heat away from the CPU (where the heat is coming from.)

@@wizzrobe3896 sorry, thats what i meant.

That's how I ended up here 🫡

with exchange of bodily fluids

enemies to lovers

But if it gets into your motherboard, you are royally screwed.

​@@dylansmidt6853 Thats only if you use conductive thermal paste I mean he used an unholy amount of it on this short ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vUOawJ7XkZY.html&ab_channel=mryeester

nope you won't it's just a bit messy that's all

Some thermal paste is electrically conductive and can potentially cause damage if it gets onto components, so it is something you should definitely still keep in mind when choosing and applying thermal paste.

@@Sevicify Well let’s hope Be Quiet!‘s thermal paste isn’t electrical conductive 😅. But as my computer runs as normal for about half a year now I don‘t think it’s going to be a problem in the future. But thank you!👍

Beware of applying too much liquid metal though

Spread it around like butter on bread, corner to corner.

@@nunya3163do that if you want to have to clean off the motherboard cpu housing!

@@nunya3163 That is what im doing for past 15 years. I just like to be sure that its spread evenly over the cpu, regardless if heatsink covers whole cpu. Excess of the paste will spread on parts here its too thin and its all good.

@@nunya3163 Agree. I've always put a medium bead in the center then used my finger to finely spread around the entire surface. My machines always worked well and stayed cool for the entire time I've owned them. Never having the need to redo the job plus I never got any excess over the sides.

😂

Haha too funny

what happens is simple you make a mess that's what happens otherwise it's all good

@@raven4k998 You mean because the paste all squishes out the sides? I did it with my old 4790k a few years ago, but I can't remember what my before and after temps were, but I do remember that it was quite concave in the centre. Might give it a shot with my 5800x sometime, because it does get pretty toasty. P.S. Nice profile pic, she's one of my favourites!

@@JoeBob79569 There has been benchmarks by a bunch of the "world records" setting nerds out there. Basically, polishing those components DOES increase performance, but it's very small margin. It's not worth it unless every other solution (better chokes for less voltage variance, minimizing said voltage for your clock speed, a more efficient cooler) has already been accomplished, especially with the risk of damage on the IHS or the cost of having someone else do the work for you. Hell the cost of Binned vs non-Binned CPU's to ensure you have a more stable chipset (and can run lower voltages) is going to benefit you more.

@@asymsolutions I don't think it's that risky, or that difficult to do it. Just grab a sheet of glass and put a sheet of sandpaper on it. And rub the CPU around on it for a few minutes.

You'd maybe get 2-3 degrees better on this CPU. Just a number I pulled out my behind, but it reflects similar tests that some tech channels have done. Honestly, not really worth it. Not unless you've got a golden chip, and at that point you are probably setting a record as your average joe has maybe a 1% chance at best to stumble onto a chip that good.

Agreed, I just put a large amount on.

it also depends on what paste it was, crappy thermal compounds will harden quite fast.

@@baraka629 arctic mx4

@@Interxoxo Bro. Use Colgate or Pepsodent. There the best.

​@@IamGod534 Don't, I used it once on my PC and forgot to change it out for real thermal paste and after a year, mould formed on my IHS. After cleaning it up the surface was smooth but the colour of the IHS turned green in some spots, other than that minor cosmetic damage, it didn't effect thermals as the surface was relatively flat.

That could explain my findings, I guess... I always used a bit more rather than a bit less, but my temps would get higher than they should be. Removing a bit of paste has always done the trick so far!

same for me-thin layer of paste (almost feels transparent) and paste works good for years.

Paste is only for surface imperfection, radiators blocks are almost perfectly machined nowadays. Even that small amount of paste would work if he would spread it before instaling radiator. Thats my 5 cents.

@@szaka9395 JayZ2Cents did a test from one spot to 1/2 a tube. Made no noticeable difference (except to the 'overflow' of paste :) ). GPU's especially don't have an IHS so 'spreading' is vital. I found that out when watercooling my 3090!

"better" is indeed not much better than "good," but "good" is a whole lot better than "mediocre" and below though.

@@MrKippie15 Agreed, but you don't need to go beyond MX-4 or my old favourite Arctic Silver. 2-3 degrees for liquid metal just isn't worth it IMO.

💀

@@justin7837 ???

@@justin7837 ?

Why would you send them a video showing this? Layer thickness is several times too thick, mainly because the host of this channel thinks placing a blob on the CPU is the best way to spread it. The thinnest layer possible while coating the surface of the CPU is the best. You just want to eliminate unevenness at a microscopic level, so the very good thermally conducting aluminum surfaces can touch!

@@tcolondovich2996 bruhhh

Yes, and there is so many people who don't understand it and spread nonsenses and myths. I have a lot of conflicts with these people all the time on internet, they call me a liar and boomer who knows nothing and say today it's totally diferent time than 20 years ago and my experiences mean nothing....so I guess laws of physics have changed during last 20 years. 😀 I actually had heating and cooling at school and these people very often don't even understand difference between heat in watts and temperature in °C, which is shocking. Most of these nonsense spreaders are AMD fanatics by the way, when you say it has 90°C in full load they call you a liar because their CPU has only 60 in game, they don't know what 100% load means and this is how stupid myths and nonsenses are spreading. 😀

The problem with manually spreading it even is you run the risk of trapping air bubbles instead of having a tight spread. It's not horrible but not optimal either.

can a heatsink be too tight? Im doing a passion project, using a big heatsink for from a dell 2400 Dimension onto a Gigabyte motherboard, the hold-down level is tight due to the height of the heatsink.. can this be bad? Would a tight join between sink and cpu affect the heat and paste conductivity?

@@Defender78. I'm inclined to say that the tighter the better - within reason. Don't break or bend anything! Tightness would tend to guarantee that the layer of thermal paste is as thin as possible. It's only there to compensate for the fact that the metal surfaces are less than perfectly flat.

Most importantly, you spread it into the thinnest layer possible while covering the entire CPU, correct?

@@tcolondovich2996 Yeah true. I've done that on this system using MX-6 only just this year. MX-6 had gone way better then theirs previous products as it is thicken now. And noticed that spreading it does helps. Never reached to 70c now and am using old CPU 3rd gen i7 as we all know back in day they get hot quickly 😂😂 Can't wait to upgrade a massive jump for me anyway as already brought ASUS B650 - plus Wi-Fi board as am going for AM5. Also going for 32 gig rams around 6800mhz to 7800mhz depend on prices and 7800x3D for a newer next built. Should have it done by 2 month as I buy bit by bits. Love the case am going for too H6 flow NZXT as have heard they're best for air flows

if pressure is too low it will hit performance becouse layer of paste would bee too thick

That's what I tended to do. I never just placed a blob in the middle but rather in a pattern that had lines that covered the entire chip before placing the cooler down.

yup. helped a friend diag a prebuilt with same gpu as me. swapped gpus. my mobo is fried. new mobo. got thick concrete like paste. debating just gettting another mobo and intel, and gpu. lol nothing about this makes sense, pc worked for years. first thermal paste was runny and did not give me hell like ths one.I'm almost positive there is too much. Luckily it's a decent processor from 2018. not an i9 or something.

I think the issue is more mounting pressure. Paste must fill air gaps, so if you've got poor pressure between your CPU and the cooler, then it's not going to cool well, because then the paste will be thick regardless and act as more of a barrier rather than a conductor for the microscopic air gaps that it's meant to fill.

Think about it. He added more and more paste until eventually there was no further benefit. And that was achieved with normal paste. So how can using ceramic paste be any better? Even if the ceramic paste has better thermal conductivity, firstly he demonstrated you don't need it, second the elements involved in dissipating the heat is not just limited to the paste, it is also dependent on the design of the heatsink and performance of the fan attached to the heatsink. And once the chip is operating consistently within its normal operating temperature range, what benefit is there in trying to reduce the temperature further? The chip doesn't become faster because you reduce its temperature. It may give more room for overclocking, if that's the way you want to go. The temperature does affect the longevity of the chip, and chips that run too hot will have a shorter life but that shouldn't normally be an issue.

Because people never actually bothered to test their hypothesis as they were too afraid that they’d wreck their expensive hardware. So they just passed off their assumptions as fact and people took their word for it. It’s similar as to why people thought the Earth was flat and the sun revolves around the Earth for so long. Very few people stepped up to the plate to challenge what was considered common sense, and in some cases, the ones that did ended up suffering for it.

Because you are trying to cooldown the die, not the metal cover on the CPU. Leaving out corners of the metal shielding wont do that much.

@@Kamtar34 Pretty sure it's measurable. If all the heat/cooling can be done 100% the die would also get cooler as a effect. If the cooler can only use 85% of the die it makes sense you lose (some) cooling performance.

The pentadot method essentially covers the corners

don't be stingy overkill won't fail like underkill may

Same, except I use a nitrile glove to prevent skin oil contamination. I have no idea if this makes a difference or not, but it seems to make me feel better, so whatever. lol

i thought for decades the standard agreed to be best method to apply thermal paste to CPU is the standard "pea shape/ammount" directly in center of CPU, no spreading by anything, and put a heathing with fan directly onto it... Is it still the best method...?

@@romannavratilid as as it spreads out enough to cover the contacted area between the heatsink and surface it doesn’t matter what pattern or amount you use

@@romannavratilid we no longer have just square CPU's so 5 dots is good for newer intel CPU's

Wait this 100% works??

@@bradleydcruze Probably. You're only supposed to use the thinnest layer of thermal paste possible to cover the surface. It should be much thinner than any of the blobs he placed on the chips in this video. The person saying he used aluminum foil probably did use the right amount of "thermal paste" as a piece of aluminum foil is very malleable and ductile, and will easily fill the microscopic voids between the chip and heat sink. Any Electrical Engineer will tell you the same thing.

@@bradleydcruze No.

@Depressed Aussie There's videos on youtube but they fold the aluminum in half and create air pockets. I tried it with my Clevo laptop with GTX 980m and i7 6700k but temps are very high. My heat sink probably isn't mounted properly or just doesn't have the force to press down the aluminum foil enough.

Grizzly Carbonaut

my 5800x aswell

it can be because its a ''test bench'' where there is no case at all so it might do better at getting rid of the heat, and the room tempreture can be a factor as well; but don't take my word for it, i can be wrong

its not unusual for those temps, check some websites or ask some people what temps they get with a stock cooler and an i5 11400f

@@egordo7262 its just weird hearing the fan ramps up while doing literally nothing on desktop, well just gonna replace the stock cooler tho its never been great

@@alvag6 yeah i would just replace it with sometjing else. What cooler are you buying?

Orrrr, you could just do a dot in the middle to keep the paste from spilling over

@@jcspotter7322 Preferences Both methods should sufficiently cover the area perfectly

@@jcspotter7322 they both work the same, the X and the dot are both viable options. your cpu might be very slightly covered a bit more with an X formation but the dot is easier to judge the amount

@@joshdeconcentrated2674 you missed my point, it literally was to suggest a method just to prevent the paste from spilling over

@@jcspotter7322 the X doesn't spill over though

Cleaver and safe 👍

Define "never too much". I would say too much is the point at which adding more paste achieves no worthwhile benefit. And he demonstrated that point in the video. So yes, there is a point where too much paste can be added.

I've seen a local pro applying paste, and it was a huge amount. Seems like he knew there's never too much.

The X is definitely my favorite method, since an X will naturally expand into a square when it gets pressed down by the CPU cooler.

The corners don't get as hot so that's not an issue.. The only thing thermal does is flatten the surface.

I could see in the future really finely polished IHS and heatsinks that mate like gauge blocks, I think that would work really well (might still want a super tiny bit of thermal compound though)

@@TheAechBomb That would be ideal. You only need to replace the last bit of air by paste, not more. The parts should touch each other, and where they don't, a bit of paste is better than air...

Yes, there will always be small imperfections or honing/machining marks and the paste fills those imperfections with something thermally conductive. I spread a thin layer across the entire surface then tighten down the cooler until I don't get any movement of the cooler with moderate side pressure.

Test after test shows that excess paste just gets squeezed out. The "thermal insulator" thing only comes into play if you have insufficient clamping force on the heatsink mechanism.

@@TheAechBomb LOL gauge blocks, I have real gauge blocks and doubt we will ever get to that point because it cost way too much to do that with parts made separately. Cost would go up. Its a nice fantasy though.

You are lying or something happened during your tests. It's just impossible to the application style make that huge difference, even using strange things like toothpast dont produce a huge difference like that.

@@manchuriancandidate8907 Bro stfu. I work with computers and no customer has ever broke a cpu with paste

@@manchuriancandidate8907 Very hard to do if the CPU is in the socket. Also, thermal paste is usually not conductive

For me the less the better. I used too much and my temperatures went up. Small dot, spread it evenly, instal radiator and forget for a year.

pregnancy is government tho

The only thing I can think of is just that too much is ok just messy? It's an age old argument about how the thermal paste should be applied, how much ect

Some people believe too much thermal paste actually degrades performance. This video neatly dispels that.

@@RK-252 the reasoning behind that is because the thermal paste is actually less heat conductive than the IHS and the copper/metal plate of the cooler, therefore actually creating more insulation for the CPU and it being able to dissipate heat slower. However, when you screw in the cooler correctly, the pressure will press out any excess thermal paste, thus removing the insulating factor.

@@truefeelke yup, exactly right.

That's the right way to apply thermal compound. But it takes some effort so no one's going to do that. Because they're all a bunch of lazy bastards.

i read decades ago that you should spread the paste on CPU in any way, not by tools, not by finger (in a plastic bag/sack/film)... AFAIK the "pea shape" blob in center is the best method...?

When you read that you should not spread the paste do you recall any reasoning given for that? There is a lot of outdated advice about PCs that do not apply anymore, and many didn't even make sense when they became a thing.

Tests have shown this is the way to go.

Same here, I put a small dot and spread the paste with a credit card to make a thin layer that cover evenly the surface of the CPU. The thermals are good and no cleaning needed after. I want to see the small dot spread evenly how performs.

@@sebastian19745 In my hands that has just always worked better. Placing a blind drop never covers the whole IHS. One recommendation, place a small drop in the middle once done with spreading. It is mean to help reduce the chances of an air pocket forming in the middle. I also spread both the CPU IHS and the cooler mating surface to ensure a durable finish.

@@racerrrz That is what I do. About the final small drop I will test soon; it is approaching the time to clean my laptop. When the CPU is not very accessible, I just clean it and spread thermal paste on the cooler part only. I`m kinda lazy... But I never had thermal throttling or high temperatures in GPUs, laptops or desktops. Thanks for the tip.

@@sebastian19745 No trouble, I am certain it will help extend the life of your laptop! It does take ages to spread both the IHS and Cooler surfaces but I think it is worth it for the long service interval. I run my machine for 10 hours a day, likely 6 days/week, and the Arctic Silver 5 lasts ~2 years! Not the best thermal paste out there but it does the job, and it has been slower to fatigue from the pump-out effect compared with other pastes I have used.

@@racerrrz I've run CPU's for up to 5 years before and never seen thermal paste pump out. I've even used the stock paste that comes on coolers just fine.

Lmao finger spread method. I’m very familiar with this method but not in CPU terms🤔🤣

@@bigdog8989 it works tho

@@bigdog8989 woah 😳😳

You are exactly right, and it's provable. The thinnest layer of thermal paste that you can evenly spread over the surface, is the CORRECT amount. Unless you leave it in a blob like this guy did. I wouldn't post videos if I had his lack of knowledge and experience. I get his point that there's a such thing as too little or too much, but he used too much for the layer thickness in EVERY example.

@@tcolondovich2996 Sigh... the pressure will flatten the thermal paste, that's why spreading out thermal paste is not necessary.

Few newer chips are soldered like my old Intel core 2 Quad Q6600. Build quality means more than we think.

@@Allangulon I think they are mostly soldered now, thats intel nonsense after the Core I7 2nd gen they moved to crap thermal paste, my I7 2600K is soldered, but now I think since like the 9th gen they are soldered again at least the CPU's that interest the most I5 K and so on...

@@guily6669 Yes from 9th gen onwards is soldered now, 3000 to 8000 series was TIM

Um WHAT?! No. What's under the IHS doesn't affect the spread of the TIM above it! LMAO

@@dakrawnik4208 He's not claiming it does lmfao