Rethinking my whole approach to thermal paste after a shop visit last month

I used to just blob thermal paste on like I was frosting a cake, big pea sized glob and call it good. Then I stopped by a repair shop in Portland last month and this old timer showed me how he spreads it thin with a credit card. He said I was probably trapping air bubbles with my method and causing hot spots on the CPU. Tried his way on a fried board I was fixing for a buddy and the temps dropped by like 8 degrees under load. Makes me wonder how many systems I've cooked over the years from being lazy with paste. Has anyone else found that a thin spread works better than the pea method for certain chips?

2 comments

2 Comments

blairwhite23d ago

Big pea sized glob like frosting a cake" - yeah that's what I told my last girlfriend too but she didn't buy it either. lol jk but for real the credit card method saved my bacon on a Ryzen build last month.

lewis.drew22d ago

Wait, you used a literal credit card to spread thermal paste?