Reminds me of this:
Witness me!
Don’t do this
Yeah: Use a paintbrush to cover the whole motherboard instead.
Get a couple cans of spray thermal paste.
Me when I have to use anti seize in the shop
Back in the very early 2000s a friend on mine that I thought was pretty technical heard me talking about thermal paste and he had never used any. After telling him about the benefits he was excited to get some and use it on his new PC he was building. He came in the next day sad, said it had fried and he thinks it was the paste. I asked how much he put on and his response was “umm, like icing on a cake”. in my head it was even worse the the posted image.
Oof, it’s nice that most thermal paste these days is non-conductive
Not sure I see a problem here, this all looks intended. I’m not familiar with this device though. Since the heat sink plates are so big and the screws are so far apart I’m not sure they could get away with less without potentially missing contact with a sink. It seems more like bad mechanical engineering than bad application.
Thermal compound has a thermal resistance. It’s better than air, but not as good as metal. The best application is a layer that fills all the air gaps, and no more.
Who is saying that is the major consideration here?
Its obvious the major problem here is ustable movement and flexing when those large sink plates are screwed down will not distribute the paste very well resulting in a higher risk of air gaps. So they left a lot of room for it to press out and it doesn’t look like they used a ton of that space.
Adding to this… Airgaps is not emphasized enough here. There is a reason why you don’t do closed shapes when applying thermal paste, and why so many system builders have strong opinions on how to apply it.
Personally, I go for an X or a % where the os are actually dots.
I still do the just under pea sized amount right in the middle, have always gotten a good spread with it.
How does someone get to know thermal paste is a requirement without accidentally seeing how it’s required?
This is like knowing petrol is needed for your new car, then just stopping at some point, referring to the note “Get petrol” and deciding pumping it into every orifice the car has is what that means. “I assume that’s what that meant. I’m in a rush. No time to Google how to pump this “petrol” thing into the car.”
Engine oil? Well, petrol comes from oil! Better fill it up! Air goes in the intake, and we need fuel and air to mix. Throw some in there!
Oops all thermal paste!
Oh no, oh no no no no no.
deleted by creator
Optimal thermal paste thickness (bond-line thickness) is critical for heat dissipation. The layer should be thin, ideally between 25 µm and 50 µm, which is roughly the thickness of two sheets of standard paper. The paste’s sole purpose is to fill microscopic air pockets between the metal surfaces for better thermal conduction. Source, I spent 6 months in a laboratory experimenting with and producing thermal pastes and insulators. I spent days cutting and cleaning copper squares, applying the experimental pastes, and testing thermal conductivity via the application of Fourier’s Law of heat conduction.
Q = kA(Δ T/Δ X)
Where Q is heat flow, A is the cross-sectional area, and Δ x is the paste’s thickness.
That’s way more paste than you need for 50 µm application.
Drops Mic
To add to this to much is also a problem because it can trap air itself and create air pockets that way
Did you say 50mm of thermal paste?
Microns, not milimeters. One micron in 1/1000 of a milimeter.
Ah, my bad. 1000. So 50km of thermal paste?
You sure its not megameters?
You heard it from the expert, folks, 50magnets
I think he said 50m…
50 miles is too far for paste
I can’t tell if this is satire. If not, you say it doesn’t hurt to use too much, but I would say that a company would want to save all the money wasted on applying 20x the required amount…
deleted by creator
Love how you ignored my response to your response that provided a scientific rationale demonstrating that you don’t have a clear understanding of how thermal paste works, and you just doubled down on flawed opinions. Carry on friend.
Edit: Based on the law of heat conduction, as the paste thickness rises it will reduce heat flow based on the math of the formula. Less is more.
deleted by creator
The best part was being accused of being a troll. There is no sense in playing chess with pigeons, they just knock all the pieces around, shit on the board, then claim they won the game.
not worth discussing
Writes a novel
did your article measure aging? assuming you didn’t fry your PC with the excess paste, there is no edge seal on voids when you use too much. over time most paste will dry and crack, creating new voids and hot spots. there is a difference between hour old transfer compound and 2 year old compound.
this has got to be a troll post. right? RIGHT?!
as you pointed out, just get rid of the air gaps with the absolute minimal amount of paste.
my back woods method
ensure your heat sink does not have pre-applied paste or a pad. apply a small amount of paste. cut the thickness with the short edge of an old credit card at about a 30° angle, using just enough pressure to bend the card slightly so the smooth surface of the card presses paste into voids and the trailing edge of the card removes excess to level the surface - you will likely still be able to make out some chip package markings through the paste. remove all edge excess and spillage. fit your heat sink. done.
The perfect amount would be a very thin layer, evenly distributed with zero waste. This is very much not that. At best you could argue it’s a quick way to do it that is worth the trade-off, except for the valid point the other commenter made about too much actually reducing heat conduction.
At that point it’s just thermal paste with slight hints of computer.
“A dab’ll do ya.”
if they had to put some in their mouth, they should have used mayo instead.
They graduated from eating Elmer’s paste to Noctua paste
That’s one expensive transition
They mayo goes in the computer and I’d like a ham and cheese on rye with extra thermal paste.
Each of those chips have basically half a container on them, so I’m not sure how anyone got the idea they should use that much.
I paid for the whole container, and by god I’m going to use it!
The industrial containers I had the pleasure of producing and shipping could all be re-sealed for later (industrial) use. Are the options available for commercial use not able to be re-sealed for later use? As long as it’s properly sealed it can be good for 2-5 years.
