i typically know how to apply thermal grease the traditional way, that is place a small dab of the grease on the processor and spread it out evenly on to the top surface of the processor. however, with new processors, there has been more then one way of applying them and i have been unsure on what it the best solution for todays processors. so the question stands, what it the best way of applying thermal grease for a quad core cpu? the antec way, is to apply a horizontal line on the cpu [where the cpu triangle is on the lower left hand side]. is this the best contemperary method for cpus or is the traditional method still the best way? side note, i know that it's an antec method and is probably meant for antec thermal grease products, but i have found others who followed the method regardless of the materials they use.
I make a square round the edges with two diagonals, then spread it. I've always done it like that, and generally so long as its even and not too thick it doesnt matter how its applied. Just make sure its good thermal paste (silver based is best)
you do it the traditional way, spread them over the entire surface of the cpu. i guess i'll stick to tradition then. i usually use whatever comes with the heatsink [not the intel or amd heatsink] that you buy from a company that specializes in heatsinks. so if i bought a thermaltake 120 or a sunbeam core cooler, i'll just use whatever compound they give.
arctic silver 5 is generally regarded as the best thermal paste available, although I've used akasa (not available in the US) and found it perfectly good. Funny you should mention sunbeam, my current CPU cooler is the sunbeamtech core contact freezer.
that's the heatsink i bought from newegg. it is quite competetive with the other top coolers like thermaltake or cooler master while also having a very good price point.
supposidly the thermal paste that comes with it is better than AS5, but I wouldn't like to say. Make sure you read the instructions, as the installation procedure for that cooler is slightly different to usual
update, i got the cooler and installed everything. i had a few problems trying to push the pins into the hook. one problem was the heatsink for the northbridge and the other was the slipperiness of the compound. i may have put too much on the cpu as it was slideing when i tried to push the pins. i placed a square on the middle of the processor and hoping that it'll spread out evenly when i place the heatsink on. there was a moment when i had to pick up the heatsink to see if the pins were aligned to the hook [i saw that it wasn't perfectly applied, not centered and was off center and also had some on the socket]. hopefully this won'e cause any problems. do you think i should disassemble and retry or should i just leave it as it is?
I just follow however the company describes. I read somewhere actually that one tiny dollop in the center of the processor has better heat transfer than spreading it. Many people say that it's not as efficient if you spread the thermal paste. For quad cores, I apply a horizontal line across the the processor, as recommended by Arctic Silver. http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm
It took me quite a while to get it on too. So long as the thermal surface of the CPU is covered by the heatsink and there is good contact there it will be fine.
i use cpuid hardware monitor and it gave me a 35-40 degree during idle at 3.7ghz at 1500 rpm on a q9550. during prime 95 i get about 55-62[3] degrees after 1hr. i use intels burn test and temps got upto 66 degress or so during the last cycle of the test.
