Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[nenjin]

Recently a mount on my heat sink broke. After running it for a few weeks my system started locking up and eventually getting corrupted windows files.

So I pulled the heat sink and ordered a new one. I figure the thermal paste got crispy from inconsistent contact with the processor.

Anyways, assuming my processor isn't damaged and this heat sink is the fix, there's a lot of the old thermal paste gunked on the face of the processor. Should I try to clean it off before putting the new one on there? Q-tip and rubbing alcohol? Will the old thermal paste make for a poor contact if it's mushed into the new?

[lordcooper]

You should definitely clean off the existing paste before adding more.  Isopropyl alcohol (the purer the better) or acetone will get the job done best.

[Knight of Fools]

You'll want to use a decent quality paper towel that won't leave behind scraps. Be sure to let it dry completely. Don't blow on it. Don't touch it. Don't breathe on it. Don't look at it. Don't think about it too hard.

If the heat sink has thermal paste already on it, you're pretty much set. Check it for bubbles, marks, or other imperfections. If it's good, just line it up with the bits that need to be lined up and slide it into place, pressing gently, but firmly. Some heat sinks need to have an entire contraption hooked up to the motherboard, so be prepared to remove the motherboard if needed.

If it doesn't have paste yet, or you end up having to replace the processor and remove the paste, clean up the heat sink, apply the thermal paste in a pea sized glob directly in the middle of the processor, and put the heat sink on it, pushing gently but firmly as always, but twisting a bit this time to get the paste spread nice and evenly.

As for the paste itself, there's a lot of different thermal pastes out there. You don't have to go crazy and drop $20 on a tube unless you're on a binge, but don't go too cheap or you'll just end up with the same problem all over again. Poor quality pastes dry out easily and don't conduct heat as well.

[Tellemurius]

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Thermal-Paste-Application-Techniques-170/
At most for solid heatsinks a peasize drop of thermal paste at the center is best, for those of us that have those exposed heatpipes I either leave lines on the pipe or do a complete spread. Always use rubbing alcohol as acetone leaves some streaking, paper towel or a non-lint cloth to wipe clean.

[Shakerag]

Huh.  I always put a nice, even coat of paste on my processor before dropping the heat sink on it. 

[Knight of Fools]

The danger with spreading it around beforehand is air bubbles, uneven application, and over application. Spreading it probably won't ruin your system any time soon, but it makes it less efficient (Heat wise) and there's the possibility of messing it up pretty bad and causing the paste to dry out faster, possibly resulting in what happened to Nenjin's computer.

Pushing down on the pea sized glob and spreading it that way makes those things less likely, and pea sized is as close as you can get to exactly how much you need without measuring it. Ideally you want as thin a layer as possible between the processor and the heat sink with as much closed space with the paste between the two as possible, but bringing it down to a science has negligible returns. Unless you're trying to break a record of some kind and have lots of cash, you won't need to worry about that sort of thing.

Just be aware of best practices. They won't guarantee everything works perfectly, but they definitely make problems less likely.

[nenjin]

Cleaned and installed new heat sink. Really the bigger pain in the ass was the fact it had a mount for the back of the mobo, so I had to tear it all apart.

[Tellemurius]

Yea if its one of those giant blocks, those are required else your board will flex from the weight.

[nenjin]

And yet they didn't give me any thermal paste. Fuckers.

[Sensei]

That sucks. Definitely don't run your computer without thermal paste. A lot of heatsinks nowadays come with pre-applied thermal paste right on them (you did check right?) so you just have to screw it down and you're set. Otherwise though, thermal paste is not expensive, you can get it online or from a store. I recommend you watch a video on how to apply it.

[nenjin]

Oh, it was a done deal days ago. I probably put too much on paste on, ended up applying it to the heatsink instead of the CPU face because the copper was a better indicator of the space needed than the CPU. (Yes, I checked whether there was paste on it first. Also, pea-sized? Takes a little more than that.) Luckily I have a couple actual computer stores here in town, or I would have been 12 kinds of pissed off having to order some. I've never had a heat sink ship without either pre-applied thermal paste or a small tube of it.

Computer started fine, after about 2 hours of me being stupid because I had to tear the thing apart and put it back together again. Fun fact: there's lots of little shit you can do wrong that will make your computer flat out not even turn on I've done this dozens of times now but I always manage to forget something along the way. If it's not which HDD should go in which order, it's that the CPU has its own power connector. If it's not which way your case display LEDs or power switch jumpers go on, it's wiring up the case fans wrong so they're not getting power.

Once I got it up and running, the processor was fine though. Which is good. Guess you probably need to be overclocking to really run the risk of damaging it that much.

[Sensei]

Once I got it up and running, the processor was fine though. Which is good. Guess you probably need to be overclocking to really run the risk of damaging it that much.

Usually you do (either that or not use a heatsink), but cooler is always better as your CPU will throttle down to prevent heat damage, so you can get a lot more from an efficiently cooled CPU.

It's also not a bad idea to monitor your CPU's temperature as it's used over time (heat problems rarely show up just on the desktop, doing nothing), possibly during a stress test.

[nenjin]

After 4 hours of Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls in a tiny room with a space heater running, it's threshold got down to about 20 C, averaging about 33 to 38 C. Not great, actually a little worse than I expected, but tolerable considering this is a $13 cooler. I was only playing solo as well, and the last time I bottomed out its temp threshold I was playing MP. As long as it stays above 10 C I'll consider myself fine.

[Tellemurius]

dude wut, my cpu tops at 60c for loads and its a OC i52500k

[Knight of Fools]

Yeah, 60C under load is perfectly acceptable. I'd say trying to keep it below 40C is overkill, unless you're trying to break some sort of record or keep the fan speeds down. I mean... 40C is just a hot day. The danger zone is only once you start getting up to 70C.

If noise from the fan is what you're worried about, you might look into lowering the fan volume if your fan comes with those options. Otherwise you could overclock the thing, assuming its clock is unlocked.

I'm glad everything worked out though.