I finally saw the difference a proper thermal paste application made on a gaming rig that kept overheating.

After redoing the paste on a client's PC with a pea-sized dot instead of the huge glob they'd used, the CPU temps dropped from 95C to 72C under load in just one afternoon, so what's your go-to method for applying it?

2 comments

2 Comments

dakotal191d ago

Remember watching my cousin try to "frost the CPU like a cake" once. He used half the tube and temps were so bad his game looked like a slideshow. My method is just a thin line across the middle now, works every time without the mess. Honestly, most people just use way too much and it ends up acting like a blanket.

karenhenderson1d ago

Frosting the cake actually works better on some chips. Modern CPUs have heat spreaders with uneven surfaces. A thin line can leave gaps on the corners. The big glob method, if spread properly with a card, fills every tiny imperfection. More paste just squeezes out the sides, and cleaning it is worth the extra cooling.