Had a weird 'aha' moment with thermal paste yesterday

I've been building PCs for like 8 years now and always just did the pea-sized dot method without thinking much about it. But yesterday I was working on a Ryzen 5600 build and the temps were hitting 85C under load with a decent air cooler. I pulled it off and the paste spread super uneven, more to one side. So out of curiosity I tried the spread method with a plastic card, just thin and even across the whole IHS. Dropped the temps to 72C under the same load after running Cinebench for 15 minutes. Has anyone else had better luck with spreading vs the dot for certain CPUs or coolers?

3 comments

3 Comments

iris57423d ago

Heard Gamers Nexus tested this and the dot method actually works fine for most chips.

drew_park23d ago

Oh man, I once used too much toothpaste as paste and it actually worked for a week.

mark_thomas7d ago

70% of the time I just glob it on there. But I saw a video comparing methods and the tiny pea sized dot actually spread just as good. Changed my whole approach.