Just realized most people don't understand how thermal paste actually works

I was swapping a CPU cooler on a Dell Optiplex 3070 last week and noticed the paste was dried out and cracked. Client said they used "the good stuff from Amazon" but they spread it way too thick like peanut butter. Do y'all ever see people globbing it on because more must be better?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_james16d ago

Yeah I totally get what you mean about the "spackle for walls" thing. Had a buddy who used a whole syringe of Arctic Silver on his first build because he thought the thicker the layer the better the heat transfer. He ended up with paste squeezing out the sides of his CPU and had to spend an hour cleaning it off the motherboard with isopropyl alcohol.

johnson.daniel29d ago

@graygonzalez right on the money with that credit card thing. What puzzles me is why people think thermal paste is like spackle for walls instead of a thin filler for tiny gaps. Do they not realize the whole point is to SQUEEZE out most of it under pressure?

graygonzalez1mo ago

Yeah I watched a guy put a pea sized dab in the middle and then spread it with a credit card like he was icing a cake. Took ten minutes to get the excess out of the socket pins.

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