Zalman VF700, Thermal compound question.

[Ar_Pi]

Well my Asus 9800XT is overheating (nothing new since i found out that its a big problem with the whole line of these XT's).

I bought Zalman VF700 and i want to know what is the best way to put the thermal grease?

Should i place a drop on the heat spreader and just smack the heatsink on it? or should i spread it all over the surface with a plastic? (like it suggested in Zalman Site). I'm using Arctic Silver 5.

Sorry if this was discussed b4.

Thanx

 

[w3wizard]

I have the same question but for a different reason, I'm putting on my CPU cooling head for water cooling and I bought the same compound you are asking about.

 

[shawnlizzle =]]

put a dot of AS5 the size of a speck of rice, then put the hsf fan on, don't spread it out yourself

 

[eastbay]

Another opinion
While I agree that a VERY SMALL amount is needed, there isn't a way to say with words what size a grain of rice is.
I put a 'rice size grain' on the cpu and use a plastic putty knife (from local hardware store cost about 1.50 US) to spread it over the cpu.
In my experiance this spreading around avoids the 'holes' that can form when the heat sink is pushed down.
Most of the CPU's that we are using these days have automtic shut offs if they get too hot, so if after you do this you machine 'suddenly' stops.
Try again with the compound.
Cleaning off the old from I've used 'goo b gone' and lint free cloths and not had any problems.

 

[jimw428]

Here's a news flash for you. Arctic Silver has a web site (imagine that) with the correct installation instructions. I've read many, many suggestions on this subject on Tom's, and several are just plain wrong. Go to the source and get the straight scoop.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

 

[Ar_Pi]

Yes i know about this instructions in their site.

but the manual in Zalman shows that you have to spread it: VF700 Flash

So i was wondering which is the better way, i guess both are good.

But are the rules for applying onto a CPU and GPU are the same?

 

[function9]

Well the general rule of thumb is usually listen to whoever's product you're using. In this case Arctic Silver. It depends, if you are applying it to an exposed core (like the Athlon XP chips, Nvidia chips, etc) you spread it over the whole core. If you're applying it to a chip with a heatspreader (any newer cpu for example) put a small drop right in the middle, put the heatsink on and tighten it down. The pressure from securing the heatsink will spread it out.

I've done it both ways and there's really no difference in temps if you apply the stuff right in the first place. But using the "drop" method means less hassle of trying to spread it all out. So it doesn't matter if it's a cpu or gpu, it only matters if the chip has a heatspreader on it or it's an exposed core.