Thermal Interface Material Replacement

[cjr689]

hey,
I'm running a pentium 4 2.67GHz processor on an ASUS P5RD1-VM motherboard...recently while cleaning the processor's fan/heatsink assembly i detached the fan from the processor thus creating the need for me to reapply the thermal interface material(TIM) before reinstalling it...i bought some 'dow corning' TIM from intel and their site gives directions for its use....however i was a little confused by one of the diagrams given on that page
http://support.intel.com/support/processors/sb/CS-023107.htm

could anyone tell me what exactly Figure 1 is supposed to be...
Thanks

 

[merlinbadman]

Figure 1 is supposed to be the bottom of the CPU heatsink.

 

[B-Unit]

And a horrible picture for what the're trying to show, that pic depicts the bottom of your heatsink as it leaves the factory, with thermal compound pre-applied. There's pretty much no way your gonna ever make it look like that.

As they said, place a small ammount in the center and attach.

 

[DatmanII]

This might help some.

Application on Round-base Coolers

 

[cjr689]

thanks all....i have one more query.....in all the articles i've read about TIM application,they say to apply a small pea-sized amount to the IHS and then place the fan/heatsink....i bought the intel recommended thermal grease...the instructions(on the page i've posted the link for,and the booklet that came with the grease) say to apply the entire amount of grease from the syringe.....now that's about 2cc's of thermal grease....should i apply the entire amount or just a pea-sized amount like all the articles say??

 

[Just_An_Engineer]

thanks all....i have one more query.....in all the articles i've read about TIM application,they say to apply a small pea-sized amount to the IHS and then place the fan/heatsink....i bought the intel recommended thermal grease...the instructions(on the page i've posted the link for,and the booklet that came with the grease) say to apply the entire amount of grease from the syringe.....now that's about 2cc's of thermal grease....should i apply the entire amount or just a pea-sized amount like all the articles say??

Depending on the material it can be bad to use too much. Some thermal greases (notably Arctic Silver) are electrically conductive so you want to make sure that you don't apply too much and have it squirt out the sides when you install the heatsink as this could cause shorts. If the compound is not electrically conductive you will be safe even if you apply a little too much, but I still wouldn't use the whole tube just because it would be a waste.

 

[Akebono 98]

Less is more...

 

[cjr689]

thanks everyone for the help.....just finished putting the fan heatsink back....its running 35deg C on idle n 47deg C using graphics heavy games.....