How to apply thermal paste

So this would be my 5th time putting on the thermal paste between my Asetek H50 and my Zerotherm ZT10.For some reason when i put each of them on the temps stay at around 50c under stress and then after a week or couple days the temps start rising.I'm not sure if it's the thermal paste or not.

So how do you correctly apply it.I usually just do a pea size and put the heatsink on right away.Should you wait for it to dry before you put it on?
 
Solution
You can start using it right away... there's no need to wait for anything related to TIM...

in my case (AS5 and MX4) i always found stable temps right from the beginning and the drop kicks in after a few months... But with Noctua NT H1 its been 7 months now and i'm still yet to see a drop in temp...

rubix_1011

Contributing Writer
Moderator
A pea size is far too big. You need something like the size of a grain of rice, at most.

And for the record, the H50 won't net you fantastic results IMO. The H70 will perform better, but neither will do great...good maybe with some good fans in push/pull.

My questions are these:

1. What are your ambient room temps?
2. What kind of temps are you expecting to see?
3. CPU?
4. Overclocked or stock?
5. If OC, what are your clocks/voltages/settings?

This will help paint a more clear picture to determine if the temps you are seeing are reasonable for the expected results.
 
ambient is 75F
I am hoping to see low temps but what is bothering me is when i first put on the thermal paste and run a stress test it will stay at 50c.But after a week or so i stress test again and it will go up to around 55c.Both test were run with an O.C.
Phenom ii x4 965@3.8ghz 1.425v.Increasing the voltage not by much but it raised the temps to around 2-3c which is understandable.I have only used the CPU multiplyer(x19) and some minor voltage tweaks.

What is a curing period?I usually apply the thermal paste and go right into stress testing.Should you just put the heatsink on and let them adhere together before turning it on?
 

abully

Distinguished
Sep 7, 2010
573
1
19,065
curing period is the time the TIM takes to "settle down" between the contact plates (like between any imperfections in any)... also some TIM's require a few heating and cooling cycles to reach its maximum heat transfer capability... curing period varies with the TIM's... you will have to follow the manufacturer's specs for this...
 
I have Arctic Silver 5.
From what i'm reading curing time doesn't seem to be nesseasry, but it is reccomend.Also i've been reading that what i should see if it does need a curing time should be the exact oppoiste from what type of temps i'm getting.
Says that temps will be high by 2-4c until it has cured which takes around 200hrs/couple days.Then it should go down.In my case it's cooler in the begging and then after a week the temps will rise around 5c.
 

abully

Distinguished
Sep 7, 2010
573
1
19,065
You can start using it right away... there's no need to wait for anything related to TIM...

in my case (AS5 and MX4) i always found stable temps right from the beginning and the drop kicks in after a few months... But with Noctua NT H1 its been 7 months now and i'm still yet to see a drop in temp...
 
Solution

ionut19

Distinguished
Oct 31, 2008
961
0
19,060



You know you get pockets of air by applying the paste like that, no?

You place 1 small sphere of paste, depending on it's viscosity larger or smaller. AS5 for example is not so thick, ICD is thicker and needs a larger sphere on the center. Also the paste can be applied on the surface of the cooler and wiped off until there is only just a little residue that covers the microscopic and really small imperfections. If the cooler has a direct touch heat pipe design you need to apply some paste to fill the spaces between the heat pipes and the bottom bracket on the side where it touches the CPU before applying the paste on the CPU it's self.
 


The best way is to read the directions. All of them are different. Some like AS5 require up to 100 hrs cure. Some require no cure at all.
 

rubix_1011

Contributing Writer
Moderator
OP also needs to understand that while too much TIM is bad, a bad OC in your BIOS due to too high voltage can cause high temps when not needed.

OP-

Retest with CPU settings at stock...see what your temps are; idle and load for several hours. What do they appear to be?

Then, work on your OC.

I think this is an issue with failed expectations when he expects a result but doesn't know what his baseline (stock) results are to begin with.
 


OC depends heavily on how good your processor is, some will require voltage to increase a few hundred megahurtz, some wont. Its just a chance. My E6750 could do 3.2 (from 2.66) no vCore increase. While my friends E6700 needed vCore anything past 2.9 (granted slightly different models but concept is the same)
 

sockpirate

Distinguished
Sep 15, 2010
156
0
18,680
true, it does vary from chip to chip. Although in my experience at around the 400+ MHZ i have to start raising the vcore, its extremely nice if you get better than that , some people get lucky chips ha ha