Thermal Paste Coverage

[magnetica]

Hi

I was wondering how much thermal paste coverage needs to be on my GPU chip? I have bought a Arctic Accelero S1 Plus for my Radeon HD6570.

Heres a picture of the heatsink from the Accelero
http://www.arctic.ac/p/images/articles/bb371b9bef1de176e8fdf3528ba8ff75_0.png

Now heres what my GPU Chip looks like. Same design but this is from a 5570
http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/video/radeon-hd5670-hd5570-hd5450/5570/sph5570_gpu-s.jpg


Will the amount of thermal paste on the heatsink currently be too much coverage? SHould it cover just the plate or the chips as well?

To give you an idea of size the GPU chip is the same size as the thermal paste on the Accelero heatsink

 

[spike15_mk]

Just put small dot of the thermal compound on the center on the gpu. That should be sufficient.

 

[w1zz4]

I would add about the size of a pea. Use a plastic card (like credit card) to spread out the thermal paste in a really thin layer. A chip is not smooth, if you look with a microscope, you will see alot of imperfections. the purpose of the thermal paste is to fill those imperfection in order to make a perfect contact between cooler and chip. Never put too much grease since it is normally less thermal conductive than your cooler.

 

[magnetica]

Thanks for the replies. Ok so I should take some thermal compound from the heatsink and apply to the chip? Then clean my heatsink plate?

 

[w1zz4]

Thanks for the replies. Ok so I should take some thermal compound from the heatsink and apply to the chip? Then clean my heatsink plate?

No, if your accelero have preapplied thermal compound/paste, unless you have good quality thermal paste on hand, use the thermal compound only (never ever mix different thermal paste/compound). Clean your GPU with isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcool). trying using high percentage alcohol (over 70%), let your GPU rest pour 5 minutes (to make sure alcohol evaporated) then put your new cooler on the GPU. If you have high quality thermal paste, remove all the compound from heatsink and put some thermal as mentionned on the GPU.

 

[magnetica]

I have no plans on mixing compounds, in fact I have Arctic Silver 5 on hand as well as isopropyl alcohol 99%. But the instructions that come with the Accelero state they can only guarantee safe usage with Arctic MX-4 which is whats on the heatsink!

So after cleaning the chip with the alcohol, is it safe to take some compound from the Accelero and apply it to the chip?

Obviously I would clean the heatsink before mounting.

 

[magnetica]

Or being that the Arctic Silver 5 is good quality paste, should/could I use that?

 

[w1zz4]

I have no plans on mixing compounds, in fact I have Arctic Silver 5 on hand as well as isopropyl alcohol 99%. But the instructions that come with the Accelero state they can only guarantee safe usage with Arctic MX-4 which is whats on the heatsink!

So after cleaning the chip with the alcohol, is it safe to take some compound from the Accelero and apply it to the chip?

Obviously I would clean the heatsink before mounting.

If I was you and having Arctic Silver 5 on hand, I would remove all compound, put some AS5 on the GPU and ignore totally Arctic Cooling recommendation that make no sense to me (their point is probably that they don't want you to put cheap thermal paste between your GPU and the heatsink, but hey AS5 is good ***) But if you want to stay with the MX-4, just clean your GPU and put you Accelero on the GPU, no compound transfer needed.

 

[magnetica]

Yea I think you're right, it's just a way to get you to buy quality paste and of course from them. Ok I'll go ahead and use the AS5.

Thanks very much for your help, much appreciated!

 

[w1zz4]

MX-4 is not a bad paste either. But if I had choice, I'll choose AS5 over MX-4.