Athlon 64 Thermal Grease Application

[Blasphemy]

I've finally got every part in that I need to build my first Athlon 64 system, but I have 1 question that I need answered before I proceed: what is the best way to apply the thermal grease to the CPU before placing the heatsink down? I've read on Artic Silver's website (I will be using AS5) that you put a dab about the size of 1 1/2 grains of uncooked rice...but I've read other places that it's not a trustworth method of doing it, and it just spread it over the CPU like a normal XP or something. So which is safer? Thanks for the help. Here's the parts I have that will be built if anyone is curious:

MSI Neo2 Platinum s939
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
1GB Corsiar XMS 3200XL 2-2-2-5
Antec Neopower 480W
74GB Western Digital Raptor
and no new video card...sticking with 9700pro for now

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AMD Athlon XP 2100+ stock
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
1GB generic RAM
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 360/335

 

[Mr5oh]

Obvisuly you don't need to spread the grease over the whole chip, you can just put the dab in the center, and the heatsink will spread it out, or if you feel better about spreading it, spread it, either will work fine. You can spread it around the center area.

My Desktop: <A HREF="http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html" target="_new">http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html</A>

 

[Blasphemy]

I'm just worried about the 'let the heatsink spread it' because doing that I can't be 100% sure it's spread even. So I guess I'll just spread it like normal in the center area so I can feel safer...btw the hsf that is going to be used is a Swiftech MCX6400-V

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AMD Athlon XP 2100+ stock
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
1GB generic RAM
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 360/335

 

[Crashman]

You'll hear a lot of BS about scrapping it thin, but the stuff has such a low vicosity that you could put it on 1/2 inch thick and it would still come out thin enough. The problem is the mess you creat by putting on too much! I always just dabb it on fairly evenly and let the heatsink smash it flat.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Crashman]

It doesn't HAVE to be perfectly even, when I get done dabbing it on it looks like sandpaper! The heatsink clip has a lot of pressure, it WILL smash it into the correct "shape".

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[Blasphemy]

Wait, so you put one dab in the center or you put mutiple dabs around the center?

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AMD Athlon XP 2100+ stock
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
1GB generic RAM
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 360/335

 

[Mr5oh]

Put one big dab in the center, a few smaller dabs in the center, doesn't really matter, the heatsink will spread it out for you.

My Desktop: <A HREF="http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html" target="_new">http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html</A>

 

[Blasphemy]

Alright, I guess I'll just do the dab since it's easier, plus the swiftech hsf is around 750g so it should spread it around like no other...thanks for the help

----------------------------------------------------
AMD Athlon XP 2100+ stock
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
1GB generic RAM
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 360/335

 

[El_Jefe_77]

I always put like 3-4x the amount shown. it just barely begins to ooze out after clamping, thats a sign that makes me happy, i always though even it out smootth in a smaller square than the proc is by a small amount (so i dont get mass ooze