Applying thermal paste is a vital skill for any would-be PC builder. If this is your first time doing this, it’s very probable that you’ve heard all kinds of horrifying stories about possible fiery destruction of hardware.
Thermal paste tends to get confused for thermal adhesive because of its ‘gluey’ look and feel, but they are very different things.
Thermal adhesive is used to essentially bond heatsink with an integrated circuit whereas, the thermal paste doesn’t have adhesive capabilities, and is in charge of conducting heat from the chip to the heatsink.
There are two reasons to apply thermal paste. The first is if you’ve brought a new chip and the other one, when you’re replacing your old thermal paste. There are also several different methods of applying thermal paste that all work pretty well.
Let’s get over how to do both and for the GPU and the CPU.
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Applying The Thermal Paste To A New CPU Or GPU
It might be a bit demoralizing for a newbie to get a high-performing CPU and then realize they have to do a process they’ve never done before, that can potentially mess up their hardware. Further confusion is added with the various different ways of applying the thermal paste, and with the inert fear that wrong application could seriously mess things inside your PC.
It would be misleading to say that there’s no way to apply thermal paste unsafely. There is, it’s just that a little common sense and skill or experience can easily enable you to apply just the right amount in just the right way.
The important thing to note here is that some CPUs come with a pre-applied thermal paste, but if that’s not the case, you’re going to have to do it manually.
Step 0 – Getting The Right Paste
Before starting the process, it’s important to have the best paste you can acquire.
The conventional wisdom applies here as well – the more expensive the thermal paste is, the better it is. As usual, there are caveats here and there, but most of the time this approach will do just fine. Usually, you want to have a higher quality thermal paste to better conduct heat from your CPU to the heatsink, but the cheaper ones will do just fine.
Seeing how thermal paste isn’t expensive, you might do better by spending a few extra bucks, for your own peace of mind at least. Another cool tidbit is that the thermal paste tends to come with its own container that looks a bit like medical syringes, which enables them to distribute the paste slowly.
Basically, the only way you can apply too much paste is if you intentionally squeeze it out too much. Actually, you’re far more likely to apply too little.
Step 1 – Installing The Chip
Just in case, let’s get the obvious things out of the way. You only apply the thermal paste after you have installed the chip on the motherboard and secured it. The paste goes on top to conduct heat to the heatsink and it has absolutely no relation with the connectors. Unless you make a mistake, but hopefully after this guide, you will not.
Assuming you’re installing a new CPU to the old motherboard, you’re going to detach the latch (retention arm) or unscrew the screws or both, depending on your motherboard. Either way, you should consult a manual for your specific motherboard model.
After you’ve done so, hold the chip gingerly by its sides to avoid damaging the pins. There is usually an indicator on both the CPU and the motherboard that shows you which side to put where.
Step 2 – Applying The Paste
So, after the chip is secure be it via the latches or screws, it’s time to add the heatsink to the combination. Of course, it won’t be held together via thermal paste which, as we mentioned earlier, has no adhesive properties.
Before plopping the heatsink on to the chip, we need to apply the thermal paste.
There are several different methods, but the ones most commonly used are the ‘dot’ method and the ‘cross’ method.
With the first one, you apply a dot the size of a grain of rice to the middle of the CPU and try to lower the heatsink with a firm, but overall equal force. Of course, you don’t slam it down or apply your body’s full force when it’s down. You simply put it down and try to make it equal on all sides.
A good rule of thumb for this method is to look at the capacitors around the CPU and try to keep the paste around that size. This way of applying thermal paste is the most commonly used and in general, it’s quite a safe method.
This method is pretty reliable and won’t cause any extra spillage.
If you want to be on the safe side, you would use another method. The ‘cross’ method is just what it sounds like. You draw a straight line from one corner to another and then repeat the process and connect the other two corners with the two lines intersecting in the middle, roughly in the right angle.
Important note: you don’t draw the lines all the way to the edge, instead, you should try to remain inside the CPU borders as much as possible.
The lowering of the heatsink is pretty much universal – equal distribution of force.
There are plenty more ‘drawing’ methods, but they all generally yield the same results. You can use the ‘line’ method, and a ‘spiral’ method and they are precisely what they sound like. You can add more lines. You can even draw a smiley face, although that hasn’t been really tested so it may not be 100% functional.
Things To Look Out For
There are two more ways of applying the thermal paste and they’re not specifically pattern-type solutions like the ones previously mentioned.
If you apply too little thermal paste, there’s a strong chance that there won’t be enough of it to properly conduct heat and the CPU might get overheated.
If you apply too much thermal paste, then you have a different problem.
Of course, the heat will pass through properly, but too much paste may cause it to spill on the side when the heatsink pressure is applied. This may lead to short-circuiting your board and that’s probably the biggest concern you had when entering the process.
In this section, we’ve talked about the CPU, but the process is pretty much identical for the GPU.
You need to open your graphics card to expose the chip. If you’re not sure how to do that, here’s a nice guide below:
Changing The Thermal Paste
There are plenty of good reasons to change the thermal paste on either GPU or the CPU.
If you notice that either is getting more and more heat, you should probably first see if there’s a need to clean the dust or if the fans are working as they were before. But, if you do all this and heat problem persists, it’s likely the time to change the thermal paste.
To do this, you’re first going to need the new thermal paste. When you unhook the heatsink from your chip, you’ll be able to see firsthand how well did your previous application of the thermal paste work.
If you used the ‘dot’ method and things weren’t spread out evenly, then you might try the ‘cross’ method.
Before proceeding, it would be for the best if you removed both the heatsink and the chip from the board as the next part of the process may inadvertently damage it.
There are two different opinions on how to remove the residual paste and while both do work, the best method is probably the combination of the two. For the largest part of the paste, you may use a microfiber cloth or a paper towel, if you don’t have such cloth.
When holding the chip, you want to hold it by its sides as otherwise, you may damage the pins and render it useless.
You’ll want to use rubbing alcohol with as high percentage as possible and dampen the cloth before gently rubbing the paste off. The best advice is to start gently in order to get a feel for the brittleness of the chip.
Not to say that it’ll fall apart in your hands, but just so you know to not apply too much force from the start.
After you’ve rubbed off the majority of the remaining paste, you may notice some nooks and crannies that are still dirty. Even if you don’t notice this, it’s recommended you do this next step.
You’ll want to use a cotton swab with alcohol and get to those tight spots. Only then you will be able to guarantee the cleanliness of the GPU (or CPU).
After you’ve thoroughly cleaned the old paste, you may proceed with the application of the new paste. The instructions are the same as when applying them to a new CPU, so we won’t repeat ourselves.
One thing to note though is that if you notice an uneven spreading of the paste in the way it was previously applied or if your paste quickly stopped conducting heat properly, you might want to change your method.
