The Secret of Properly Apply Thermal Paste and Install CPU
Building a PC is a much-step process, however one in particular stands out as being daunting job : properly applying a CPU along with its cooler. Why? Because, commonly speaking, that one little CPU chip is simultaneously the smallest, most fragile, and most costly part of your PC. Apply the cooler wrong, or poorly apply the thermal paste can lead you to drop in performance even system crashes, and at worst you need to replace your CPU.
Still don’t worry! It’s actually not terribly daunting to install a new CPU, as long as you understand what you’re doing. And so that you do understand what you’re doing, I’ve gather a quick primer on installing a new CPU. If you’re a rookie getting ready to build a new PC, or an old pro looking to ensure your technique is the best, read on to find out everything you have to understand about properly installing a CPU.
what is thermal paste ?
Thermal paste is a kind of heat conductor that serves to fill in the microscopic gaps that naturally happen when two flat metal surfaces—like your CPU and cooler-are stacked against one another. These air-filled chasms slow down the rate at which the cooler is able to absorb heat from your CPU, and filling them with thermal material considerably increases performance. There are a number of different kinds of thermal material, such as; metal-based pastes, solid or waxy thermal pads and many more. Some coolers include pre-applied pads, and the rest didn’t, and it's strongly recommended to use a paste.
Preparing the CPU and cooler
If you have a CPU, cooler or even both that's already used, then they're probably to have the rest of thermal paste residue. Don’t be lured to just make use this gunky thermal paste residue, as it will dries out over time, and you will never deliver a clean connection between your CPU and cooler.
So the first order of your effort is to get rid the rest of old thermal paste. There are a lot of different ways of getting rid such thing, you can use cleanser or high-percentage rubbing alcohol. I rather use high-percentage rubbing alcohol as it does the job fine. Simply wipe it clean with a lint cloth and the grease in the thermal paste will gone. Do it twice or more until both the surfaces of CPU and its cooler are already clean, and after that move on.
How to Apply the thermal paste
If you've done some research on internet, you'll see plenty of different ways about how to apply thermal paste. Some say you have to apply it in a dot, and others a line, and so on. I prefer applying it in a dot, since this manner will squish into a circle, which will probably reach to all 4 edges of your CPU.
Here’s what I recommend:
- First, install the CPU into its socket on the motherboard.
- Once, drop a dot of thermal paste directly onto CPU's surface. Note : don't drop large dot onto your CPU, The dot should be as small as possible, even a bit smaller than a pea. After that, put your cooler down and press it straight down onto your CPU so that the thermal paste spreads sleekly in all directions.
- The last simply lock CPU's cooler down and your CPU is already installed. Still, if you’re worrying the paste didn’t get spread evenly, you could give it a quick look by lifting its cooler back up, curling slightly to break the vacuum seal that might have formed. If you’ve dropped too much thermal paste here, you can get rid the excess from around the edges therefore it wouldn't getting worse, even if you’ve dropped too little, you can drop some more. Certainly, if you somehow just screwed it up, you can always clean it up and try again
Keep in mind that I don’t recommend doing this more than two time— since every time you release the cooler, you potentially boosting more air bubbles into your thermal paste, which will hinder the rate of heat from your CPU to its cooler. Don’t worry about that it will never break your system though—unless you’re performing several real overclocking.
