BirthME, Doulas

Conventional wisdom says that a really thick layer of paste is bad, since ideally the coldplate and IHS should be as close to each other as physically possible, but we’ll wait until the end of the article to compare temperature averages. GamersNexus.net is Owned, Operated, & Maintained by GamersNexus, LLC.
The reason the graph is hard to read even at this scale is that the temperatures are all almost exactly the same.This graph includes the temperature logs for each of the valid tests, but zoomed in to a range of eight degrees. We added some washers and thermal paste to the RX 5700 XT cooler to fix some of its previously dismal performance.

This is a potentially real user result, and so we tested under these conditions. Beyond these non-thermal considerations, the biggest goal is not doing “too little.” The pressure from the cooler will take care of the rest.We moderate comments on a ~24~48 hour cycle. The blob measured at 10.12mm x 12.22mm x 3.1mm deep.

Remember, this is a 256W load with a delidded CPU using liquid metal, so this is one of the most likely scenarios where you’d see a difference in the quantity of paste impacting results.

This is the method we use for tests where CPU temperatures aren’t vital, like building a new Windows OS or just testing to see if all the components work. There is one key difference here: That testing involved an X99 CPU. Thermal pad is also better for bare die where LM isn't possible/desirable like laptop CPUs or GPUs with odd mounting pressures and tendencies to pump out paste/TIM. Also be mindful of cleanup later on. It’s worth mentioning that, regardless of thermal performance, a thin layer of paste is really easy to deal with. It’s extremely fast and repeatable: that may not matter much to the average user, but we swap out multiple CPUs and coolers every day and convenience really matters. The problem with excess isn’t thermals, it’s the danger of shorting components with conductive paste, or just making a huge mess. This will help illustrate that power consumption was the same.

There’s also the peace of mind that comes from knowing with 100% certainty that the IHS is fully covered without taking the cooler off.Next is the pea-sized dot method. ), but didn't click that they delidded and relidded for that reason.


The Kryonaut paste we used isn’t conductive, but some pastes are, and even when they aren’t, it’s still no fun to clean gunk out of a CPU socket. As a note, that pea-sized dot was 9.16mm x 8.76mm x 2.97mm deep.This method is one that we simply dubbed “TOO MUCH.” It’s 50% of the comments on YouTube about thermal paste, with the other 50% being “too little.” In this instance, we really did apply way too much, objectively, just to make absolutely sure that there’s no question this is a wasteful amount of paste. The idea was to push temperatures into the 80-90C range without crashing or throttling, and to remove Intel’s thermal paste from the equation so any temperature fluctuations would be sharpened and magnified. The hotspot over the die was covered, but one corner of the IHS was left dry. We are producing a ton of heat, which means the conditions of the thermal interfaces are stressed, thus creating an environment that would yield differences, should any exist. As seen in the picture, not only did the paste ooze out over the edges of the CPU, it also dripped out over the socket cover and motherboard when the cooler was removed.Now that we’ve looked at each test individually, the before and after photos, and ensured the current provision is the same, we should compare all of these tests on one chart.

To clarify: The “after shots” do not show what the paste looked like when it was hidden under the coldplate, as the surface tension during cooler removal will suck the paste back up and inward, toward the middle of the coldplate.Here’s an over-time chart with data for the big blob.

It was actually producing less heat than our 8086K we tested with today, but the significantly larger IHS meant there was more to be gained from covering the rest of it. I don't use actual thermal compound unless I'm re-attaching a cooler.