Should I reapply thermal paste for this?

N

netbrad

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 26, 2005
Messages
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So I'm getting ready to start building my new Ryzen rig. I open the CPU box and carefully slide the cooling fan out. I turn it over and see this:

wSvnkdl.jpg


I can't tell if it is a divot or a piece of embedded something. Should I wipe everything off and apply something new, see if I can pick it off? Ignore it and hope it doesn't affect anything.?
 
Looks like the paste should be removed and the heatsink lapped with ultrafine wet sandpaper then reapply paste. Looks pitted in places and stained. Use 600 to 1200 grit on a sheet of glass to lap the heatsink for better contact.
 
Yes it is the OEM Wraith Spire or whatever they call it. Did I get a defective heatsink? Should I ask for an RMA?

If not, what is the new hotness for thermal compound? I have some Arctic Silver 5 but it is at least 7 years old and partially separated. I don't have the skill or the time to make it mirror shiny so I'll just clean it as best I can. I'm not overclocking for now.
 
Arctic Ceramique² is just okay. I generally hear MX-3/MX-4 being recommended. Obviously any metallic paste would be a bit better, but at the cost of capacitance/conductivity.
 
Nobu said:
Arctic Ceramique² is just okay. I generally hear MX-3/MX-4 being recommended. Obviously any metallic paste would be a bit better, but at the cost of capacitance/conductivity.
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Yeah. It's about 1 or 2 degrees difference at best.
 
netbrad said:
So I'm getting ready to start building my new Ryzen rig. I open the CPU box and carefully slide the cooling fan out. I turn it over and see this:

View attachment 150015

I can't tell if it is a divot or a piece of embedded something. Should I wipe everything off and apply something new, see if I can pick it off? Ignore it and hope it doesn't affect anything.?
Click to expand...

Just use a toothpick and pull that little piece of dust or whatever it is out. The Tim will flow to fill whatever void is left once you attach the heatsinks and some pressure is applied via the mounting system.

It's not really worth repasting the stock heatsink. I swapped to tg kryonaut and got maybe 2C better temps, not worth the effort or cost unless you are swapping cpus or something. I did it when I swapped motherboards, but otherwise the stock Tim was fine.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I don't mind putting more thermal paste on although I hadn't thought of the toothpick trick. My concern is more with the unevenness of the thin plates between the heatpipes and the black goop squeezing out. I've opened a case with AMD and we'll see what happens. Have any of you encountered a situation like this?
 
Surprised they are using HDT bases, I would be comfortable using it because if you are using a stock cooler its not like you are extracting every last MHz out if it and in this case the bare HP will have ample TIM. There was a comparison way back when HDT was first introduced concerned with the gaps (granted they were a lot more cavernous back then) and they went to the length of using thermal epoxy in the gaps and lapping the whole shebang to even it out. Did not really make a difference. The only concern here is the paste along the pipes so typically lines along the pipes is best but can chew through a lot of compound (expensive). That is if you are to redo the grease which I personally wouldn't as the stock heatsinks usually sit in a box until I get yelled at for hoarding by the wife.
 
Yikes, the quality control on the top one is atrocious. It reeks of a returned / destroyed / kinda-refurbed unit.
 
That looks like an open box. No way that thing came like that from the factory. Somebody probably took it out and then decided to return it.
 
elite.mafia said:
That looks like an open box. No way that thing came like that from the factory. Somebody probably took it out and then decided to return it.
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agree.. dunno what processor the OP bought but wouldn't be surprised if it was a scam return using an older heatsink and 1k series processor,
 
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