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Too much thermal paste = 10 more degrees?

M

Mippoose

n00b
Joined
Feb 5, 2009
Messages
14
I just built my phenom 2 system ,and see many people claiming to get ~30c on idle, where I tend to get high 30's on idle. I use the Xigmatek rifle cooler and think that I may have put too much thermal paste on it.

Would this cause such an increase in processor temps?

I will probably remove the HS tomorrow and reapply.
 
well if you have too much thermal paste then that means theres an increased gap between the heat spreader and the coolers base. bigger gab and/or little to no metal on metal contact means lower heat transfer. The goal of thermal paste isnt to prevent the metal from touching but to fill out any creases and imperfections on both surfaces. as well as HELPING in thermal conduction.
 
Yeah.

I pretty much need to reapply it. I just hope I can manage to do it without removing the motherboard.
 
Well that and the Xigmatek requires a different application (if it's the direct heat pipe version) of thermal paste...
 
Ah okay, did you research the application method?

each manufacturer have their own recommended, although some users might report different results with different methods.

I know that with arctic silver 5 the popular method of application is a pea sized blob in the middle of the head spreader and you use the heatsink mounting pressure to spread it out evenly. I did that and it worked perfectly with my new cooler.

Others might need you to spread out a thin even layer across the entire heat spreader. Usually the best way to do that is to use a single razor blade, a friend of mine did that, its harder, takes more patience to do but with a razor blade it makes it easier to spread out nicely and thinly than say.. a credit card.
 
I read up on it first, obviously.

I do have the direct heatpipe cooler, and from what I read you are supposed to apply the thermal paste to the heatsink instead of the processor, as to fill in the crevices made by the heatpipes.

I am using Arctic Cooling MX-2 thermal paste.

I also have AMD cool & quiet disabled, could that be an issue?
 
Try this method, if you haven't seen it already. BMR has the fill-in recommendation, with a line of paste on each of the partitions between the pipes for best coverage.

And no, C&Q doesn't really have any bearing on your issue. It is for downclocking/volting the CPU when it's not under load. TBH, screw idle temps (barring being ridiculously high of course), but load temps are where it's at (where C&Q means nothing).
 
The highest I've seen my processor go is 54c.

Under a decent amount of load. Do you have any recommendations for a benchmark that could push my CPU for a better grip on what my load is?
 
prime95
also, those temp variations you are experiencing could be attributed to ambient temp differences (if you have not already taken that into account)
 
This is true. My room is pretty toasty.

I also need to work on the ventilation in my case.

As in buying 4 140mm fans one day.
 
54C is pretty dang high.. most ive ever seen my 940 hit was 56C.. and thats running 3.5ghz @ 1.47v with a thermaltake big typhoon @ 3800rpms.. and this heatsink SUCKS! so either you put to much mx-2 so or you didnt put enough to fill in the gaps for the heat pipes..
 
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