thermal paste question.

when i cleaned my computer out a month ago i checked the thermal paste on the cpu. it looked really shiny like you could see yourself in it. my question is what is thermal paste look like when you need to change it? my temps are ok at 58 - 59 when the fan is on.

If you checked the thermal paste, you should've reapplied it. Anytime you remove a CPU heatsink, it is good to reapply the paste (even spread).

It depends on the type used, but if you could see yourself in it, it might be bare metal!

oh right. thanks for the advice. am i right in thinking that the top of the processor (where you apply the thermal paste) should be black with out any thermal paste? so is there any way of finding out if it is bare metal?

No, it should be shiny. Most CPUs have a IHS (Integrated Heat Spreader) that is metal over the die of the CPU.

Take a picture and we'll help you out.

oh right. ok then. here's the pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/apemax/5145590524/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/apemax/5145590582/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/apemax/5145590640/in/photostream/

What you've got there looks like a P3 Coppermine (is it?). Those didn't have an IHS and the heatsink made contact directly with the die of the CPU.

What type of heatsink is that? It must be a proprietary solution. It doesn't look like any thermal paste is on those. Take a good cloth and put some rubbing alcohol on it and wipe it down to see if anything comes off.

ah right. i have some arcticlean 1 & 2. would that be ok to use? i'll post a picture of the whole assembly if that would tell you because i don't really know.

Yes, that should work.

ok so should i do this to the heatsink as well as the CPU or just the heatsink?

To clean? Both.

Then apply the paste to the CPU/

ok so i cleaned both the CPU and heatsink. a bit of black stuff came of the heatsink and nothing much at all came of the CPU. applied some arctic silver 5 to the CPU (and made a bit of a mess in the process.) and it seems to have worked and everything seems to be running normally.

Power cycle the computer. It will help cure the AS5 and it will tell you if the paste was applied correctly.

ok just power cycled the computer and everything seems to be ok.

well it's been a few days since i did it now and under full CPU usage (when the fan is on) it's going 2C - 4C higher. also before it got to about 66C - 67C before the fan came on. now it gets to about 69C. is this normal or have i do something wrong?

Arctic Silver 5 takes a while to get to optimum cooling.
Alternatively, it is possible that you made a mistake when applying the paste (for example, too much).



On the other hand, unless I'm reading the second part incorrectly, it sounds like the CPU is getting hotter than it used to before the fan comes on? If so, this may actually a good thing, because it means the CPU is able to transfer more heat to the heat sink before the fan comes on (if there was a problem with the paste, the fan would usually come on earlier at a lower temperature because the CPU would get hot but not be able to transfer the heat).


In any case, give it another week to see what's what, I say.

ah ok then. yes it is getting a bit hotter before the fan comes on than before. i'll give it another week and see like you said. thanks.

well it's been over a week and at full cpu load it's about 59C. the fan comes on at 67C - 69C.

At load is the CPU running hotter than it was before?

no it seems to be running 2C - 3C cooler than before.

That's good. Looks like the new paste is working.

ok then. glad to know i didn't do anything wrong. thanks for all your help.