Repasting, Was it done correctly?

I took my xps l702x to a technician nearby my house for him to repaste it and clean it. I bought an AS MX-2 and gave it to him. He told me he took photos while he was doing it just for the client to know what was done. These two pictures, one is before repasting, dell factory paste and other one is the MX-2 as he applied it. My question is did he apply it correctly? Wasn't a bit too much amount? I am doing some tests now and I hope i can see some significant reductions. Idle wise, my temps have not dropped however performing/gaming wise I think they have dropped a bit. How much time should I wait until paste settles in and I see a drastic performance and also should I try and repaste it my self from the different videos I have seen on the internet? Spread or the small dot method which u pressure afterwards? I want your opinion if he did it correctly although the real judge should be the temperature.

Thank you
George

 

Wow, they used WAY too much. It's hard to judge by the top-view photo, but I'd guess they used at least 3x too much. Also, what is the brown mark on the lower left corner of the GPU?

That said, you shouldn't expect a huge difference just from repasting. If your load temps drop by 5C, you should be happy with it.

 

Even using that much, if pressure is good won't make that much of a difference between a good repaste. A good repaste would likely have shaved 2 - 3 degrees more, but that is about it. Even this is more than needed for an Ivy Bridge CPU:

 

Hey thank you for the replies, so I should not worry you think? Idle wise temps have not been dropped, gaming wise I think I have dropped around 8-10 degrees from the temps I was getting before repasting. I would like him to make a better job and apply the dot method or something but I guess for the time being I will let it be. Should the temps continue to drop since the product still settles in or no?

 

8-10 degrees is good, you should stick with that, it is normal for idle to remain similar given how little heat is generated at idle, your load temps decreased and that is what is important.

 

Probably not. AS5 is the only paste I know of that requires more than 1 hour of curing.