Thermal pads and paste

Hi,

I know you should not use thermal pads and paste, but I normally prepare the surfaces before actually pasting by using a card to spread some paste in all directions then buffing it off using a microfibre cloth. Can I prepare the aluminium surface where the VRM and VRAM sit using this method? I was hoping to fill the microscratches with a tiny amount of paste, while still leaving 99.99% or the aluminium in direct contact with the pads.

 

I think you're giving it too much thinking - just put paste and squeeze tight (without breaking bolts of course)

 

Spread it, and you get air bubbles. Squeeze it down and you may not cover the entire processor (unless you put a lot, then you have a chance of it overflowing). It's really up to you. I placed new paste on my VRAM a month ago using the squeeze method, and it's working pretty well.

 

Hi, maybe I did not explain myself. The Arctic Silver website (cant get link - at work), describes an initial priming step which entails using a card to spread the paste in all directions to fill the micro-scratches, then buffing the surface with a microfibre cloth. This removes almost all of the paste, but leaves a tiny (pretty much invisible) amount of paste in the microscratches. this is then just pasted using the blob or spread method, as per normal

I use paste (MX-4) as standard on the CPU/GPU. The CPU/GPU has a smooth(ish) copper connection to the heatsink, so its fine.

On the GPU, I intend to OC and OV the VRAM and GPU. The VRM's and VRAM's connect to a very rough aluminium part of the heatsink using 0.5mm-1mm pads (Phobya in my case), which possibly too rough for the pads to fill the gaps. Would there be a benefit to priming the aluminium parts in addition to the pads, to ensure a better connection?

 

I think you're putting too much thought into it.

If you were a professional competitive overclocker, then the amount of work that you put in to making sure that every tiny little crack / crevice is covered would make sense. But you're an end-user enthusiast that is looking to overclock his system for additional performance in the field. Trying to get the "perfect" thermal paste application is a waste of effort for you.

It's like asking whether a driver should inflate their car tires to 32.00 or 32.01 PSI. If you were a professional race car driver, that 0.01 PSI might make a difference. But if you're just an enthusiast with a nice car that likes to drive fast on the highways, it doesn't matter.

So, just apply the paste however the thermal paste manufacturer tells you to do it, and call it a day. If you're spending more than 5 minutes on this job, then you're wasting your time.

 

But what about the mission critical search for ninja cats on YouTube... ok, maybe you have a point

 

Given the small amount of heat those componants put out, you should be fine provded there's at least "something". Half of the VRAM on my motherboard doesn't have anything on it at all and I'm running fine.