Best method for thermal paste on Athlon 4000 CPU?

Hey guys, I have a 5 year old zv6130us laptop that came with the Athlon 3200 939 cpu. I just tore everything down and dropped in a faster 4000+ cpu and had a new tube of Arctic Silver 5 around but wasn't sure of the best way to apply it.

My laptop has the large copper thermal module on it that screws down with 4 spring loaded screws so would a pea sized blob in the middle be sufficient or should I do something different like a cross pattern or even use the credit card method to apply a thin layer evenly (tricky) across? I know heat's an issue already w/these laptops so applying this correctly on an even hotter CPU is critical I would imagine..

Thanks guys!

Jeremy

 

i would stick to a small x maybe in the middle, and then let the heatsink do the spreading. if you spread it yourself there will be microscopic air bubbles.

 

That's what I read also but one thing about the internet is that one half contradicts the other. I will stick to your suggestion as it makes sense and thanks for the quick response!

Off to finish...

Jeremy

 

YouTube - How Thermal Compound Spreads

 

Nice video...one last thing I forgot about, I assume that there's no need to apply compound to both mating surfaces but wanted to confirm. Do I only apply compound to the cpu instead of both the cpu and thermal module?

 

The thermal paste just goes onto the cpu.

 

Thanks guys for the feedback!

 

One update: Put the AS 3 paste in an 'X' pattern on the CPU, bolted everything back up and I'm now running at 2.4ghz vs 2.0.

I'm using a program to monitor temps,etc and it shows the CPU at 45-47degrees at idle and 'Core 1' at 30degrees. What's the difference between the 2? BTW, this is a single core CPU.

The 45-47degree reading seems a little high for idle but then again, these older Pavilions and Athlon CPUs weren't exactly meat lockers.

Thanks!

Jeremy

 

Just got back in, the program I'm using is PC Wizard 2010...

On another note, I also added a second 1gb stick of Kingston DDR 333 ram to the laptop and while running CPUID I noticed that one stick is running 133mhz and the other is running 166mhz. Is this normal and if not, is there any way to remedy this? I have control over timings on my home built desktop (Gigabyte MB) but with this laptop, I think I'm stuck...

 

Well I found that the memory will run at the lower speed of the two though w/the same model number and specs, I would've never guessed that there would have been a difference in ram speed between the two.

One last thing, my zv had a spot for a bluetooth adaptor...other than ebay, any idea of where I might find a compatible unit?