Picture guide to upgrading Thermal Paste on your own!

Hey all,

I Decided to upgrade my thermal paste on my own as I don't like the IC diamond and figured I'd make a quick picture guide to show anyone who's uncertain just how easy it is to do yourself (And save $30!)

I decided to go with Prolimatech PK-1 ($8 at my local shop) due to the issues with IC diamond that have been noted.


Step 1: Unplug everything, remove battery, and flip laptop over.


Step 2: Remove the 4 screws holding the bottom cover on and expose the components. The heatsink on the right is your processor, the left is your GPU


Step 3: Loosen and remove the 4 screws that hold the Heatsink to the processor, and the heatsink/pipe will just lift straight out. I know this picture turned out kind of crappy, but you can see that they really caked on the thermal compound when they assembled it.


Step 4: Clean the old thermal paste off both the processor and heatsink. I recommend you use alcohol prep pads, or rubbing alcohol and a coffee filter. Let the components dry.


Step 5: Apply a small bead of thermal paste on the center of the processor (You can use whatever method for this step that you like: line, bead, spread. I prefer bead)


Step 6: Firmly and evenly reinstall the heatsink in the reverse order. Tighten the 4 screws opposite each other (X pattern basically) so that the heatsink sits firm and even. Then just reinstall the plastic cover and you're good to go!

Its the exact same process for the GPU, but I took some pictures as well:

Again, thermal paste CAKED on lol


Cleaned


Paste applied (after taking the picture I decided to use a slightly smaller bead)


Overall Temperature change for me was about 4 degrees on both the CPU and GPU

NOTE: Make sure you monitor your temperatures afterwards! use CPUID/GPU-Z

 

Excellent posting, killer! +rep and I have this bookmarked for future questions.

 

Shows how much gunk they cake on at the factory. Amazing job!!

 

thank you so much for the tutorial, just one question , how do u remove the GPU heatsink ? i unscrewed the screws and it will won't go loose ..

 

The stock thermal paste is extremely adhesive, just use a little muscle and it'll come right off

 

Be sure you check to make sure you didn't overlook any screws. I believe there is one that is usually overlooked.

The GPU has 2 heatsink plates and both will need to be unscrewed before removal.

 

Nice guide; +rep. This should get stickied in order to prevent the question, "how do i repaste my stuffs" from being repeated over and over again

 

+rep
great guide and thanks for posting.

 

Nice, thank you for the review!

Quick question though, I'm new to in depth specs for high performance computers and I was wondering what's wrong with the stock paste or the IC Diamond paste?

 

So is it okay to run with the stock paste for a bit to get heat under load and then go in and remove it? Or would it best to simply just remove the paste when you get the computer and put your own in?

 

+rep! This is what makes notebookreview forums so great!

 

standard paste should be ok but these new cards seem to be pushing it to the limit. its only in the last couple of years that resellers have started charging for the upgraded paste and tbh its worth paying the small extra when youve spent 2-3 grand on a laptop.

hopefully sooner or later resellers will chuck the standard paste to the kurb and use a higher standard paste at no extra charge

 

In all good theory, they're not going to put inadequate thermal paste on at the factory for normal use, so if you don't have immediate plans for overclocking or modding, you're fine with the stock paste, at least for a while. You can monitor your temps, and if they seem to get to concerning levels, that's a reason to replace the paste. If you plan to overclock, that's a good reason to replace it. Or you can just replace it for peace of mind.

I personally went with stock paste, because I can buy the paste they're using for $20 and apply it myself for a $15 savings, plus have some leftover paste. Plus you can research and choose whatever paste you think is the best bang for the buck (or just the best bang if the buck isn't a concern.)

 

Rommel I see your located on Ft. Campbell too!

There's nothing really wrong with the stock paste, however with an aftermarket paste you can lower your cpu/gpu temps giving them longer life, and there is potential for less fan noise.

I chose Prolimatech over the IC Diamond due to the issues people are having with abrasions on the IHS

 

woah.. amazing guide.. very informative and easy to follow.

Thanks a lot buddy!

 

The surface area of the CPU looked like a rectangle (assuming im looking at the right thing) how can you be sure that that glob of paste will spread to all of it?

 

Funny you ask! Since I'm a bit OCD, I applied the thermal paste and attached the heatsink, and then removed it to make sure it spread correctly. I had to redo it again, but I had closure =P

 

Thanks for posting this and taking the pictures.

What's that 3rd, bottom pipe on the GPU side? I noticed it didn't come off like the top two when you took off the heat sink to repaste.

 

I believe that is the heatpipe for the VRAM, no need to do anything with it!

 

Was the factory paste still soft & easy to wipe off? I'm used to dealing with laptops at least several years old with uber hard paste. The ArctiClean 2-stage cleaner works wonders on hard paste, but I'm hoping I can just wipe & cleanse.

 

magnificent post! truly great, well done +rep (when I can give again)

 

The paste was hardened in a few spots but it came right off with the alcohol prep pads.

 

Wow thanks a lot for this post!! I was always wondering how you would change the paste used by the manufacturer. I was always scared to do so thinking I might damage my laptop. Thanks a lot +rep

 

Great guide +rep!

The only thing I would say to add, is make sure to use lint-free cloth if at all possible.

 

Very well done and simple guide.

Bookmarked in case i need it +rep!

 

Gah, beat me to it ><" was going to do this when I got my laptop.

I don't find ICDiamond to scratch the IHS at all? Though my reseller comes stock with ICDiamond 7, going to replace it with ICDiamond 24.

+REP!

 

ugh, your photos of the caked on paste the computer came with convinced me to repaste when I get my Sager lol (90% sure i'm getting one )

I have only repasted desktop cpus and your guide convinced me that it isn't a big pain to repaste a laptop, +rep!

 

You do know that the difference between IC Diamond 7 and 24 is only the size of the syringe right? It's the same thermal paste...

 

I'm going to be swapping out my Nvidia GTX 675 for a Radeon 7970M in a few days, if you guys would like I can make a picture series on upgrading for you! Just let me know!

 

Botched paste jobs are an industry wide scandal.

I'll never forget the huge ASUS thread showing pics and big improvements from repasting.

You might as well include how to clean the dust out of fan duct while you're at it, so many people don't know how and don't realize that's why their computer is screwed up.

 

Very nice guide, although I didn't get the concept of spreading the paste. Do you just leave the tall bead like that and shut the heatsink or do you spread the adhesive with a tool? When you close it, is the paste supposed to cover the whole top of the CPU? Thanks.

 

The paste squishes out when you screw down the heatsink. You should use enough that when it squishes out it covers the whole heat transfer surface of the processor (which isn't very big). The squishing ensures that the paste fills the gap & any tiny nooks & crannies to ensure the best heat transfer it can provide.

 

Thank you very much.

 

thanks i may try once i or my machine cant tolerate anymore

 

The most common mistake pasting is to use too much paste

 

I'm a big fan of the bead, but I think the next time I do it I might just apply a thin film to it.

 

I certainly hope you don't mean spreading the stuff around before with a card or something.

There was an excellent video posted in another thread, but I figured I would post it here as well as to why the bead method is better than the spread method. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyXLu1Ms-q4

 

I don't know if spread method is really bad at all. I've so far (using Arctic Silver 5) used the spread method on 4 different computers. My dad's Inspiron Laptop (Pentium M @ 1.6GHz). Our old family computer that would shut down after an hour (Pentium II @ 333MHz), it doesn't shut down anymore. My Xbox 360 which was getting 2 Red Rings which means overheating, been over 2 years and have never gotten another overheating error. And lastly my laptop over the gpu (AMD 3450M) which had a thermal pad on it and the cpu (Core 2 Duo @ 2.1GHz), both processors went down in temps by 10*C.

 

OMG this paste job suck
come like this from factory?



yesterday I repaste gpu with ÖCZ silver (99% of silver in paste) and my max temps are 2C down
Just put a small amount,to much is no good

 

Paste manufacturers and system builders have to use methods that will make sure the units pass quality control with high yield. To achieve this goal, they need to specify application methods that will work for the best and worse case scenarios.

In a worse case scenario, your heatsink and IC core heat spreader are heavily mismatched (e.g. both convex, both concave or randomly warped). A good amount of paste is then needed to fill the gap and establish a conformal layer to mate the surfaces.

In a best case scenario, both surfaces are perfectly flat and have a mirror polish. In this case, something like a gold leaf can be used as thermal interface material, or spreading some paste (with the finest particle size) and then wiping-off as much as possible.

A thermal paste layer will always degrade the thermal conductivity in the interface proportionately with its thickness. If you can determine that your surfaces are flat, then spreading the thinest layer possible should yield the best results. Air will only get trapped in a layer that contains eccess paste. e.g. you would spread a thin layer of paste on each surface and then try to carefully scrape it off with a straight edge such as a rasor blade. If there is no residue, then your surfaces are probably sufficiently flat to use only the thinest possible "film" of paste just to fill-in tiny micro abrasions. Although, I don't think the pastes mentionned here are necessarily appropriate to this kind of application scenario though since they are probably optmized to perform with a thick layer so may have particle sizes too large to only fill-in microabrasions. Maybe a gold leaf would be something to try in such a case?

 

Thanks for the guide,

My laptop was pasted by PC Specialist UK with Arctic MX-4 paste for 9£ and yet this is what I get http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/4610/972012stock.jpg

I guess no overclocking for me then

 

I was recently told that my temps were too high for my GPU and CPU so I'm glad to see this guide. Annoying because I paid extra for Xotic to apply paste for me and now I regret shelling out the extra cash because they didn't do a very good job.

I'm shocked at how easy this actually is... I expected it to be a pain since it's a laptop but it's surprisingly easy. I'll most likely redo my paste in the near future and try and bring down my temps, still a bit annoyed at my results of paying the extra cash for a lackluster paste job. Not like I'd want to go through the hassle of an RMA when it's so easy to do myself.

 

I actually paid for the IC Diamond "upgrade" through XoticPC, good chance that they did a bad paste job?

I am very much considering purchasing some PK-1 off newegg.com, but wonder if there will be a positive temperature difference, I could use a couple C's reduction.

 

I purchased the IC Diamond upgrade from prostar computers and they also likely did a poor job. My CPU idles around 50degrees which is way to damn hot. However, my GPU stays relatively cool even after gaming. For all of those interested I would save the money and apply your TC of choice for much cheaper.

 

Yeah I idle around 50c as well, do you have any sources on the average temps for this chip? My vid card idles at a big higher than average from my research.

Seems like myself and the two posters above are all in the same boat. Cannot recommend you ask Xotic to do paste for you, apparently multiple reports that this isn't just a fluke.

 

I know my temperatures quite well, and they're actually pretty good, the fan is able to dissapate the heat...but that's my problem, when the fan goes, it really goes and sometimes I can't stand it and I'm sure it will disturb other students' studying. I'll order some PK-1 and see if it takes the fan noise down a notch.

 

Great thread! This is going to save me a couple of bucks.

 

I ordered Arctic Silver 5 from Newegg. I'm gonna give this a try as soon as it arrives.

 

so this is a good paste job? or to much?

 

Just did my paste. I already see a 5c drop while idle. About to run Furmark.

Furmark tests

Before: 59c low-92c high
After: 47c low-90 high. However it maintained an average of 88c after hitting it's high.