Processor Heat Sink Paste?

Hi,

I've got an E510 Core 2D 2.8 gHz desktop (2005) that I just cleaned out.
I lifted the processor cooling tower, which separated the heat sink from
the top of the processor. I noticed that the paste on the top of the
processor was a light grey, but completely dry.

Question: Should it be dry? If not, what type of paste should I use, and
how do I apply it?

The reason I cleaned out the machine was because I'm running Alliance of
Valiant Arms, on Win 7 HP, with 2GB RAM, and a ATI Radeon (Sapphire) HD
3650 512MB memory. It runs fine for a short while, at 64 fps, and soon
drops down to the 20's. Sometimes the frame rate stays in the 50's, but
the game still stutters (however it's not lag from high latency or high
ping). I've tried running the game through Aeria client as well as
Steam.

The game specs. indicate that I've got plenty of processing power, video
power, and RAM. Others have similar hardware, with no problems, but
others with more hardware also report the same problem.

Time for an Alienware? $$$$$$

 

For thermal paste, consider using Arctic Silver 5.

For the second issue, consider upgrading to 4 GB of ram,
if using 32-bit Windows 7.

GR

 

I'm not a hardware expert, but it sounds like there may be CPU or GPU
overheating going on. A thorough cleaning of the heatsinks and cooling
fans would be in order. A narrow vacuum cleaner "snorkel" helps to suck
away the big chunks of lint and dust. Blowing compressed air onto the
heatsinks while sucking up the loosened dust with the vacuum cleaner hose
helps, too. Then going in with cotton swabs moistened with Formula409 or
Windex can get the surfaces even cleaner. If the fan bearings sound a little
raspy or "shooshy" when you spin the fan, pulling back the label at the hub
and putting *one* drop of light machine oil or WD40 on the bearings will
help to keep them spinning easily. I've never taken a graphics card apart
to clean the air channels or to re-mount the GPU, so I can't comment on the
practicality of that.

For application of thermal paste on the CPU, a *thin* even layer of paste is
best - no concavities to catch a bubble when putting the heatsink in contact
with the CPU, and no globs to make the layer thicker than microscopic.
Remember that the paste is just to make a heat-conductive layer that fills in
the tiny microscopic gaps between the 2 metal masses, and anything thicker
than microscopic just puts unnecessary thermal resistance between them. I
first clean off both surfaces with a paper towel moistened with alcohol or paint
thinner. Then I put the paste on the flat CPU surface, using about the volume
of paste equal to a raisin. Then I level it out with the edge of a credit card,
making it very thin - even translucent - with no grooves or lines and with just
a little more thickness in the center to avoid concavity that could catch an air
bubble when I mate the heatsink surface to the CPU body. The paste must
cover the entire area where the 2 metal bodies meet, and most of the paste
ends up on the edge of the credit card, not between the CPU and the heatsink.
I then try to squirm the 2 bodies around to flatten out the central part of the paste.
(The paste is usually too thin to allow any movement.) If paste skooshes out from
between the CPU and the heatsink when you press them together, you've used
too much paste. Doing it this way takes time and care, but the resultant cooling
is better than that done by the crude thermal pad that gets slapped there by
machinery during automated manufacturing.

As for type of thermal paste, one of the hardware websites did a test a few
years ago using about half a dozen popular brands, including Arctic Silver, and
they found that just about any brand, including peanut butter, did about the
same job. As I recall, Arctic Silver did score near the highest, but the difference
in performance between the brands was negligible. I happen to like Arctic Silver
because it's easy to judge uniformity of layer thickness by its translucency when
it gets really thin.

*TimDaniels*

 

Peanut butter is tastier, though! They really did test with peanut butter? Not chunky... Ben Myers

 

Peanut butter, mayonnaise, ketchup, cola, bacon dip, and butter. I saw
it on youtube.