Finally caved and tried that thermal paste spread pattern I always thought was overkill

Idk, I always just did a pea sized dot in the middle and called it good, but after a customer's Ryzen 9 was hitting 95C under load I tried the X pattern and it dropped 8 degrees. Has anyone else seen that big of a difference or was it just my bad luck with the first application?

2 comments

2 Comments

averywilliams26d ago

X pattern saved me with my own build too, same deal. It's like wiping a counter - if you just dump cleaner in one spot and spread it around you get streaks and missed spots. But if you lay down lines across the whole surface first, it covers everything even. Same with mowing a lawn actually, going in straight lines works way better than random circles. Little details in how you apply something can make a huge difference, whether it's thermal paste or anything else.

the_tara26d ago

...and my buddy Mike learned this the hard way on his first build. He put a pea-sized blob right in the center and clamped the cooler down. His temps were all over the place, like 85 on one core and 60 on the other. I told him to try the X pattern and it evened out completely. Now he swears by it, even does the same thing with toothpaste on his toothbrush for some reason.