Tiny dab will do ya.
Then spread it using an unloved credit, debit, or Blockbuster video card.
Run it really thin, it is a paste that is barely supposed to be there, but must be there to prevent overheating.
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Blockbuster cards have to be collectable antiques of some sort atp (just like AOL discs) :p
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place a pea-sized amount of thermal paste on the CPU and place the heatsink on top, no need to spread the paste
How Thermal Compound Spreads - like the first method, though i'd put a bit more than that.
How To Apply Thermal Paste - do not spread.
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I've only re-applied once myself, and as others have stated, just use a little bit in the center and let the pressure of the cooler spread it out evenly over the surface.
First, though, make sure the CPU is complete clean of the old, dry paste. I used a damp paper towel (which had just a bit of rubbing alcohol) to wipe clean. It will air dry quickly after that and then you should be set to re-apply. Watch a youtube video for your CPU cooler if you want a good review and what to do and what steps to follow. Good luck!
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I see that you've already applied it, and by the sound of it, you did things right. Just for future reference, it's better to have a little bit too little thermal paste, than too much. Metal conducts heat better than thermal paste, so the job of the thermal paste is to make sure that heat is conducted well in spots where the metal don't make perfect contact. So you should have enough to fill in all those spots, but it should not be so much that it prevents metal on metal contact.
Also, happy cake day!
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no, always re-apply paste if you remove after 1st installment
you need the paste to fill every nano space and re-using old dry paste will cause air bubbles
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maybe, but it wont be optimal
the goal is to cool the CPU, and to be effective about it you need good thermal paste without air bubbles.
but if your CPU is cool enough under stress, with cheap thermal paste and air bubb;es
then,, goal achieved.
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I have cleaned plenty of coolers without replacing paste and no problems ever. You will notice if temps go up too much or it starts throttling speeds. On the other hand, I've had several CPUs not even start because there was too much paste and it didn't work.
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Wipe the surface clean, apply pea-sized thermal paste and spread it carefully as said before in the thread. Don't use too much paste and spread it to form a very thin layer. If you use too much you will get air bubbles. I recommend you buying Artic Silver 5, best thermal paste in my opinion.
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It's not make or break, there's maybe a tiny difference but I think it's a good habit for cleaniness. One would probably still have old thermal paste in the tube anyways, might as well give it a nice clean and use it. Personally I'm too lazy to move screws around and just use a can of compressed air.
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I still have plenty in the tube that I got for a 1.2GHz Duron build back when. But coolers usually come with their own these days so have been using those instead. Mainly because it's less work than finding the old tube, just like not replacing when cleaning is less work. And yes the difference is really so tiny it only becomes apparent when overclocking, if even then.
So still best advice is to look at the CPU temps and speeds no matter if you cleaned your cooler or not.
Or maybe don't use the cheapest dried up tube you found somewhere and instead get something like this
"Due to the compound's exceptional curing, bleeding, dry-out and thermal cycling characteristics, NT-H1 can be used for several years without any problems."
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So today is sunday so I decided to clean my PC on the inside since I haven't done it in about a year, then I absent mindlessly removed the CPU cooler to undust it and just then remembered that thermal paste is a thing.
Would it be prudent to put it back as it is or should I go buy some new paste tomorrow before putting the whole thing back together?
I'm on the phone right now so I'll add a giveaway later.
Edit: bought the paste (and a can of pressure cleaner) and used the pea-sized method, everything seems to work fine for now. I forgot to update this yesterday cos I was testing the PC and CPU temperature. I also ended up buying an extra cooler for the case out of impulse, I'm not even sure if it "helps" in any other way than slightly increasing the noise.
I promised GAs but my cakeday snuck on me so they ended up over here, sorry.
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