John R Pierce wrote: > Jon Strayer wrote: >> I just had to replace the heat sink on my north bridge. I cut a little >> spatula out of the plastic the Arctic Silver came with and used it to spread >> the compound on the chip. That seems to have worked very well. >> > > I gather you didn't read the arctic silver instructions, then? > http://www.arcticsilver.com/ins_route_step2intelas5.html > > they specifically say to put a single "BB" sized dot in the middle of > the heatspreader on the CPU and let the heatsink installation pressure > take care of the spreading, or for the newer dual/quad core CPUs, you > make a thin line of it in the proper orientation, and again let the > heatsink pressure spread the good. the reason you do this is to > prevent air bubbles from being trapped in the goo.
Too thick a layer and air bubbles are both killers! I prefer using a central thin line of material and placing the heatsink carefully at an angle so that one edge of the CPU package rests against the underside of the heatsink, then rolling the heatsink the small angle to horizontal so that it gradually and continuously compresses _along_ the line of the heatsink compound. That seems to be best for reliably spreading out the material. All surfaces must be clean beforehand. The aim is to have a /minimum/ thickness of material but that is evenly spread across the entire CPU to heatsink interface. Don't push down too hard. The retaining clips will do that very well for you. It is all easily done with care. How well you have done is recorded by the difference in temperature between the heatsink base and the CPU. A smaller difference is better. Hope that helps. Good luck, Martin _______________________________________________ Prime mailing list [email protected] http://hogranch.com/mailman/listinfo/prime
