Mastametz said:
do i put the paste in any specific place on the northbridge? or do i just spread it all over?
you apply it as you would do with a cpu, but the northbridge uses quite a bit more. it's a bigger area to cover. as always, be careful not to use too much, and for things like my gpu, which has a metal circle core, and the rest of the core looks like plastic covering it or something.....i only cover the metal portion of it.
i also go a bit thicker in the middle, so it can spread out as you mount your heatsink back on. you don't want an air pockets or air bubbles. i use arctic silver III, but you can choose whatever you like. i forget exactly, but i think the northbridge is either convex, or concave...which ever it is, you want to try to determine how much will cover the whole area, without air pockets, and without using so much that is squeezes out the sides.
thermal paste acts as a heat transmitter, or conductor, so, if it gets on the sides of a cpu or gpu or chipset, it can act as an insulator keeping the heat on the part you intend to cool, and if you use AS III, it has silver in it, and although it is formulated not to conduct electricity, it is highly suggested that you do not get it on and contacts and so on.
be careful, and good luck.