how do i apply thermal grease?

[Darth]

i've read at different sites on how to apply thermal grease/compound and one of them says to put a a thin layer on the heatsink and another site says to put it on the CPU core (i have an amd athlon 1.2 ghz) and other sites say both the HS and CPU. What is the best way to put it on? I'm using radio shack heatsink grease by the way.

Thx ahead of time for anybody who replies!

[rUfUnKy]

Theres more than one way but this would be the right way..;) http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

[CrystalMethod]

You put it on the core (also called the "die"), not the heatsink itself. Apply it in a very thin even layer, and make sure you cover the whole die. It's also important to try and not get it on anything else, as most if the termal greases are electrically conductive to some degree or another.

[Morphoius]

You only want to stick it on the CPU. You do this so you can make sure that there is contact between the CPU and heatsink. just put he thermal paste on, but your heatsink on, take your heatsink off, and make sure that you see a rectangle blob where the CPU was, otherwise you don't have good thermal contact.

if you put the thermal paste on both the HSF and the CPU you can't do this check and if the contact is not complete you will have much higher temps or burn your CPU.