How much Thermal Compound / Grease

i pulled my motherboard so i had to put everything back together . should the grease be coming out the sides slightly(its not)? how much is enough? what kind to use?

No, it shouldn't be coming out of the sides. Generally I like to use about the size of a grain of rice/pea in the middle of the CPU (others like to do a single [thin] vertical stripe in the middle of the CPU). Press the heatsink down onto the CPU and twist gently to spread the paste, then clamp down.

A line or a dot is best. If it is coming out the sides, you have way too much on it.

That video(and the subsequent video) changed me from a spread to a cross or grain. I don't suggest lines, as in my experience, you don't get thermal paste where you need it the most(the center), or you have thermal paste coming out the side.

For a CPU I'm not familiar with... I do a practice mount completely attaching the heatsink, then unmount to see if the paste spread looks pretty good, and if it does I clean it up and do the same thing again. If it doesn't look good, I use more or less paste, and adjust how I apply it.

Once you do enough mounts, you can eyeball to know what you need pretty much, and you don't have to be as careful. The instructions above will waste a bit of paste, but you will be more likely to get a good application and mount. Best way to know you got it good, is to check your own work and see how it comes out - its worth a little wasted paste in my book.

What kind of cooler do you have because the ones with heat pipes, it needs allot to fill in the grooves.

If you have a smooth flat bottom on the heat sink, then rice grain size is enough.

I made the mistake of trieing to remove the heat spreader on a 2500K consequently I ruined the cpu.I did how ever figure out the core is mounted on the pcb in a "top to bottom fashion". for a lack of a better description.

So on the exposed heat pipe heat sinks only the center pipe will contact the core directly.I would suggest a line of thermal paste from top to bottom centered with out any squishing out.

bypolar1 said:

I made the mistake of trieing to remove the heat spreader on a 2500K consequently I ruined the cpu.I did how ever figure out the core is mounted on the pcb in a "top to bottom fashion". for a lack of a better description.

So on the exposed heat pipe heat sinks only the center pipe will contact the core directly.I would suggest a line of thermal paste from top to bottom centered with out any squishing out.

Click to expand...

It's called a heat spreader because it spreads the heat out from the center, so it will conduct from the complete top of spreader.

wingman99 said:

It's called a heat spreader because it spreads the heat out from the center, so it will conduct from the complete top of spreader.

Click to expand...

yes, I understand that but I have seen in the early days where the Tim between the spreader and the die was in inadequate,& reapplication was needed.

I just needed to confirm that this was a none issue these days and I beleave it is just fine.
I had a itch that needed scratched and I paid the price.

Thank you for the discussion guys, but that is a bit off topic. Let's pull it back.