Help a mate of mine out, thermal paste question??

[Laymen]

Hiya,

a friend of mine just bought a new comp and got a Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu to go with it. Quickly as he was to install his comp he bought a tube of arctic silver 5 and spread it thinly over the entire chip, he has an AMD 64 3200+ so we'r talking a large chip. When i went over to his house he told me he had installed the cooler, when I asked him what he did he told me he smeared it thinly over the entire surface. I remembered some of this arctic stuff when i read it a year ago so I was already wary of what he had just done.

Now when I got home I started searching and found this,

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

and indeed here they say, only apply a small drop in the center and put the heatsink on. I immediately called my friend when i read that page cuz an hour later and he would have finished installing everything and would have started his PC Now my question is, can spreading the AS5 over the entire surface hurt the CPU or the cooling process, also what are the chances of it flowing over to the pins below(cuz I assume that when he put his cooler on all excess paste will have spread out to the sides. So maybe when he boots his comp its bye bye 360$ He's an even bigger cluts than me and he doesn't want to do it all over again, if you say it works both ways then I will pass it along as well cuz I just know he would like that answer the most hahahahah I must stress, he applied a layer of about 0.2-0.3 mm thick and no more, but he did cover everything so no metal is visible on the entire surface.

Help him out, I'm allways saying to him, I will have an answer very soon, guys on forums like these know everything:LOL: So I hope I can explain it to him very soon.

regards,

Lay

 

[tweeve2002]

I spread AS5 over the entire core of the chip (do not cover the pins) I use a credit card or somthing simmilar to get a nice thin even coat.

 

[n0cmonkey]

If it was a retail A64 it has a heatspreader. If I were him I'd consider wiping it all off and following the instructions, but if he did use a thin covering it will probably be ok...

EDIT: As remarked below, only the mobile AMD64 chips are missing the heat spreader.

 

[viivo]

Unless it's oozing from under the sink it should be fine. Though applying it correctly would probably be more effective as far as cooling is concerned.

 

[mitchafi]

If you only apply a drop of AS to the center of the chip wouldn't that leave the outsides with no paste on it? Isn't that bad...I thought even small holes missing can cause problems. I used the credit card method and spread the AS5 thinly over the entire chip. The thermal pad the heatsink originally came with, would have, after all, covered the whole chip.

 

[Anonemous]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
If it was a retail A64 it has a heatspreader. If I were him I'd consider wiping it all off and following the instructions, but if he did use a thin covering it will probably be ok...

non retail a64's don't have heatspreaders? i thought those come standard. Like with the p4's and celly's.

edit: In regards to the artic silver, a thin layer over the surface of that heatspreader is good.

 

[viivo]

I thought it was just the mobile 64s that come bare core.

 

[Anonemous]

Originally posted by: viivo
I thought it was just the mobile 64s that come bare core.

hey your right, I learned something today.



Non heatspreader

Heatspreader

thanks for clearing that up.

 

[Laymen]

Yeah he has the heatspreader one, and no its not oozing from under the socket So should be safe then, thnx for the tips

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: viivo
I thought it was just the mobile 64s that come bare core.

You might be right. I didn't check before I posted. But the mobiles are OEM, I think.

 

[Laymen]

Thnx for all the replies, he has decided to take the fan off and redo the bad job he did He just cleared all the edges and left a very thin square box covering 75% of the chip starting from center but staying away from all edges. So should be cool now

Thnx for the tips,

Lay

 

[imported_rustybx]

Tell him to go back and redo it again.

The instructions for Artic Silver and Zalman BOTH recommend a very small drop (around 1.5 grain of rice for Athlon 64) directly at the center. The reason is simple....the die is much smaller than the heat spreader and regardless of how well you squeegie with a credit card there will be air bubbles. With it spread all over or mostly over the heatspreader there's a good chance air bubbles will form directly over the die. If you follow the instructions the chance of air bubbles are reduced.



Arctic Silver Instructions - go to step 10

 

[Laymen]

:LOL: Aaaah well then he will have to do it again eh No worries, thnx again!

 

[Laymen]

Okay roger that, will tell him that, he will be glad to hear it hahaahah

Cheerz mates,

Laymen