[Benchmark] Best thermal Paste application methods - Page 2 - Overclock.net

MasterKromm · 04-21-08

Quote:

Thermalright is probably the biggest offender in the category of poor factory surface finishes, which is ironic if you consider the loyal fan-base who adore their products without question. The image below is of a brand new Thermalright Ultra 120 CPU cooler (the 120 eXtreme was pictured on the first page of this article), right out of the box. You will no doubt notice that it doesn't have a very smooth finish... which would have to be be polished before I could continue because thermal paste didn't seem to spread very well with so many tracks running across the surface.

Since Thermalright products are generally ground flat and level, albeit far from smooth, they can accommodate a wide range of application methods. Ideally my article would have been made better if I had two perfectly flat real-world surfaces to work with, but time and project needs keep me from this goal at the moment. If I didn't have the Noctua NH-U12P tied-up with another project, I would have just used it for this segment. For now I am working with the tools I have available to me, and not the tools I wish I had... so expect a rewrite at some point.

Ummm, ok... Why the palpable disdain for Thermalright products?

Quote:

Heat-pipe Direct Touch coolers have taken the market by storm. In our recent Best CPU Cooler Performance - Q1 2008 article, all of the top-placed products were built from HDT technology. The excellent concept performs very well in practice - but it's far from perfect...

Fixing the first problem required some wet-sand paper and elbow grease (that's a metaphor for hard work, so don't go searching the web for another product). By lapping down the surface to a flat even base, you can then polish it down to minimize the grain-like finish inherent of HDT products.

Has HDT technology truly "dethroned" the prior champ? And why make a big issue about lapping the TRUE in the prior CPU cooler roundup when you are going to turn around and suggest it's a possible fix to a known problem HDT cooler suffer from?

Quote:

There are numerous ways to improve upon the performance that any one of these products has offered, so claiming that "if you do this or that" to one product will not exactly put it ahead of another. Take for example the Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme: most enthusiast like to modify this product by lapping the surface and adding additional mounting pressure by using a washer. But to that same (unecessary) extent, you could file and polish the mating surface of any one of the Heat-pipe Direct Touch coolers and use bolt-on backplate mounting to exert the same benefit. Either way you look at it, you'll have to compare stock-for-stock or modified against modified; just like anything else.

IMHO Benchmark reviews seems somewhat biased...

Tricky · 04-21-08

Looks like im guna be putting an X-like TIM application on my TRUE. +rep

Tufelhunden · 04-21-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by skunksmash

1....grab the cpu

2....grab a butter knife

3.... evenly spread the thinnest coat possible over the IHS surface & off it goes

worked perfectly for me every time .....temps are always great

Thanks for the idea skunk I'm going to try that. +Rep for you.

ICYUNVME · 04-21-08

If I thought the heatpipes could take the heat I would just fill in the gaps will silver solder and then lap flat problem solved. The heat build up would be highly negligible due to the draw of the heat pipes on either side of them. It would not allow much heat to build up without being dissipated adequately first.

smee44 · 04-22-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by ICYUNVME

If I thought the heatpipes could take the heat I would just fill in the gaps will silver solder and then lap flat problem solved.

That sounds like a test someone should do. I personally would like to see temps before the mod and after. I have the worst solder skills ever, only done it a handful of times. A challenge for a more experienced solder??? I think so.

Coma · 04-22-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by skunksmash

1....grab the cpu

2....grab a butter knife

3.... evenly spread the thinnest coat possible over the IHS surface & off it goes

1....grab a butter knife
2....evenly spread the thinnest possible coat of grease over your elbow in preparation for heatsink seating

**lemans81** · 04-22-08

Nice article.

Blameless · 04-22-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by MasterKromm

Ummm, ok... Why the palpable disdain for Thermalright products?

Thermalright does botch the bases of their heatsinks on a pretty regular basis.

They are great products, but I've never had a Thermalright heatsink that did not benifit from lapping. Evidently, some people feel the out of box experience should be better.

G|F.E.A.D|Killa · 04-22-08

i do a really small dot on my cooler and it works for me. but my CPU and HSF is lapped so i dont need much at all.

xlink · 04-23-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nailuj

wouldnt so much thermal paste in those heatpipe channels just retain more heatget really damn messy?

good find nonetheless. +

they're referring to between the base and the heatpipes where there is dead space, just air.

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[Benchmark] Best thermal Paste application methods

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