Hi,

I'm in the process of building a new PC and, due to me being a klutz with the CPU cooler, I need to apply heat sink compound. The problem is that things change... I was always told to put a pea sized blob on the CPU and use an old credit card to spread it around, but I've been reading that this isn't the best way and... there are too many variations on a theme to list all of the different ways here, so the question is...

Is there a best way to apply heat sink compound to an Intel Core i7 6700 Skylake CPU? I'm putting a BE Quiet Pure Rock air cooler on the processor, if that makes any odds.

Thanks in advance,

John.

I only know the credit card method and never had any problems with it, other than putting the heatsink on wonkily and shorting out an AMD Athlon processor...

I wrap my index finger in a very thin piece of plastic bag (2x2 inches is enough) and make sure I don’t have any creases on the tip of it. This way I can spread a very thin, even layer.

Don't spread

http://www.intel.com/support/processors/sb/CS-030329.htm

Thanks rusty.

Yeah, this was one of the methods I had seen. Actually this was the one which prompted the initial question, as I wasn't sure whether this might just be Intel covering themselves, to stop people from taking legal action when they mess up the installation.

It does make sense, I guess, as the TIM would go where it's needed.

That's sh!t advice, and probably why some people de-lid their CPU, because Intel did a piss-poor job of applying TIM to the Die-IHS interface. Particularly on Ivy Bridge and Haswell chips.

I'd imagine Intel have spent a bit of time and money on making sure their systems are reliable, so I'd guess that their suggested application is good enough.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Thermal-Paste-Application-Techniques-170/ - some benchmarks on different applications.
TL;DR - a rice sized dot in the middle is pretty good, but a smooth spread across the die is better, and an X drawn across the top is better still. We're talking 0.5 of a degree difference between the dot in the middle and the X though, so whatever's probably fine.

I should imagine that Intel might know a little about it ...

I was under the impression that was due to a change in the interface material Intel used between the chip and IHS rather than the TIM end users were applying to attach their cooling solution to the IHS. IIRC they switched from solder to a cheaper paste material which resulted in poorer heat transfer although it was only a major issue once you tried to overclock. They switched back to solder for the Devils Canyon ones.

Think I might give this one a go...