Hey, I'm going to be putting my H100 onto my CPU later this evening and I was wondering what is the best way to apply TIM. Is there even such a thing as "best way"? In the past I have done a thin layer covering the whole chip. However, I have seen videos of people using the "pea" method with just a blob in the middle of the chip spreading when you push down the cooler. I have also seen a method where you do a "line" down the middle of the chip and it spreads when you push down the cooler. Just wondering what other people do and anyone got any tips?
Less is more ;-) i used the pea method and it was fine, i think all the methods get mostly the same results. So really its upto you Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Almost any method works just fine, as long as no air bubbles get trapped in (so don't apply it in a circle or something). And it should be more of a rice than a pea. TIM spreads out surprisingly well.
I followed the instructions here as they seemed to make sense to me - never had any issues afterwards...
I use the large grain of rice in the center method, It's always worked fine for me. I did a fair bit of reading about the Corsair coolers and it was generally felt that Shin-Etsu tim was the best for these coolers and was the one that was pre applied on them from new
I use the cling film over the index finger and spread across whole chip method. Think Custom PC suggested this way a while back and it has always served me well in terms of temps.
I've tried the pea, rice, complete covering using plastic, straight line and cross method. TBH I found it makes no difference whatsoever on temps, so long as you don't put too much on all methods are fine.
this with a pea size bit of TIM. Arctic Freezer Silver 5 gets really good reviews. It is definatly my favorite TIM. Of the affordable TIM's it is very good/ best.
Spreading manually is actually the worst method of all, likely to result in air trapped between TIM and cooler.
yep i agree with faugusztin, its the easiest way to trap air..... just a small grain of rice size dab of tim in the center i find to be the easiest way, the pressure from the mounted cooler will spread the tim evenly (as long as when you clamp/tighten the cooler down you do it evenly a bit at a time switching diagonally) Otherwise you could spread the tim across one side and not the other.
Me too, and all I've learned is that the less TIM you use the better the temps usually, rice grain is plenty. Current preferred method is a very small amount of AS5 manually spread, and my temps are pure awesomeness.
I find the grain of rice if the best, As for affordable tim that's one thing I've never understood people will spend 2k on a build and then get all tight arse over spending £10 on the best tim ffs
I like to plop on a rice grain sized amount then "flatten" it a bit manually. Just to make sure it reaches all the corners when it's completely flattened by the cooler. Probably doesn't matter how you do it, I just like the peace of mind.
