Unpopular opinion: thermal paste application methods are way overthought

I've been swapping CPUs for clients all month and I keep seeing people stress over the pea vs spread vs line method. After testing 12 different paste jobs on an old Ryzen 2600, temps were within 2-3 degrees of each other every time. Has anyone else found that a decent sized pea in the center just works fine?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_anthony4d ago

Remember reading a test Gamers Nexus did a while back where they tested like 20 different application methods and basically said the same thing, within 2-4 degrees across the board. People act like you need to be a surgeon applying this stuff but a blob in the middle covers everything fine in my experience. I usually just do a pea slightly bigger than a grain of rice and call it good. The real trick is making sure you have enough, not too little, way more important than how you spread it.

miles_young594d ago

Exactly right. People overthink this way too much when the mounting pressure and a consistent application are the real factors that matter. A little extra paste never hurt anyone either, it just squeezes out the sides.

jake9864d ago

Honestly I did the same test on a 3700X with five different methods and temps were all within 2 degrees. Pea method has never failed me in hundreds of builds.