I've found so much paste on some systems that it was UNDER the CPU. No wonder those systems were not working 😀 And people say you can't have too much 😀

debs3759 wrote on 2021-02-11, 19:45:

I've found so much paste on some systems that it was UNDER the CPU.

Jokes aside, what about SS7 and S370 mainboards which have little temperature sensors under a socket? I never put thermal paste on them, but I guess it would create better contact between CPU and temperature sensor 😉

I wouldn't be surprised if a little got under the CPU in the photo, but I have seen worse. Back when I trawled local PC repair shops and scrounging their rooms/sheds full of old parts.

Gabriel-LG wrote on 2021-02-11, 19:39:

Some time ago, I received an A7V with an Athlon 800 from a colleague. This weekend, I started building a new Windows 98 SE machi […]
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Some time ago, I received an A7V with an Athlon 800 from a colleague.
This weekend, I started building a new Windows 98 SE machine with it. So I removed the heatsink from the processor. What I saw was so funny, that I could not help making this picture:

ignore the dust, I will clean the components after testing 😉IMG_20210208_220408099.jpg

What is the worst thermal paste job you ever encountered?

That is pretty bad xD 😜

At least it's the more generic white TIM and not something like AS5 which can be much more work to remove 😜

I hate the stuff.
Dont buy that cheap stuff because it separates as its mainly oil. And drips everywhere.

Once I was replacing a CPU that had Artic-4 paste on it. I accidentally dropped it on my beige carpet and then I accidentally
Stepped on it. It stuck to my white sock like peanut butter. Then I walked around the room and it put black stains all over
My carpet.

It made a mess.

Luckily I was able to get all the stains out with carpet cleaners and scrub brush I purchase at the dollar store.

But the stuff is messy. I hate working with it. It get everywhere.

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-02-12, 22:35:

I accidentally dropped it on my beige carpet and then I accidentally
Stepped on it. It stuck to my white sock like peanut butter. Then I walked around the room and it put black stains all over
My carpet.

I hope those white socks weren't wool... 😆
I'm not being serious, of course. But for those who hate thermal paste, there's now graphite thermal pads which offer up to 35w/m-k that I've personally seen and used on machines with violently higher TDPs than any retro or even mid 2000's machine could dream of pulling off. People often use them for overclocking modern processors, and they keep up better than a lot of thermal paste- compare that to the 8.5w/m-k that Arctic Silver MX-4, an excellent thermal paste in my opinion, provides.

And they're usually at 30x30 or 40x40mm, but for exposed die CPUs and the such, you could easily cut them down with scissors. They're almost paper thin as well, so work well in applications where thermal paste would normally be used, but not regular thermal pads which are at least 1mm thick. I will be using one of these in my upcoming Athlon 64 build.

Also, that CPU and thermal paste job looks suspiciously similar to the CPU and thermal paste job that Tom's Hardware used in that video where they disable the thermal protections on the AMD board so the CPU commits die and joins its ancestors in Computer Hell, where every second of eternity is just spent rendering a massive complex 3D scene whose realism surpasses that of human understanding, just to have Computer Hell's administrator close the program down and reopen it when it finally gets done, making the CPU start all over again.

I like Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut - 73 W/mk. Best paste I know of. Can't be used with aluminium heatsinks though, and it is expensive.

Looks like a nozzle mishap. Watch those cheap tubes. Squeeze too tightly, and the nozzle will pop out, with often disastrous results.

The worst thermal paste jobs where probably the ones iv done myself 😜

Putting a little too much paste on.... Gah! Ends up like taking apart a ice cream sandwich.

Damn you Ryzen and not having your little hot-dies all in the middle like Intel 😭

I found a comparison video on thermal paste application methods posted on Newegg’s Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/Newegg/posts/10158401478109168

It seems to me that an “X” pattern of paste spreads the best.

Looks like that cpu met Peter North.

amadeus777999 wrote on 2021-02-13, 10:52:

Looks like that cpu met Peter North.

oh god.

athlon-power wrote on 2021-02-13, 11:12:

amadeus777999 wrote on 2021-02-13, 10:52:

Looks like that cpu met Peter North.

oh god.

The retro hobby is one of passion.

amadeus777999 wrote on 2021-02-13, 14:50:

athlon-power wrote on 2021-02-13, 11:12:

amadeus777999 wrote on 2021-02-13, 10:52:

Looks like that cpu met Peter North.

oh god.

The retro hobby is one of passion.

At least it hit the target.

amadeus777999 wrote on 2021-02-13, 10:52:

Looks like that cpu met Peter North.

What a nice obliquely risqué reference . 😉