TR Forums

I bought a Athlon II X4 along with some Arctic Silver Ceramique, and I was wondering what the best way to apply it was. I heard for quad core CPUs you're supposed to make a little line with the stuff rather than a small dab, but that's just hearsay and I have a bad memory anyway. What's the real best way?

I still just use the BB size ball in the middle of the CPU and haven't had any problems with temps at all.

Hoser wrote:

I still just use the BB size ball in the middle of the CPU and haven't had any problems with temps at all.

do you just leave the bb size ball in the middle and put the proc on? or do you spread it out evenly like mayo on a sandwhich?

I haven't done this in a while either

We have a thread for discussion.

Also, definitely refer to Arctic Silver's instructions. AMD and Intel quads have different shapes and you may need slightly different patterns to be optimal. And if you are using HDT heatsinks you need to pay special attention about prefilling the gaps.

I did not realize there was a thread for discussion. a cursory glance did not reveal it. I apologize.

I bought an OEM version from Newegg, so there are no instructions.

This is my heatsink: http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.c ... cleID=2522

not the best in the world, but I originally intended on shipping this PC(Plans have changed), and wanted a low weight heatsink.

I generally just let the pressure of the heatsink spread it out. But I tend not to buy bleeding edge hardware, and generally don't overclock, so I'm not too concerned about CPU temps.

This CPU won't be OCed.

I'm gonna try the BB method, as I've heard how well it worked before. Thanks for y'alls help.

Edit: The damn applicator was a brush. o_O Uh, what do I do now?

Edit: Never mind, the cap was just not wanting to come off.

I.S.T. wrote:

I did not realize there was a thread for discussion. a cursory glance did not reveal it. I apologize.

That's ok, the thread did not get too much traffic to keep it up. May be after you are done you can post some pictures back?

I.S.T. wrote:

I bought an OEM version from Newegg, so there are no instructions.

Arctic Silver's website has the most up-to-date info.

I.S.T. wrote:

This is my heatsink: http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.c ... cleID=2522

Even if you are doing the BB pattern, since this is a HDT heatsink, you need to do some more work with the HDT surface too. There is another link from the linked thread to another site, you should read that about how to deal with HDT.

For AMD, the BB method is correct according to AS, you should be fine then.

Here are directions straight from the site if you never found them.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appmeth ... t_v1.1.pdf

Like FF said, you'll have to do some work to get some of that Arctic Silver properly applied to the heatsink. Just make sure there are NO gaps on the bottom of the HSF without thermal paste in them. You can read up on that at AS's website as well.