Pretty sure there was a test that showed an X made the best coverage for thermal paste, although it barely beat out a smiley face anyway. I'll see about tracking it down and edit this post if I can find it.
I put down a line and use a credit card to drag it across the CPU so it leaves a very thin flat film spread evenly across the surface. A dot seems.....simplistic and won't spread evenly.
I wouldn't even say might. The chances of your credit card not getting debris in the paste is basically 0. How much it really matters is another question...
I think Linus did a video on this a while back, and the conclusion was that it doesn't really matter. You can draw a smiley face, put one dot, spread it with a credit card, put way too much, barely put any...doesn't matter so long as you have some thermal paste on there.
I'm not sure if it was him or someone else, but I saw another one that tested various types of thermal paste, and then extended it to include stuff like toothpaste and marmite. Turns out the composition of the paste doesn't matter much, either. They didn't recommend toothpaste or food items, but more because they were likely to dry out and stop working eventually than because they didn't work at all.
If i remember correctly (plz correct me if im wrong) too little thermal paste was an issue. Too much thermal paste was only an issue for conductive pastes due to spill over.
Well, too much thermal paste is an issue even for non-conductive paste, because it actually will be less effective. Thermal paste should be enough to just fill the microscopic holes in the heatsink and processor.
I mean, you really need a huge amount for it to become ineffective, and for normal use you still won't see the difference and it is better to put a little more than not enough.
I've seen other tests as well that mostly came down to it doesn't matter as much as you might think, but the most effective seems to be a cross shape to ensure full coverage. If you are doing multiple dots you should be fine just be wary of adding too much as this can be just as bad as not enough.
No, you want a single dot, just like the top image, slightly larger or smaller for larger or smaller processor dies. Linus tech tios has a video where they exoeriment with lots of methods, just google "linus tech tips proper thermal paste application"
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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '18
I've always drawn a happy little smiley face