That tip about thermal paste application saved my old PC

My buddy Dave in the San Jose repair group told me to stop spreading thermal paste like butter and just do a pea-sized drop in the center. I was always doing the credit card method and my CPU temps were hitting 85C under load. After his advice they dropped to 68C on the same old Ryzen 5. Has anyone else found that the "pea method" works better than X pattern for certain chips?

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wade_perez2mo ago

X pattern spreads more evenly across the entire heat spreader though.

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morgan_butler2mo ago

Fair point @wade_perez, I can see the logic in that design. In my experience, how the paste spreads is only half the battle, the real test is if it holds up under heat cycling over a few months. Your mileage may vary, but I've had mixed results with that pattern on larger CPUs.

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