Best way to apply thermal grease to CPU correctly

How to apply CPU thermal grease correctly? Usually there’re four ways to smear the thermal paste to increase heat conductivity between CPU and heat sink. The best way is to keep the grease on CPU surface as thin as possible without bubbles and impurities.

First of first, put your hand on metal object for a while to remove any charge from your body.

Second, extrude a little thermal paste in the center of processor.

Third, use your finger to spread the grease in one direction evenly, repeat until the CPU surface is covered by a thin and even layer of paste.

Last, install the heat sink on the processor gently.

To apply thermal grease is not an easy work. There’re many bias and bad ideas such as, ‘the thicker the layer is, the better heat conductivity’. Absolutely wrong! The thermal grease works like a bridge, transferring heat to heatsink. A thick layer is equal to a thin layer, however, too much grease won’t help but kill the CPU’s thermal dissipation.

If you find your application work is not good enough, try to remove the grease layer by a piece of solid paper card and repeat the application.

Do you know which thermal grease has the top thermal conductivity? The most expensive is not the best! I will review all popular thermal pastes in our market later.