How to apply thermal paste on said electronics?

[hat]

CPU: only a grain of rice on the center of the processor.
RAM: please explain/pictures if possible
GPU and GPU memroy: please explain/pictures if possible
northbridge/southbridge: only a small dab on the center of the chip.
sound cards, network cards, and the like: only a small dab on the center of the chip

[DR.Death]

the last one is likr why it might com into efect some time but not now

[GJSNeptune]

Is it really necessary to grease up sound and network cards? Do they produce a significant amount of heat?

Don't forget heatsinks.

[Tatty_One]

Don't know if you are aware but there is quite a good guide to applying Thermal paste, not least on CPU's and GPU's on this site, in case you didnt know here is a link:

http://www.techpowerup.com/printarticle.php?id=134

Also you may find this helpful, both have some useful pics for reference:

http://www.shaunchng.com/articles/tutorials/gpu_p/gpu_p.php

And lastly, with some even better pics, this is from Artic cooling and whilst is just for CPU's it covers all the different cores and the best application for them:


http://www.arcticsilver.com/ins_route_step2intelas5.html

Aside from that, normally I would not apply thermal paste to ram chips as it's messy and because of the vertical positioning may cause leakage....just a personal thing, I would apply thermal tape to ram.

[WarEagleAU]

yeah I dont know really of anyone who puts thermal paste/grease on ram chips. usually its thermal pads or tape as Tatty has said.

[devguy]

yeah I dont know really of anyone who puts thermal paste/grease on ram chips. usually its thermal pads or tape as Tatty has said.

I don't do it, but it seems like a pretty common mod on the Xbox360 to put Arctic Silver 5 on the gDDR3 chips that go under the GPU heatsink.

[Tatty_One]

I don't do it, but it seems like a pretty common mod on the Xbox360 to put Arctic Silver 5 on the gDDR3 chips that go under the GPU heatsink.

Do they fit the same way up as in the PC or are they horizontal?

[Namslas90]

The most commonly 'overlooked' item on a MOBO that creates ecessive heat are the Power Mosfest that supply power to the CPU. PC Magazine recently did a study on the Hottest parts inside the PC and found that the Power Mosfets for the CPU, The HDD'S and the Video Graphics card created most of the heat inside a PC. After installing Ramsinks on the PM's, reversing the fans on HDD bay(s),(to blow out the front,1fan in back,one fan in front of HDD's) and adding an aftermarket cooler to GPU; They were able to significantly reduce OVERALL PC temps.

:toast:

[devguy]

Do they fit the same way up as in the PC or are they horizontal?

Here's an example:
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=467045

[erocker]

I have a question about installing paste on a NF3 chipset... The chip isn't exposed, it has black plastic on it, what to do? Anyone cooled a NF3 mobo before?

[Tatty_One]

I have a question about installing paste on a NF3 chipset... The chip isn't exposed, it has black plastic on it, what to do? Anyone cooled a NF3 mobo before?

Black plastic.....sounds just a fan job to me then, no point in putting anything on if it's not going to make contact with the chip. Does the plastic get very hot? If so you could try some Ramsinks, they would probably pull some of the heat from the plastic thus reducing chip temp....cheap and easy I would think and at least that cant hurt.

[Grings]

on the nf3 its the same as the southbridge on our boards tatty, i just used some as5 to stick a zalman silent n/b cooler to it

[Tatty_One]

on the nf3 its the same as the southbridge on our boards tatty, i just used some as5 to stick a zalman silent n/b cooler to it

Lol I just stuck some ramsinks on with thermal tape and then put a little 3cm fan on it with superglue.....works a treat.

[Grings]

yeah the southbridge dosent get very hot anyway, hence no h/sink, im looking for something that'll fit on the vrm's (it MIGHT lower vdroop) at the moment (hint: zalman n/b coolers are too small, all of them)

[hat]

What's a VRM??
hm I see that thermal goop would leak from the RAM... I'm not a RAM overclocker, and I guess that the pre-installed heatspreaders that come with RAM would be sufficent. I'm planning on getting 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-533 from Corosair for $80 (this isn't value ram either) and it comes with no heatspreader, it only takes 1.8V. My current 1GB (2x512MB) has a heatspreader and it takes 2.8V, and it's slower (DDR400)

[Tatty_One]

What's a VRM??
hm I see that thermal goop would leak from the RAM... I'm not a RAM overclocker, and I guess that the pre-installed heatspreaders that come with RAM would be sufficent. I'm planning on getting 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-533 from Corosair for $80 (this isn't value ram either) and it comes with no heatspreader, it only takes 1.8V. My current 1GB (2x512MB) has a heatspreader and it takes 2.8V, and it's slower (DDR400)

On the Ram, you just need to ensure that the thermal pad/tape is actually making contact with both the chip and the heatspreader, if there is contact and it's a snug fit then it's doing it,s job, if the tape is not actually touching the heatspreader usually a light pinch will get it to make contact. I just mount an Antec spot cooler 80mm adjustable fan to blow at them when over volting slightly, it does the job very well, I have put 2.35V through my DDR2 and run them at 1180Mhz and they remain cool.....not bad for 667Mhz stock!!

I think VRM stands for Voltage regulator mosfet?

[Tatty_One]

yeah the southbridge dosent get very hot anyway, hence no h/sink, im looking for something that'll fit on the vrm's (it MIGHT lower vdroop) at the moment (hint: zalman n/b coolers are too small, all of them)


I have the Artic freezer 7 pro, it's bottom fins are specially designed/angled so that cool air can blow over the VRM's....job done! trouble is you have to bend the bottom fin on the Northbridge side to get it to fit over the Northbridge heatsink tho. I have just stuck a fairly high powered 6 cm fan onto my NB passive heatsink...works well, idles at 30C....40C full load.

[surfsk8snow.jah]

Hey I was just wondering where do I purchase thermal tape from? I looked on newegg, arctic silver's website, and couldnt find anything.

[hat]

if you're buying RAM heatsinks thermal tape comes pre-applied