Arctic Silver 5

[AuroEdge]

Is thermal grease permanent once I apply it? If my CPU core is of the same approximate size is this the amount of grease I should use?

[Quzar]

You should use more than that. Thermal grease (I use AS5 so I know for a fact this applies to it) is not permanent and can be wiped off whenever. You should put an amount so that after the heatsink is seated there is a thin, even layer coating the surface of the chip. That is probably not enough.

Usually the way to do it is to put some, try to seat the heatsink and then remove it. This will let you see how much gets covered and if you may need to add more.

The whole point of the grease is so that there is the best contact possible between the chip and heatsink for heat transfer. If you put just that dot then only the center of the chip will touch and the rest will continue to be hot.

[AuroEdge]

You should use more than that. Thermal grease (I use AS5 so I know for a fact this applies to it) is not permanent and can be wiped off whenever. You should put an amount so that after the heatsink is seated there is a thin, even layer coating the surface of the chip. That is probably not enough.

Usually the way to do it is to put some, try to seat the heatsink and then remove it. This will let you see how much gets covered and if you may need to add more.

The whole point of the grease is so that there is the best contact possible between the chip and heatsink for heat transfer. If you put just that dot then only the center of the chip will touch and the rest will continue to be hot.

That's what I thought; very helpful. The paraffin wax thermal pads provided by the manufacturer are inadequate.

On an added note, I would like to replace the thermal compound on my GPU. BUT, I have a Geforce 7950 GTX (mobile) and don't have any experience on popping open a mobile video card and could use help on that. It requires a 6 pointed screwdriver so that's what made me think I should hold off in case there's other uncommon tools I may need.

[Quzar]

Yea, it's hit or miss with laptops. Some use all torx screws (or even weirder stuff) and some (like my sony vaio) use all standard phillips. I saw once one (this was a really old one though, I believe a 94 or so NEC laptop) that actually used clips and such that required replacement if removed. No repairs on that thing.

[Stryfe]

Judging just by the dimensions shown in the pic, I'd say you'd need about the size of a grain of white rice.

Spread it evenly and smoothly over the chip, with the clean edge of a credit/ID card. You have a few hours of running the PC before the gel/paste "sets", so if it's relatively easy to remove the heatsink, you can add more of it like Quzar said.

[AuroEdge]

Judging just by the dimensions shown in the pic, I'd say you'd need about the size of a grain of white rice.

Spread it evenly and smoothly over the chip, with the clean edge of a credit/ID card. You have a few hours of running the PC before the gel/paste "sets", so if it's relatively easy to remove the heatsink, you can add more of it like Quzar said.

About how thick should the coat of AS5 be? I would assume about the thickness of paper?

[Quzar]

as little as needed. Once the heatsink is properly seated, anything extra will be squeezed out anyways. The only ill effects of putting too much may be that it's messy.

[AuroEdge]

So it's been a couple of days since applying it and I'd have to say my heat issue has improved. I upgraded to a T7600 Merom 2.33GHz (mobile) so in removing the heatsink to install it I had to either apply a new thermal pad or grease. Using AS5 my CPU idles at 45°C +/- 2°C and under stability testing I couldn't push it above 70°C. It takes at least 120 hours to 'cure' so maybe the situation will improve but I guess at least I'm not looking to melt anything. Thanks for the help guys.

EDIT: As of this post the temperatures are typically 31°C +/- 2°C at idle, 35°C-45°C under average loads (Windows 7), and under full load testing it maxes out at 70°C. Considering the hardware involved and the way the system cooling is designed these are great marks.