Hi, this weekend if all is okay, I should assemble a PC with an "Arctic Freezer 33" heatsink. However, reading the assembly instructions, they say that the thermal paste must be applied as described in the following drawing:



... But is not too massive so ?? I thought I would put the classic rice grain in the center of the CPU and then let it expand with the pressure of the heat sink ... or am I wrong?

For example, can you put an image (not a drawing) of how I can apply the paste properly?

Thanks in advance!

Since it's a naked heatpipe cooler they want the paste to be evenly spread on all the heatpipes. Rice grain in the middle will work I'm sure. But maybe performance will be slightly better if you follow the instructions.

Ok, but if I apply the quantity shown in the drawing, is not it too much and is it likely to get out of the cpu edges when I hit the heatsink?

The four lines don't need to be thick, when the thing is mounted they each only need to be squeezed out to cover 1/4 of the base. Be very conservative with the amount of paste applied.

It's a 2D picture. Those lines might be paper thin.

In the manual, the thermal paste on the heatsink is applied in the same way for both Intel and AMD CPUs.

Tonight, however, I will try to put the thermal paste as indicated in the manual.

Because there are gaps between the heat pipes, it needs more paste than a unit with a flat plate.

Yep. An alternative method might be to apply as shown and then sweep a credit card edge over it to embed paste in the valleys/remove all the excess so the flat bits of the cooler look like they are nearly paste free. Sort of like spackling your wall. Then, apply the usual rice grain sized paste to the CPU.

Ah, grain in the middle would fill the gaps and perhaps not reach out to cover the pipes properly. I don't think it matters much if the gaps are filled as long as the pipes make good contact.

Interesting to see that Arctic has changed their recommendation.
Previously for direct heatpipe the general advice was to place one string of paste centrally across all heatpipes.