A comparison of various application methods of the TIM compound. Find out which type is the best for your CPU.

That $20 paste isn't going to make a big difference.

In this guide, we'll guide you through the wonderful world of thermal paste, or thermalinterface material (TIM). We'll show you how to apply thermal paste in its various different forms, using ...

Deciding on which thermal paste pattern to use is one of the longest-running debates in the PC-building world. Some prefer a dot, an "x," or even a straight line (aka sausage). It's a bit of a ...

Arguments about how you should apply thermal paste to your CPU have rolled on for decades, with variations on cross shapes, sausage shapes, grains of rice, small dots, and straight lines being touted ...

Noctua recommends a single dot at the middle, spanning 3 to 4 mm for proper coverage of the entire IHS. AMD's AM5 CPU requires a dot-sized paste application only. This is a drastic change from the ...

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