
They are not empty but full of air, which is a very bad heat conductor. Inevitably, there are very small empty spaces between the two faces. Thermal paste has the fundamental task of building a thermal bridge between the CPU (or other integrated and power circuits) and the heat sink.

Since air is a bad heat conductor, the CPU does not cool properly.įigure 3: Some thermal simulations In case of emergency The thermal paste has the function of filling the microscopic imperfections of the surfaces in contact, which inevitably retain the air particles (see figure 1). There are many viable and cheap, easy to find alternatives, to temporarily solve the problem. If you don’t have thermal paste available, you shouldn’t despair. Without the thermal paste, air bubbles would form which would limit the passage of heat, even if the two parts are in close contact. The main function of thermal paste is to help the CPU (or other chips) transferring heat to the heatsink.

Often, those who assemble computers forget to use it and apply the heatsink directly to the CPU. Thermal paste has a vital importance, even if many people do not realize how useful it is.
#Cpu thermal paste how to
In this article we will see how to usefully replace the thermal paste with some different, easily available and inexpensive material. It is a fundamental component because it helps cooling the CPU temperature down, lowering the thermal resistance between the microprocessor and the heat sink. Very often, assemblers and computer repairers do not have thermal paste available.
