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

Some PC debates will likely never end, such as Mac versus PC, which browser is the best, and which pattern to use when applying thermal paste to a CPU heat spreader. Though the "dot in the center" ...

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 ...

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 ...

When you buy a new CPU cooler, you'll find that the thermal paste is either included in the box or pre-applied on the heatsink. Likewise, your graphics card also comes with thermal paste pre-applied ...

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Why it matters: Applying thermal paste is one of those PC building tasks that sounds simple in theory but can be a real pain in practice. You can try to be as careful as possible when spreading that ...

If you're building a computer, you need thermal paste, or heat paste, to ensure that your computer's processor doesn't overheat. It's a gloopy, silvery material that you squirt between the processor ...

Thermal paste, also known as heat paste, thermal gel, CPU paste, and other similar names, is a putty-like substance designed to capture and ferry ambient heat within your computer tower. Thermal paste ...