How long thermal paste cure

In an ideal world, a cooler's copper or aluminum coldplate makes full contact with the IHS, with zero TIM between the metal.

It's not an ideal world, though, so we're forced with two primary choices: Fill the little gaps with some kind of thermally conductive material or leave them alone, in which case air will fill the gaps. Atmospheric air has a thermal conductivity of about 0. For comparison, the average tube of thermalpaste will sit somewhere in the range of 4 — 8. Even in the case of aluminum, it is clear that thermalpaste doesn't come anywhere close to the thermal efficiency of metal — but metal isn't going to deform to fit the surface, so we've got to use something more malleable at least, without reheating and melting it.

Above: source. Without some sort of interface filling the gaps, air will rest between the coldplate and IHS and generate heat pockets. Filling the gaps with thermal interface will provide a material of higher conductivity, with the objective of serving as a pathway for heat to reach the coldplate from the IHS. This is TIM's only goal. Using too much thermal compound will actually diminish the thermal efficiency of the entire system, because it limits direct contact between the coldplate and IHS and creates a thick thermal wall of a lower conductivity than the copper.

We've previously tested the efficacy of copper vs. Larger surfaces may matter more, but we haven't yet confirmed this LGA would be a good test. When freshly applied, thermalpaste hasn't yet cured and is still somewhat liquid-y. It isn't until the compound has an aging period that maximum thermal efficiency is achieved. This can take a few hours or a few days, depending on load level and type of compound.

So there is no need to waste your time by sitting around and waiting for it to dry. In fact, doing it once every year is enough. Know that there are different kinds of thermal pastes, and each of them comes with specific kinds of thermal connectivity.

So the higher that connectivity-rate, the faster you will end up having to reapply it. Note that liquid pastes work better at conducting CPU heat rather than non-metallic compounds. Also, it has been found that non-metallic pastes have to be reapplied first.

This is because the paste will dry and crack after months of use. Now, this happens due to the hot air from the CPU. In fact, you should avoid drying the paste. Post thread. Question Super giving me worse frames than a ?

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