Tuniq TX-3 spreading technique

[PruritusAni]

I recently managed to pull off the first successful overclock of my E8500. It is now doing its thing at a reasonable 4GHz. As this thing got pretty hot I slapped a Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme onto it last night and decided to use the included Tuniq TX-3 thermal paste. After a solid hour of frustrating experiences with a plastic card, a plastic bag and my chip I finally found THE way to spread that thing around properly. The key came as i depleted the tube of "paste" and got very angry thus starting to needle nose plier the tube. In the angry fit just enough plastic came off the little syringe to convert it into a hollow cylinder. In a moment of pure awesome I decided to use the cylinder as a rolling pin and in another 20 (not too frustrating) minutes I had a good coating of the "grease" onto the processor. I was in a silver coated heaven, all the paste I had gotten all over myself was no longer mocking me and I could finally get on with the (somewhat frustrating) mounting of the heatsink. After going through all that I felt I ought to share this very valuable technique so that all who try the TX3 may triumph (in like a half an hour). I hope this helps many a silver-coated googler.

 

PS. In retrospect I really should've gone with the AS5 i had laying around. And I may still go with it, once I feel like going through the mounting procedure again. Anyone think the AS5 would be worth the effort?

[paulktreg]

Never had to spread the heatsink compound. Just put a rice sized "blob" in the appropriate location(s) and let the cooler do the spreading.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[RADEON]

Ive always just put a few rice sized blobs across one side of the cpu and used a razor. took only like 1 minute, and i get a perfectly even coating.

[spitter]

A new utility knife blade for me, takes a whole 30 seconds. Trash when I am done.

Edited February 27, 2010 by spitter

[PruritusAni]

you know ... everyone else on the nets also made spreading it with a credit card sound easy too. If I ever get my hands on some more TX-3 I'll try this blade trick despite my lacking of a surgeon's touch. If I manage to pull it off successfully and don't cut my arms off in the process (I'm really bad with sharp things) I'll be forever indebted.

 

Anyone have any thoughts on the AS5 alternative?

Edited February 27, 2010 by PruritusAni

[Bizzlenitch]

Never had to spread the heatsink compound. Just put a rice sized "blob" in the appropriate location(s) and let the cooler do the spreading.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

 

+1... kinda. I usually put a thin line across (not all the way to the edge, obviously) and let the cooler do the work. Never had any problems. I've tried both ways, though, and at least in my testing didn't notice any difference in temps. Using AC MX-2, BTW.

[minigeek]

one of the most used alternatives is arctic cooling mx-2

[PruritusAni]

Hmm I may have to get myself a tube of this mx2 stuff and give it a shot. Thanks for the suggestions.

[potatochobit]

Just get the zalman grease

it has a brush

[minigeek]

^ he wants something that also performs well and is used a lot!

[panjang110]

i spread my TX-2 with credit card, the thing is quite thick and spreading it on a HDT heatsink is really frustrating

[kuri]

i spread my TX-2 with credit card, the thing is quite thick and spreading it on a HDT heatsink is really frustrating

+1 I used TX-2 on a HDT heatsink as well. It was a pain to spread. Eventually I just filled in the 'gaps' then just put a few lines of TX-2 across the non-heatpipe part of the base and let the mounting does its job. Seems to work well enough according to my temps.

 

I've read that TX-3 is even thicker and harder to spread than TX-2, good luck to the OP!!