Thermal paste policies?

[erek]

this may be an issue of general common sense, but i want to understand more about what happens when you temporarily remove a HSF to say.. swap it with another HSF...

generally I would think the preferred situation is to re-apply thermal paste properly to the HSF when you replace it..., but

what all happens when you just put the HSF on without re-applying the thermal paste... and maybe just wiggle it around to spread the current goop around...

is this fairly below optimal practice, and how dangerous is it to practice reseating a HSF without re-applying thermal paste properly?

I am just curious because in the past I have swapped and reseated HSFs without re-applying the thermal paste...






my other question is... does thermal paste prefer to be active as in at least transferring heat always to stay good? or can formulas such as Arctic Silver Ceramique remain passive for storage purposes while applied for long amounts of time?

[OldChap]

It will depend on the viscosity of the paste but I would expect to get air bubbles in the paste interface and, depending on how you use your rig, because there is air instead of paste get poorer temps. It would also not surprise me if the air would try to migrate out to the edges and also expand and contract each duty cycle both of which would further decrease the contact area.

[STEvil]

"less is more"

If the heatsink and IHS surfaces fit together well, use the least amount you can get away with. TIM is an insulator just like air, so where you do not have metal to metal contact you are getting inefficient transfer of heat energy.