Hi, this weekend if all is okay, I should assemble a PC with an "Arctic Freezer 33" heatsink. However, reading the assembly instructions, they say that the thermal paste must be applied as described in the following drawing: ... But is not too massive so ?? I thought I would put the classic rice grain in the center of the CPU and then let it expand with the pressure of the heat sink ... or am I wrong? For example, can you put an image (not a drawing) of how I can apply the paste properly? Thanks in advance!
Not really. Rice grain method doesn't work that well with direct touch heatpipe coolers because there are gaps between the pipes. Thus it may not spread evenly or at all really. Another alternative is to just spread the thermal paste on CPU (which is the best choice in this case in my opinion). Also it really isn't possible to add too much thermal paste since the extra will spread out once you tighten the heatsink. It will get messy if you go nuts with it but cooling wises it's not an issue.
Sure it's possible when it's too much it acts like an insulator rather than dissipate the heat.You're not talking the heatsink having a 100 lbs/square inch to squeeze all the extra.