Does too much thermal paste decrease performance?

I bought a new processor (Core 2 Duo 2.93GHz E7500) and got some thermal paste, and put maybe about 2-3 drops worth on it. Would that be too much do you think?

Yes, it can increase the temperature of your CPU and can cause damge/instability. Mor importantly, When you put on thermal paste it is very important to spread a thin layer of thermal compound over the entire CPU. I usually use a piece of paper or toothpick as a tool to do it. Butter

I just wish they make smaller containers to buy. I bought the expensive but good Arctic Silver, and still had so much left to just bin afterwards. It went hard from not putting the lid back on properly.
They cater for people building 3-4 machines easily. It only affects temps. If you apply and find your CPU pretty high in temp, then there's too much. Too little and the same happens.
Also remember if you change your CPU and want to keep your CPU cooler (if't it's a good aftermarket one), remove ALL heatsink from the CPU cooler with metho and rag. Sorry if you already knew this, I just know a couple of people that just didn't do it and it made things hot.

I've always been taught to evenly spread the thermal paste equally over the surface. IMO I think some of you guys are crazy for just putting a little dab in the middle and just slapping on the heatsink and letting heatsink flatten the drop (how can you be sure to cover the whole CPU surface???). A good way to spread the thermal paste is with a credit card or some type of card.

I've always been taught to evenly spread the thermal paste equally over the surface. IMO I think some of you guys are crazy for just putting a little dab in the middle and just slapping on the heatsink and letting heatsink flatten the drop (how can you be sure to cover the whole CPU surface???). A good way to spread the thermal paste is with a credit card or some type of card.

CPM_basic

That's how I was taught at uni. To only put tiny dab on, but spread it with something smooth. So it's really really light layer over the area. Just like spreading butter. mmmmm

Ok thanks guys. I think that's clearly the problem. I didn't spread it very well at all, and my guess of how it spread is that some bubbles formed or something. I'll have to reapply it.

I used arctic silver for my intel i5 750 with a coolermaster hyper 212 plus. I spread it evenly across the whole cpu and get idle temps at 28c and 100% loads at 42c. Is that normal?

I tried evenly spreading it but it's so thick it just gets stuck to the toothpick/card/whatever the f*ck I use to try spreading it. So I just put a blob in the middle, and just pressed down really hard, tried to even it out with the pressure of the heatsink fan. It's now idling at 45c... So I kind of doubt that worked...

The point of thermal paste is to provide a medium to increase the thermal conductivity between your CPU and the base of the heatsink. If you put too much, it actually acts as an insulator, which is the exact opposite of what you want. In the worse case scenario, you can overheat and damage components.

Maybe this article can help: http://www.techpowerup.com/printarticle.php?id=134

The point of thermal paste is to provide a medium to increase the thermal conductivity between your CPU and the base of the heatsink. If you put too much, it actually acts as an insulator, which is the exact opposite of what you want. In the worse case scenario, you can overheat and damage components.

Maybe this article can help: http://www.techpowerup.com/printarticle.php?id=134

entropyecho

I have yet to ever see this happen. The worst I've seen is getting TIM into the CPU socket, but even in scenarios where the user has put enormous blobs of paste, the chip didn't overheat. The retention method should give enough pressure to evenly spread the TIM regardless of the amount.

I've always been taught to evenly spread the thermal paste equally over the surface. IMO I think some of you guys are crazy for just putting a little dab in the middle and just slapping on the heatsink and letting heatsink flatten the drop (how can you be sure to cover the whole CPU surface???). A good way to spread the thermal paste is with a credit card or some type of card.

CPM_basic

I've done tests myself, and there's a plethoria of experiments regarding this issue on different forums. The general concencus is that there is no tangible difference between methods, but the "dot" method is considered more reliable as it has the lowest chance of failure as it is less prone to introduce foreign substances.

Also, keep in ind that the retention bracket usually applies a dozen pounds of pressure on the IHS, and that should be more than enough to evenly spread the TIM.

I tried evenly spreading it but it's so thick it just gets stuck to the toothpick/card/whatever the f*ck I use to try spreading it. So I just put a blob in the middle, and just pressed down really hard, tried to even it out with the pressure of the heatsink fan. It's now idling at 45c... So I kind of doubt that worked...

Armalite1016

Well I have to move it to line it up to screw it down anyway, so that doesn't help me. Also, I did clean them both, thouroughly

On the arctic silver website it says to just put a little bit in the middle.

User saran wrap, it gives you the control/area that using your finger does, without any of the oils or the unevenness caused by your fingerprint.