Some PC debates will likely never end, such as Mac versus PC, which browser is the best, and which pattern to use when applying thermal paste to a CPU heat spreader. Though the "dot in the center" ...

That $20 paste isn't going to make a big difference.

Deciding on which thermal paste pattern to use is one of the longest-running debates in the PC-building world. Some prefer a dot, an "x," or even a straight line (aka sausage). It's a bit of a ...

Arguments about how you should apply thermal paste to your CPU have rolled on for decades, with variations on cross shapes, sausage shapes, grains of rice, small dots, and straight lines being touted ...

If you're building a computer, you need thermal paste, or heat paste, to ensure that your computer's processor doesn't overheat. It's a gloopy, silvery material that you squirt between the processor ...

When you buy a new CPU cooler, you'll find that the thermal paste is either included in the box or pre-applied on the heatsink. Likewise, your graphics card also comes with thermal paste pre-applied ...

Noctua recommends a single dot at the middle, spanning 3 to 4 mm for proper coverage of the entire IHS. AMD's AM5 CPU requires a dot-sized paste application only. This is a drastic change from the ...

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Why it matters: Applying thermal paste is one of those PC building tasks that sounds simple in theory but can be a real pain in practice. You can try to be as careful as possible when spreading that ...

We all know that applying thermal paste to CPUs isn't the easiest thing to do, squirt a little on... move it around, make it kinda even... but now there's an idiot-proof method of applying the perfect ...