Hi, I have a Rampage III Extreme, some Shin-Etsu X23-7783D, and I'm thinking about re-TIM'ing my northbridge and southbridge later today.
I hear good X58 IOH/ICH temps are around 50C, and I know my board's got somewhat of a reputation for being hotter than that. My NB/SB typically hang above 60C idle on my OC and can climb up to a little over 70C. I know that's not really horrible, but if I can easily lower that then why not.
I've seen the horrible pics of the yellow cheese-colored TIM floating around on the internet:
and it doesn't seem like it'll be too bad to get to the NB/SB:
so I'm looking to do this, but I've got a question or two that I haven't seen clarified while reading up. The people I see doing this all spread out the TIM on the chipsets. I haven't seen one person doing it with the pea/rice grain method (which I'll usually do for CPUs). I know spreading can lead to (significant/insignificant) air bubbles, so I'd like to use pea (even if I ran across some review where 7783D coincidentally did like .5C better when spread, lol)... but I'm just wondering if chipsets are a bit different and spreading is what's recommended.
So that's my main question, but I have a second one that ties in with it. In watching a few videos of repasting chipsets, the stuff that comes caked onto them always looks a little thick. Even in a tutorial, a guy was explaining why thermal paste should be spread thin, but said he was going to do it a little thick for his chipsets. Is there more of a gap that needs to be filled? Or does the chipset heatsink have good pressure and the stock TIM really is just on thick and not filling a gigantic gap? This is relevant because if I'm going to be using pea/rice grain it's going to need to spread it well enough with the pressure...
I'm guessing pea is going to be fine, spread is just the preference of the people I've seen, and there's going to be adequate pressure.
but just double-checking and looking for feedback
I hear good X58 IOH/ICH temps are around 50C, and I know my board's got somewhat of a reputation for being hotter than that. My NB/SB typically hang above 60C idle on my OC and can climb up to a little over 70C. I know that's not really horrible, but if I can easily lower that then why not.
I've seen the horrible pics of the yellow cheese-colored TIM floating around on the internet:
and it doesn't seem like it'll be too bad to get to the NB/SB:
so I'm looking to do this, but I've got a question or two that I haven't seen clarified while reading up. The people I see doing this all spread out the TIM on the chipsets. I haven't seen one person doing it with the pea/rice grain method (which I'll usually do for CPUs). I know spreading can lead to (significant/insignificant) air bubbles, so I'd like to use pea (even if I ran across some review where 7783D coincidentally did like .5C better when spread, lol)... but I'm just wondering if chipsets are a bit different and spreading is what's recommended.
So that's my main question, but I have a second one that ties in with it. In watching a few videos of repasting chipsets, the stuff that comes caked onto them always looks a little thick. Even in a tutorial, a guy was explaining why thermal paste should be spread thin, but said he was going to do it a little thick for his chipsets. Is there more of a gap that needs to be filled? Or does the chipset heatsink have good pressure and the stock TIM really is just on thick and not filling a gigantic gap? This is relevant because if I'm going to be using pea/rice grain it's going to need to spread it well enough with the pressure...
I'm guessing pea is going to be fine, spread is just the preference of the people I've seen, and there's going to be adequate pressure.
but just double-checking and looking for feedback
