Shuriken Rev B - Seating issues?

[southpaw]

Hi all,

I've been busy fettling with my new PC trying get the temps down through various methods. During my practising and testing with cooler seating I noticed there is a outline imprinted into the cooler base of the CPU, its only an outline mainly near the corners. I have since been wondering if this is normal? From this I would say that the CPU and cooler are not getting a proper seat or 'fit' as the outline of the CPU is coming into contact with the cooler first meaning the centre of the CPU and cooler are not in direct contact. Now maybe I am just missing the point that the thermal paste is meant to 'take up the slack' so to speak, but my gut is telling me that this shouldn't be the case as a best 'mate ' as possible is what should be happening from the outset and the paste just takes up the areas of poor contact and small gaps.

Should I changing cooler or sending it back or I am actually worrying about a common happening and this is due to clamping down each corner at a time?

This is the imprint I was talking about.



This was the current application.




This was a vertical line application (thicker but not as long original, no comments!)





This was the grain of rice style application




I'm unsure what is best for application and whether or not that matters if the cooler and CPU simply do not have a good seat to start!


Hope someone can help!

[Oli]

I cannot comment for Scythe but from my point of view: I cannot see a problem here.

I am applying a thin layer of thermal grease on the wohle CPU heatspreader. This method worked well over the last decade.

Other people use the rice corn method (a drop of paste in the middle and let the pressure do the rest). That's kind of a science. And you can perfectly argue about "the best method".

Your imprint doesn't look that extra-ordinary that one should be alarmed in any way.

From my POV - the only thing that matters are acceptable temps.