As for stress testing a CPU, I've done it on just one machine out of over 1,000 I've built and repaired over the past 30 plus years (I used to repair motherboards to a component level back in 486 days). That one machine was my sons HP Micro server G8 which now runs a much higher spec Xeon processor than designed for with a cooling system designed by myself and my son without resorting to the butchery most people seem to resort to and without the aid of the larger heatsink fitted to UK only models which could be obtained standard with the Celeron chip or the upgraded Xeon processor, lesser spec than what we fitted.
That runs 24/7, 365 days per year and has NEVER missed a beat. The only downtime is to clean filters, blow the unit out and replace the thermal compound once per year (so it doesn't run 365 day, it gets 2 hours downtime per year). Stress testing it's high spec processor was of great importance because they were far from cheap as a new machine and we certainly didn't want to cook the machine.
We also frequently swap out CPUs in servers, add when finances permit or rob to test out other machines without the outlay for another processor or 2 unless we know it will work. I mentioned the dead BIOS in my Lenovo D30 my son is flashing so I can have a twin, 8 core processor unit as my primary PC with 64GB of ECC RAM per CPU. it should be an amazing image processing beast eventually. Both processors were pinched from a HP G8 blade server for testing.
Sorry, back to thermal compound:
I know from a lot of experience and from every manufacturers specifications that thermal compound should be applied in the thinnest possible layer.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us...mal-paste.html
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Intel
Apply thermal paste onto the center of the CPU’s IHS. (If you already have thermal paste pre-applied on your cooler, you can skip this step.) You only need to apply a small amount — roughly the size of a grain of rice or a pea — onto the center of the integrated heat spreader.
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https://www.corsair.com/us/en/explor...-should-i-use/
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Corsair
Your CPU and cooler will work perfectly with the application of a pea-sized amount of thermal paste deposited directly onto the middle of the CPU
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I would believe the manufacturers over youtube and it's hoards of experts ANY day!
Annual thermal compound is our thing, not a necessity but while we have systems down to blow out filters we fit, dust and unfortunately cat hair (5 cats) we clean the RAM, RAM slots and replace thermal compound while it's apart, especially on the laptops because they are not that easy to disassemble.
Every 12 year old kid can now build their own PCs with plug and play, not a thing when I started (anyone remember dip switches on graphics cards and motherboards and needing to know cylinders, heads and sectors on hard drives?). Most of these 12 year olds have a youtube channel and want everyone to subscribe.
I DO use youtube on occasion, my fabrication engineering was done over 20 years ago and I forget some aspects of welding but there's great technical content by people doing it more regularly than I do. It's also over 20 years since I got my fitting and machining qualifications and while I had a lathe for the first 7 years of that time period during and since, we've only recently gotten a lathe and milling machine, a lot I have forgotten, throw in 64 years of age and the old grey mare just ain't what she used to be BUT, I get regular call-outs by local business people (friends) and other friends to fix their computer problems and always have something computer or server related in pieces in the house. I do my friends stuff free and they help me out if required. For me it's an excuse to get out of the house (how sad is that?) Plus two 46" smart TVs in the shed i'll get to fixing one day (and a PBX and, and). Then I have furniture to restore, a Honda CX500 with genuine 39,000 kilometres and my favourite, an Austin Healey Sprite (64 mkII) needing a full ground up restoration. The ability to do just about anything and debilitating migraines every day for the past 50 + years
My host of seemingly unrelated qualifications including electrical and PLCs were meant to go together for the development of robotics and mechatronics, unfortunately my health and finances don't permit me the opportunity to play, add in the cost of the components including hydraulics and pneumatics which I also have qualifications in and a LOT of experience working as a forklift (and car hoist technician) specialising in electrical/electronic forklifts in my younger years but most things are beyond my financial means, and health.
Computers are so easy in comparison!
I mentioned my son, he can program in any language you can name and has networking skills, analytical skills (and equipment) beyond most.
Sadly I spend most of my time in front of an idiot box rotting my brains.