Radeon 4850 / arctic silver skills

[libtech]

I just bought one (The radeon 4850 by palit with the shorter PCB and aftermarket cooler)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261027

Any thoughts? Did I make a poor decision? (lol I just want to hear some comments on this card, it seemed pretty on par with the gf 9800gt/8800gt/8800gts but it was cheap and shorter! for my mATX case.)

Also I'm reapplying my arctic silver 5. I swear the credit card thin layer thing isn't working out.
Anyone with some experience please share!

Thanks.

[Jedakiah]

[jake]

I usually put 1/2 tube on the cpu, then slap the heatsink on.  It's a beautiful thing.

[Labyrinthine]

Barely covering the copper.

I usually use the size of a unbaked grain of rice.

[libtech]

Don't you mean credit card thick?  If you're putting it on as thick as credit card you're doing it wrong. 

As thin as possible, which means you can partially/mostly see through it. 

Edit: The objective of thermal paste is to fill in the surface indentations on your CPU and heat sink.  Most of them are so shallow you can't even feel them.  With those filled in you have 100% contact between the heatsink and the CPU. 

Thermal paste is not some magical substance that cools the CPU further, thus warranting a healthy application.  Rather, it is a more efficient thermal conductor than air.  So, if your thermal paste is in anyway impeding surface to surface contact it is losing efficiency.  You just want it to fill in the holes that wouldn't have otherwise made contact. 

 I meant using a soft credit card to spread it, i tried doing a thin layer and it i swear didn't do much (100 % thinnest covering I can get).

I just redid it putting a big grain in the middle and 4 small grains closer to the corners, i'm just gonna let it spread over time. (Actually similar to the arctic silver 5 instructions pdf file on their website)

[Jedakiah]

What do you mean by didn't do much? 

[libtech]

It was idling at 40. Anyways should I trust this speedfan reading? (I just downloaded the software)

It's telling my my "AMD K8" is at 25C and my "Nvidia Video Card" is at 48C. (Both core sensors) The 23C seems suspiciously low, as I'm in a room with an ambient temp of ~68F (~20Celsius).

[Jedakiah]

That does not sound quite right.  Try Core Temp as well since you don't have to install it.  If they get different readings something is off. 

BTW I idled at 38 in BIOS with water cooling on an AMD 5200.  40 is a good idle. 

My BIOS readings are always higher than other programs.  Although my whole computer has been screwy ever since my coolant leaked on the motherboard, so that could be me. 

[libtech]

Thanks for the recommend Jed. With Core Temp, I enabled "logging" for the temperatures.

I do hit 35-36 C at 50-60% load (on a dual core prob. means one core is fully loaded and the other is processing my shitty sound.) But it still idles at around 23-25... i have an athlon x2 Black Edition (Brisbane.) Maybe my computer is on crack...