This is a document provided by Artic Silver company with their instructional method to use when applying their product. On the bottom of page 3 there is a warning not to touch the compound with your finger during the application. I take this as a precaution by the manufacturer like I do with other things. Some things you can get away with and some things you can't. Just for the record. No, I've never heard of anyone having issues with their PC when they used their finger when they applied thermal compound to their CPU.

Link - Artic Silver instructions

intel_app_method_vertical_line_v1.1.pdf

Regards,

TokenEntry

On 7/15/2018 at 1:51 PM, Scorpio64 said:

I have used that method for, at least, 25 years (I learned to do it that way when I worked at Bell Labs), and I've never once had a problem. 

Can you give an example of how oil on the fingertip has damaged a computer?  Do the oils on fingertips somehow react with the oils in the heatsink compound, aka heatsink grease?

The only way one could encounter a problem spreading by fingertip is if they just finished some gardening and didn't wash their hands and got globs of dirt on the processor, or applied too much and did not spread it evenly resulting in large air pockets.

As long as your hands are clean, and you spread a light, even coating to both the CPU and heat sink, and firmly seat the heatsink, you will not have any problems.  But, if you want to stick a razor blade inside your computer case, where nothing could possibly go wrong, then go for it.

 

 

1) What finger oil can do to the thermal compound is partially dependent on the compound. They aren't remotely all the same. 

2) Regardless of compound the skin oils can cause all of them to stick poorly to the CPU. While new this won't matter so much. As they get old and get more solid and crumbly, it can matter a lot. 

3) For most applications these days, the amount of compound you can get on with a finger on both sides is excessive unless the finish on your heatsink is total shit. It's also less likely to be uniform, and the only way you don't get low spots is to make sure your high spots are squishing out. Over the years, CPU packaging has varied form couldn't give a shit to you are screwed on the subject of getting any even remotely conductive goo on things. 

4) You don't need to use a razor blade. edge of an old credit card is fine.