File:Shinra07-thermalpaste.jpg

This shows the method for setting up cooling for socketed CPUs: the thermal paste, liquid at room temperature and with a high specific heat capacity, filled the microscopic grooves and jagged surface of the two slabs of metal above and below it. The paste is smeared on the bottom of the copper heatsinks, which are then places on the tops of the metal cover on the CPU package. The CPU conducts heat from the cores and memory inside, which travels through the thermal paste easily, and into the copper heat pipes which travel directly through the middle of all of the metal fins in the heatsink. Finally, after the heat is dispersed over large amounts of surface area, the ball-bearing fans on top constantly blow over the fins in the heatsink to remove heat from the whole package.