Do I need Thermal Grease(Paste)?

[OldAMD]

Before upgrading my motherboard and processor, I am reading the Motherboard's owner's manual(ASRock). It says that I need to spray thermal grease between the CPU and the heat sink. However, the AMD box only came with a heatsink and a fan. Is Thermal Paste or Spray required?

I just bought:

AMD Athlon II X3 2.9 Mhz
ASRock Motherboard DDR3 1600
Single stick of 2 gig of ram at 1333 MHz.

 

[Henry Chinaski]

Yes, It's necessary to apply some thermal paste between the cpu and the cooler.
Anyway, the AMD stock cooler has the termal paste already applied. If you are not thinking about changing the stock cooler, it's not necesary to buy a new one.

 

[jsc]

Otherwise, if you remove the cooler, you always need to clean off the old and reapply new thermal paste.

 

[505090]

further thermal paste does not spray on as it is rather thick

 

[OldAMD]

Best answer selected by oldamd.