Do I need to put a Thermal paste/Compound on a i5-6600 with a stock cooler?

[_Whitedragon_]

Hello friends,

I have bought an i5-6600 which came with a stock cooler and there is pre-applied thermal paste on it, so I was wonder whether It is possible to put extra thermal paste/compound on the CPU along with the pre-applied thermal paste on the stock cooler? will that help lower the CPU temperature's a little bit more compared to just using the stock cooler with the pre-applied thermal paste? will it work this way?

 

[Hawkshot]

just used the pre installed paste, if you apply more this will leave the layer of the paste too thick and will actually increase the temperature of your cpu.

 

[azaran]

Naw you can use the supplied paste. Its not the best, but it'll work, much like the cooler really. If you want to apply your own tho, just make sure to clean the heatsink of any paste on it beforehand.

 

[_Whitedragon_]

Naw you can use the supplied paste. Its not the best, but it'll work, much like the cooler really. If you want to apply your own tho, just make sure to clean the heatsink of any paste on it beforehand.

Am new to pc building thing, can you tell me how I can safely clean the thermal paste on the cooler and also on my CPU if I would need to in the future? and also do I have to keep cleaning the paste and applying every month or so to keep my CPU safe or I can just do it one time and forget about it?

 

[michaeldavidson]

Naw you can use the supplied paste. Its not the best, but it'll work, much like the cooler really. If you want to apply your own tho, just make sure to clean the heatsink of any paste on it beforehand.

Am new to pc building thing, can you tell me how I can safely clean the thermal paste on the cooler and also on my CPU if I would need to in the future? and also do I have to keep cleaning the paste and applying every month or so to keep my CPU safe or I can just do it one time and forget about it?

I would recommend you to re-apply the thermal paste on your own as there is a chance that whoever built your PC (assuming the store which you bought it from built it as well) is inexperienced and messed up by spreading the thermal paste or whatever, because that's what most employees do in stores.

Why am I saying they messed up by spreading the thermal paste? Well, when you apply thermal paste, you shouldn't spread it because when you put the heatsink on it creates air bubbles and thus your CPU can get quite hot. On the other hand, if you just add a little in the center (about the size of a little pea) of the CPU and put the heatsink on, it will evenly spread, and as it gets hotter, it will spread even more on its own.

Now, when removing thermal paste, make sure you get microfiber cloth and isopropyl alcohol. Safest and fastest way to remove thermal paste.
Always be careful not to get thermal paste on your skin OR any PC components when applying / removing thermal paste as it is corrosive and conductive.

As of your question whether you should reapply thermal paste once a month or not, well, it's always good to do it once every month or two months because it dries over time, not to mention the heatsink and fans get dust all over...
If it seems like a struggle, always remember that other people need to maintain their hydro coolers every week.

I highly recommend you use Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste as it's high quality, but your stock thermal paste should do just fine if you apply it correctly.
I also highly recommend you to check this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hNgFNH7zhQ
This is literally where I learned how to apply thermal paste correctly when I was a beginner. Helps out a lot by making you understand why you are doing all of these steps

Good luck, and I hope I helped!

 

[azaran]

Naw you can use the supplied paste. Its not the best, but it'll work, much like the cooler really. If you want to apply your own tho, just make sure to clean the heatsink of any paste on it beforehand.

Am new to pc building thing, can you tell me how I can safely clean the thermal paste on the cooler and also on my CPU if I would need to in the future? and also do I have to keep cleaning the paste and applying every month or so to keep my CPU safe or I can just do it one time and forget about it?

For more than you really wanted to know about thermal paste, but should know if you're building your own system:
Part one: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thermal-paste-heat-sink-heat-spreader,3600.html
Part two: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thermal-paste-performance-benchmark,3616.html

The above links will go over the hows and whys of compound as well as giving tips on how to apply it correctly. Looking up youtube videos on it can be a good idea, but keep in mind different people have different ways of applying. I'd go with the above links as a good guide on your choices.

Its In general, a lint free cloth/towel and some 80-90% isopropyl alcohol is all you need for cleaning, tho there are products out there for doing a through cleaning. But to be honest after 20 years of doing this stuff, I just use the lint free cloth and alcohol method. Apply the isopropyl alcohol to the cloth, not the CPU or heatsink. Make sure to clean the surface of both CPU and heatsink. If it was already in use, some compressed air to blow out the fins and fan of the cooler would be a good idea. Since it sounds like you're looking at doing this to a stock cooler with the stock paste, you'll need to pick up some of your own thermal compound. Arctic Silver 5 is the easiest to get a hold of, even Radio Shack stocks it. Its not the best, but its not the worst and its inexpensive. The only real downside to it is the long cure time on it, so it takes about 100hrs of usage to get an accurate temp reading with it. I personally like using Noctua NT-H1, its easy to get out of the syringe and it has good thermal performance, but it is about double the cost of Arctic Silver 5. If you are building your computer from brand new parts, you can just use the compound that is on the stock heatsink without any issue, its deigned to be a simple matter of putting the cooler on to the CPU with minimal fuss.However if you're taking the heat sink off, or if you just want to learn to do it yourself, you will need a tube of thermal compound.

As for reapplying every month, no that's not even remotely necessary. While paste will dry up over time, with normal usage you can go a very long time. I tend to do it every year or so as part of a year deep clean of the system but even then when the heatsink comes off its apparent that had I not removed the heatsink, reapplying wouldn't have been needed. Now if you're running your CPU hot all the time and close to the thermal limits the cooler provides, then yes doing it often would be needed. But frankly if you're at that point you need to invest in a better cooler. However remember that every time you take the heatsink off, you need to clean and reapply the compound.