Do I need to remove cooling paste?

[RoughSaturn]

So I recently found out that I need a new motherboard because the old one doesn't function very well, so I ordered one online.
However, I will need to remove my processor to be able to put it on my new mobo.
My question is, do I need to remove the cooling paste since it is only about a month old and I hardly even used the pc itself.
The paste was on the cooler that came with the processor (AMD FX 4300) so I didn't put it on the processor myself.

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

I always recommend that thermal paste is applied every time you lift the heatsink off the processor. The reason being is that when you reattach the heatsink there won't be an even spread of paste across the processor. You end up with pockets of paste here and there, which is not good for conductivity.

 

[ThatVietGuy]

It's always a good idea to re-apply thermal paste if the surfaces its mated to gets separated. If you try to put the cooler back on without a fresh layer you'll trap air bubbles which will cause your CPU to possibly overheat - but at the very least the heatsink won't work nearly as well.

 

[RoughSaturn]

Alright, then I'll order some paste with the mobo as well. Thanks to both of you!