Is thermal paste a must?

[oswold]

Sorry for all the questions I've been asking lately...

Is it nessisary to apply thermal paste to the cpu when building?
Are there other uses for thermal paste?
What pastes would you recommend?

Thanks!

 

[drummerdude]

yes you need to have it. stock coolers that come with the cpu have it pre applied so there is no need, unless you want to put better stuff on. check out this link, benchmarks on different paste link

 

[apt403]

Unless your goal is to fry your cpu you have to use thermal paste.

You can use it on the northbridge and southbridge heatsinks. I guess you could eat it as well if you wanted to...

Drummerdude already posted the thermal paste shootout by DaSickNinja.

 

[quantumsheep]

You do need thermal paste, although with retail chips it comes readily applied.

 

[illram]

All I can add to the above is that if you're not overclocking, I don't really think replacing the paste/pad that comes with the chip is necessary. (Because, as was said earlier, Intel and AMD chips usually come with a paste/pad already applied.)

 

[jt001]

I'm suprised everyone else missed this, but you want thermal grease, not thermal paste. Thermal paste has an adhesive in it and that's probably not what you're looking for.

 

[oswold]

So will thermal paste be bound to the CPU (or whatever I apply it to) and void its Warranty (or its value for reselling)?

If so is thermal grease removable, and therefore the better option?

I plan to do some slight overclocking (its will be my first) but so much that the cpu would reach too high temperatures.

Should be overclocking a C2D E6300 (1.86ghz) to around 2.6ghz (not too far). But may not depending on pre OC performance, as that will save the warranty.

 

[drummerdude]

it wont void any warranties and yes it is removable by just using some rubbing alcohol and a lint free cloth

 

[jt001]

It is removable yes but in your case thermal grease should be used, the adhesive is unnecessary.

 

[apt403]

Eh, thermal paste, thermal grease, thermal gel, whatever, its all the same to me. I say thermal paste because... I dunno, i guess i like the word paste better then the word grease.

 

[sirheck]

Sorry for all the questions I've been asking lately...

Is it nessisary to apply thermal paste to the cpu when building?
Are there other uses for thermal paste?
What pastes would you recommend?

Thanks!

yes it is generaly disirable to use some kind of t.i.m.
although i have ran an xp2800barton core for around a year
with no t.i.m. and then applied some cheap radioshack stuff
and oc,ed the $hit out of it before :lol:

 

[jt001]

I had a 2800 Barton before that I ran without any thermal grease, and the temps went up to 100c+, but when I forgot grease on my old northwood it wasn't much worse, must have something to do with the heatspreader.

 

[rammedstein]

between the physical chip and heat spreader there is thermal pate, which conducts heat over a larger area, providing more contact with the heatsink, but with the barton there in only a small area, the size of the core that is actually making physical contact with the heat spreader so you need that contact to be the best possible one for it to cool efficiently

 

[immagikman]

If I were mean this would be the "DuH!" question of the month

However Im not so I will say...it is only important if you care about frying your CPU

 

[ZozZoz]

nah, mayo will do just fine. jell-o too

 

[quantumsheep]

Are there other uses for thermal paste?

I've been told they taste great with pop-tarts!!!

Chocolate pop-tarts = the shizzle.

 

[rethdog]

Actually I believe if you polish the CPU and the heat sink very, very, finely and flat, then “wring” them together the heat conduction would be better as there is no transition material, you wouldn’t even need the heat sink clamp.

So unless you’re a toolmaker with plenty of free time, just use thermal paste

 

[quantumsheep]

Actually I believe if you polish the CPU and the heat sink very, very, finely and flat, then “wring” them together the heat conduction would be better as there is no transition material, you wouldn’t even need the heat sink clamp.

So unless you’re a toolmaker with plenty of free time, just use thermal paste

There would also be a high chance you could damage the CPU.

 

[petevsdrm]

Hey guys kind of on the same topic, I got same ram sinks for my 8800. Now I have AS5 @ my house, but I am not sure if it will be enough of an adhesive to hold the ramsinks on the ram. Do you think that

A. I should use the AS5

B. I should buy some AS ceramique or other hardening paste

C. I should just use whatever kind of thermal pad comes with the sinks

Thanks, pete

 

[petevsdrm]

Ah, nice man thx for the reply. I hope they carry that at fry's, or else I'll be overnighting it.