Is thermal paste needed for for anything other than the cpu?

[dragon3025]

My friend knows someone who is highly into building pc's and stuff like that, and he says he remembers him using thermal paste not just for the cpu, but for a bunch of other stuff. I'm planning on building a PC, is there anything else I'd need thermal paste for other than the CPU?

Also, I'm planning on building it with the Intel Core i3-4170. Is thermal paste already applied on this, and if so does that mean I don't need thermal paste at all?

 

[DonkeyOatie]

You do not need thermal paste at all unless you need to replace the CPU cooler. The stock cooler comes with paste pre-applied, so you can plug and play.

Thermal paste is not used anywhere else in a normal build. My students at school have built several computers and no paste was required by any of them, except to re-seat or replace CPU coolers.

Most of out builds use stock coolers with stock paste and have done well.

 

[Martell1977]

The CPU and GPU, however many CPU coolers have some pre-applied and all GPU's have it applied to their cooler. Other than that, there is nothing else you would apply it to.
I usually apply my own paste to a new CPU (better quality than the pre-applied stuff IMO) and only replace it on a GPU if it's running hot.