NB Heatsink Thermal pasting

[lockw]

I have a 970a ud3 board and removed my Northbridge after experiencing enormous temperature rises and crashes while playing BF4 and Simcity(2013). This is a recent development and i have used the same configuration since september 2013 running my fx6300 at 4.0ghz.

After I purchased a new case(corsair 300r) I wanted to re-attach the nb instead of buying a aftermarket nb cooler, but i'm not sure how to approach it :

Do i need to remove the light gray stuff and apply thermal paste in between the black padding(don't know the technical term) or do i need to remove the padding too and put on new paste without the black padding?

 

[xboost]

Removing thermal paste and reapplying an new decent paste will be enough

 

[inzone]

You need to remove the old thermal compound from both the heat sink and chip being careful not to scratch the surface. Isopropyl Alcohol is a good thing to use and will remove all the thermal compound so you can have a clean surface to work with.