Should I reapply the thermal compound?

[Guest]

I've just bought a new system which had the processor and cpu cooler installed in the shop.
Unfortunately they did a poor job in attaching the cooler, so when I gave it a small push when installing the other components it came lose.

I have a artic cooling freezer pro 64, which has preapplied thermal compound. The components have never been powered up so far. Should I reapply the thermal compound, or is it still save to just remount the cpu cooler and get on with it?

 

[RJR]

If you have some good TIM around, I would definitely clean off the HS and CPU with alcohol and remount with fresh TIM.

 

[Fruity]

If the system has never been powered up then you won't 'need' to reapply the TIM, but as RJR said, if you've got any good TIM around then it's worth doing.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the fast replies!
I don't have any thermal compound lying around, so I guess I'll just remount the heatsink.

I wanted to make sure I was not going to blow my cpu on day one.