thermal paste for the i7-4790K

[gswartz]

I was planning on building a new system with the i7-4790K. A coworker told me that this processor does NOT need thermal compound like other processors. I've been trying to google some information on it but I'm not finding a specific yes/no answer. Of course I don't want to throw almost $350 away by burning up the cpu, so I was hoping to confirm whether or not this was accurate? Even if it doesn't need it, will it hurt anything to use it just as a safe guard? Thanks.

 

[Y0GI]

Yes, it needs it.

If you use the Intel supplied stock heat-sink fan, it comes with thermal compound pre-applied, which is good enough for starting out. If you ever remove the HSF and disturb the thermal compound, you will have to clean both the CPU and the HSF to remove all compound and then apply a small amount of fresh compound to the CPU. A small pea sized drop in the center will do.

Yogi

 

[gswartz]

Yes, it needs it.

If you use the Intel supplied stock heat-sink fan, it comes with thermal compound pre-applied, which is good enough for starting out. If you ever remove the HSF and disturb the thermal compound, you will have to clean both the CPU and the HSF to remove all compound and then apply a small amount of fresh compound to the CPU. A small pea sized drop in the center will do.

Yogi

Thank you. So, just to be clear, I do not need to add any additional compound to what is already there but ONLY if I disturb it in the future? Would it hurt anything to add additional compound to what is there if it's not necessary?

 

[CDdude55]

Yes, it needs it.

If you use the Intel supplied stock heat-sink fan, it comes with thermal compound pre-applied, which is good enough for starting out. If you ever remove the HSF and disturb the thermal compound, you will have to clean both the CPU and the HSF to remove all compound and then apply a small amount of fresh compound to the CPU. A small pea sized drop in the center will do.

Yogi

Thank you. So, just to be clear, I do not need to add any additional compound to what is already there but ONLY if I disturb it in the future? Would it hurt anything to add additional compound to what is there if it's not necessary?

Thermal paste is all you need, you shouldn't add more the existing paste as it would be to much and that could affect heat transfer. If you remove the heatsink in the future and you want to throw on some new thermal paste, you should wipe the old pate off and add new paste.

 

[The Tech Guy]

All processors uses thermal paste as the thermal compound is actually the only medium through which heat is absorbed from the processor to be cooled and expelled from the computer. The i7-4790K processor like all other processors that comes with a a stock cooler, comes with thermal grease/paste on the base of the cooler. So all you need to do is to install the processor then the fan. Most persons will buy an extra tube of thermal Paste as some and put on a little more paste than that which comes with the stock cooler. I recommend you do that as sometimes the stock coolers comes with what I think , could be more. Just order the Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound just in case. And also, if at any point in time you remove this processor, you will need to replace the thermal Paste, so its a nice idea to get some from now.


Hope I solved your question.
Thanks for asking.