Will replacing thermal pads with thermal paste void warranty ?

[pyrodog360]

I purchased an Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 and i want to remove the Intel Stock Cooler's thermal pads and apply a much better thermal paste. Will this void the warranty ? Will using a 3rd party CPU cooler on Intel CPUs void the warranty ?

Replies would be much appreciated.

 

[misry]

I hope not as I've been doing it for too many years. Even if it did void the warranty how would they know?

 

[saaiello]

Redoing thermal paste doesn't void the warranty.

 

[das_stig]

Nope.

 

[pyrodog360]

When you RMA, Intel wants the original Stock CPU Cooler with the CPU (for some weird reason) so i'm guessing if they notice the Stock CPU Cooler is missing the thermal pads they wont have a problem with that ? (sorry i am new to PC building)

 

[Rogue77777]

No it won't, besides if you ever need to reseat your cpu, you'll have to change the paste anyways.

 

[swifty_morgan]

When you RMA, Intel wants the original Stock CPU Cooler with the CPU (for some weird reason) so i'm guessing if they notice the Stock CPU Cooler is missing the thermal pads they wont have a problem with that ? (sorry i am new to PC building)

I had to RMA a 775 processor a year ago. I cleaned the ( my ) thermal compound I used off the processor with rubbing alcohol and cleaned the thermal paste off the UNUSED heat sink, stuck it in a box and sent it back. I really don't think they even looked at the processor or the heat sink. They just quickly turned around and sent me a "new" boxed up set. No questions asked.

 

[misry]

I had to RMA a 775 processor a year ago. I cleaned the ( my ) thermal compound I used off the processor with rubbing alcohol and cleaned the thermal paste off the UNUSED heat sink, stuck it in a box and sent it back. I really don't think they even looked at the processor or the heat sink. They just quickly turned around and sent me a "new" boxed up set. No questions asked.

+1. The ones, both AMD and Intel, I've RMA'd have gone back with clean HSF's and spreaders. No worries.

 

[4745454b]

When I read the info that came with my S939 3500+ it said you HAD to use the provided sink if you wanted to have the warranty. I'm not sure if this is still followed or how they'd know. It was the last new CPU I bought so I have no idea if its changed.

 

[aaron686]

Absolutely not, in fact, this is greatly encouraged even if you are not planning on overclocking. Its very advisable. Replacing the thermal paste on any cpu will not void the warranty....Guaranteed 😉

 

[EXT64]

Just be sure to keep the stock HSF around for returns, because although I'm not sure, what 4745454b said may still be true and you have to at least return the fan that shipped with the CPU (they have matching serials I think too).

 

[misry]

By all means if you swap the fan keep the original in the retail box for RMA's. However if you are using a 3rd party fan there would be no reason to wipe the paste off the the original fan.

Having handled thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of CPU's, and in fact owning a collection of CPU's from 8088 to Core 2, you'll need to show me where the matching serial on a CPU fan is.