Thermal paste: do i need it?

[perseus]

I just bought a new mobo for my processsor and one of my friends told me I need thermal paste to put it on. Do I really need this before I can replace my old motherboard? and if so are there any major retialers that carry it?

[Wiggo]

Yes and can be bought at any PC or electronics store though Arctic Silver 3 is the prefered paste around here. ;)
<center>:cheers:</center>

[FLaCo]

Thermal paste fills any microscopic voids and covers any tiny gap between the processor and the heatsink. Doing so, the heat produced by the core can be transferred easily compared to a proc. without it. Remember it fill microscopic voids...so make your application a small one ...as thin as a sheet of paper is best. Make sure is just on the core surface and not the whole thing like i have seen from some people that don't know about the thinner is better aplication. DO NOT fill the whole thing with the paste.

P.S. to apply it thin...i place some on the core and grab a "Ziploc " sandwich bag...and spread it of the it and remove any excess.

Hope that covers it..and help.:cheers:

[kane2g]

Arctic Silver has a great instructions on their page. It even has pics.

[mrfin]

Perseus - Just to let you know. It takes Artic Silver 3 a few weeks to soak into the heatsink and to reach maximum heat dissipation levels, so don't be discouraged if your temps don't drop immediately. You will notice your CPU temp will drop within the first week. When I first installed my Volcano 7+, my CPU idle temp was 37c, now it runs idle at 33c.

BTW - If you have a P4 and a stock Intel hsf, they do not use thermal paste, instead, Intel uses a thermal pad that comes factory mounted on the heatsink. This CAN be reused if it is not in bad shape. Sometimes though the pad will rip during removal and it cannot be reused. In this case you will have to use a plastic(NOT METAL) tool of some kind to scrape off the rest of the pad and then apply your thermal grease as instructed.

[E^vol]

I just re-applied my Arctic Silver 3.
I had moved the heatsink while cleaning the dust out.
My idle temp was around 51°C.
Now that I just re-applied the thermal paste (about an hour ago !), my idle temp is now around 38°C !
:thumb:

[Suicide]

Originally Posted by mrfin

BTW - If you have a P4 and a stock Intel hsf, they do not use thermal paste, instead, Intel uses a thermal pad that comes factory mounted on the heatsink. This CAN be reused if it is not in bad shape. Sometimes though the pad will rip during removal and it cannot be reused. In this case you will have to use a plastic(NOT METAL) tool of some kind to scrape off the rest of the pad and then apply your thermal grease as instructed.

I completely disagree with your first statement about not using paste on a stock p4 hsf. Remove the stupid little metal pad and apply AS3. Running at stock 2.53 w/ the default hsf w/ the pad... My proc was running around 45 C. Removed it, and applied AS3 (would've applied AS3 first, but it waso n back order), and when temps finally stopepd dropping ('bout 10 days later), temp was at 38 C.

Anyway, remove that stupid little metal pad, and apply some AS3... my :2cents:

[perseus]

well i went to microcenter but htey didnt have arctic silver, so I ended up getting some antec silver paste. I applied it and it works great, my cpu is running at 33c! Thanks for the help

[mrfin]

Originally Posted by Suicide

I completely disagree with your first statement about not using paste on a stock p4 hsf. Remove the stupid little metal pad and apply AS3. Running at stock 2.53 w/ the default hsf w/ the pad... My proc was running around 45 C. Removed it, and applied AS3 (would've applied AS3 first, but it waso n back order), and when temps finally stopepd dropping ('bout 10 days later), temp was at 38 C.

Anyway, remove that stupid little metal pad, and apply some AS3... my :2cents:

Let me explain further. Every CPU, motherboard, etc., even if it's the same brand and model, can be very different. I just got my second P4 2.53. The first one I had ran idle at 31c with the stock Intel HSF and I was able to OC it to 2944. My new one ran at 36c idle and I got it to go up to 3004 with the stock Intel HSF. Same CPU, same stock Intel HSF, two different motherboards, two different results. I do agree with you that using Artic Silver 3 on the Intel HSF is better, but I have personally seen those P4 Intel HSF's perform as well as a Volcano 7+.