About to assemble a new PC

[zonkie]

Ok, it's been awhile since I've done this and I've learned tons reading the forums here and I appreciate everyones input. I am extremely happy with everything I've bought and regardless of the outcome I am happy with what I have here.

First question.
For now I am not overclocking anything. So do I want to use the thermal pad that came with my retail AMD and HS/Fan or do I want to use arctic silver/grease. I want to be able to add a better HS/Fan later on if I get the courage to OC and dont want the HS stuck to the proc. Considering I may never OC this AMD 64 3000 + what is the best solution.

Second question:
With my case came all sorts of screws and such. I know where those go, but there is this really solid metal thick ring. its as wide as a quarter. Is this thing important?

Third question:
Is there a good thread or tech website that helps people know what to put all the settings in the bios at? I am sure just letting everything auto-detect will run fine. But I know with the right tweaking I can do better.

Thanks in advance.

 

[theMan]

1. you should clean off the thermal pad, and put on arctic silver 5. then, later, get an xp90 or something.

2. what case is it? can you post a picture?

3. depends on the motherboard. what board is it? try googling a guide. there will probably be numerous big threads dedicated to the board, and bios settings.

 

[zonkie]

The case is a COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UB
If you go to newegg and look at the pics of the included hardware, you can see in the bag the large grey metal ring. Link

The MB is the MSI Neo4-f and I will do that. I thought I remembered seeing on Tomshardware or AT a bios tweaking guide but I didn't save the URL and can't find it.


Thank you for your response.

 

[biostud]

the heavy metal ring, is nothing to be concerned with, I remember getting one of those never knowing what it's supposed to do. I think it's some kind of tech joke to confuse inexperienced builders 😀

The tweaking of the BIOS will not do much in most situations, if you're not going to overclock just load optimal settings and be happy. You can ofcourse browse around the BIOS to see if there's anything you want to change, but o/c is the only performance tweak you'll actual will be able to notice.

 

[potato28]

I have a simaler case(built on the same chassis) and I had no clu wtf that gray ring was, so I didnt use it. I tried googling the mobo tweaks, and came up with nothing. And take the thermal pad off, use Arctic Silver 5.

 

[cpacini]

1. you should clean off the thermal pad, and put on arctic silver 5. then, later, get an xp90 or something.

Why? Its not going to make a noticable difference, and AS5 tends to act like superglue. There have been tons of stories of people ripping thie proc out of the socket cause it was stuck to the AS5 on the bottom of the heatsink.

 

[harobikes333]

I'd keep the stock on until you OC...

 

[jimbob200521]

Originally posted by: cpacini

1. you should clean off the thermal pad, and put on arctic silver 5. then, later, get an xp90 or something.

Why? Its not going to make a noticable difference, and AS5 tends to act like superglue. There have been tons of stories of people ripping thie proc out of the socket cause it was stuck to the AS5 on the bottom of the heatsink.

a tip when removing a hsf that is "attached" to the proc with AS5; run your computer at high load for a while, then shut down, unlip your hsf (duh), and then twist back and forth slightly to help losen the proc from the hsf.

no need to clean the thermal pad off until you take the heatsink off, in which case clean the base of the hsf throughly with as high a rated alchol as you can (99% being ideal). then apply whatever youve got on hand. the diff between artic silver 5 and the generic white stuff that comes with your hsf/get at the hardware store is minimal, 1, maybe 2 degrees cel at best (although i still use artic silver :confused😉

 

[cpacini]

Originally posted by: jimbob200521

Originally posted by: cpacini

1. you should clean off the thermal pad, and put on arctic silver 5. then, later, get an xp90 or something.

Why? Its not going to make a noticable difference, and AS5 tends to act like superglue. There have been tons of stories of people ripping thie proc out of the socket cause it was stuck to the AS5 on the bottom of the heatsink.

a tip when removing a hsf that is "attached" to the proc with AS5; run your computer at high load for a while, then shut down, unlip your hsf (duh), and then twist back and forth slightly to help losen the proc from the hsf.

no need to clean the thermal pad off until you take the heatsink off, in which case clean the base of the hsf throughly with as high a rated alchol as you can (99% being ideal). then apply whatever youve got on hand. the diff between artic silver 5 and the generic white stuff that comes with your hsf/get at the hardware store is minimal, 1, maybe 2 degrees cel at best (although i still use artic silver :confused😉

I use AS5 myself and have never had any issues with it, but I could see no reason to use it over the stock TIM on a new build thats not going to be overclocked.

 

[0roo0roo]

yup, thermal pad good for stock builds. no probs, doesn't squeeze out over time/dry out either. no fuss no muss.

 

[zonkie]

Well its a thermal PAD not grease. I know it will fill the pores in the metal once I use it the first time. That is what concernes me is that it will fill and I wont be able to get that clean later. It fills the tiny poors with a parafin like substance that I remember reading you cant get out effectively with alchohol

As far as the "stuck" thing, I remember back in the days of my pIII, that only happened if you used to much grease and the heat dried it out. If you dont over use that should'nt happen.

So I guess I will just see if anything comes with the MB and use that otherwise when I order the Video Card I will order some arctic silver or whatever.