CPU Installation

[cnosko]

I'm putting together my first AMD-based system. I have an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (Newcastle) and an AOpen AK86-L mboard. When I first put the system together, it worked great for a week and then started randomly rebooting. After a day of this, the computer wouldn't even turn on (no lights or anything). I swapped out the power supply with no success. I figured it was a problem with either the CPU or the mboard, so I returned them both as defective. I now have them both back and am ready to put the system together again, and I want to make sure that it wasn't the way I put the system together that caused the problem. I didn't use any extra thermal material or upgrade the heatsink/CPU fan, which I think may have cause the problem. My question is, is it expected behavior for the chip to go like this if only the stock thermal material (on the bottom of the heatsink) is used? Will just using aftermarket thermal paste prevent this problem from repeating itself? Is it necessary to use a different heatsink/CPU fan rather than the one that comes with the chip?

Thanks,

 

[lenjack]

Are we talking about a retail cpu? If so, the stock thermal pad is more than adequate for the job, or AMD wouldn't warranty the cpu for 3 years. It would probably even allow mild overclocking.