Did I mess up my heatsink/fan

[kfranc9]

I touched that silvery, sticky stuff on the bottom of my heatsink. When reading the instructions, it states:

"The heatsink has a thermal interface material pre-applied to the bottom...Do not use if thermal material has scratches or gaps."

Is that what I touched; do I need to contact AMD?

 

[SickBeast]

You shouldn't touch it, but as long as it was cool and you didn't get any goop on your finger it should be fine. They say that the oil from your skin can alter the thermal properties of the stuff, but I don't think it will affect your temps to a noticeable extent.

Your CPU would probably run 5C cooler if you took off that junk and put on some Arctic Silver though.

 

[kfranc9]

I did touch it with my hand so like you said...I probably messed up the chemical structure. I know my brother has some Arctic Silver. Is it generally a good idea to put in a processor you intend to remove?

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: kfranc9
Is it generally a good idea to put in a processor you intend to remove?

What do you mean? If you don't put the processor in, you won't have a functional computer.

Swapping CPUs will not cause any problems so long as you know what you're doing. Re-applying Arctic Silver all the time is a PITA though.

 

[cy7878]

you can always get some heat conducting grease to "re-lube" the contact surface b/w CPU and heatsink. The white stuff is meant to eliminate the need for separate grease, but, why spare the $2 ?

 

[kfranc9]

I applied the Arctic Silver 5 according to the instructions on their website. At first boot, I saw 43?. But when I booted it up again...it was @ 64?. A friend of mine told me that was too high for a CPU with a pretty good heat sink (its OEM). I confirmed that with myself by viewing my brother's CPU temp.

My question is...can I remove the thermal material with isopropyl alcohol from the CPU like I did from the heat sink?

Also, is there anything else that could be wrong?