do i need new thermal grease?

[Weenus]

I bought a new mobo and im gonna put my old cpu on the mobo, its an athlon 64 3200+.

Do i need to buy some new thermal grease/goo or can i use whats already on there?

And if i need to buy new stuff do i scrape the old stuff off the heatsink / cpu?

 

[BlueWeasel]

Yes, I'd recommend scraping off the old layer and applying a new, thin layer of thermal compound.

 

[NINaudio]

You should clean the old paste off the cpu and heatsink and apply new thermal paste.

 

[MDE]

Clean the old stuff off with alcohol and apply the new paste.

 

[NokiaDude]

If it was a thermal pad, it'll be impossible to remove it with alcohol.

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: NokiaDude
If it was a thermal pad, it'll be impossible to remove it with alcohol.

But not with a hairdryer. Be careful though.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Originally posted by: NokiaDude
If it was a thermal pad, it'll be impossible to remove it with alcohol.

I never had any trouble removing a thermal pad with alcohol. 😕

You can save yourself a bit of scrubbing if you use something plastic to scrape away the excess before you apply the alcohol though.

Make sure you use a lint-free cloth to do the final wiping. I hear a coffee filter works well.

 

[Powermoloch]

Yes get a new thermal paste, preferring the Artic Silver 5. But before that, you can use 70-90 % Isoproply alcohol (rubbing alcohol) to take out the glunk(left over paste) for both CPU and Heat sink with a cotton swab or a cutip. It worked for me 🙂