Do i need to replace thermal paste?

[taco1435]

I have an opteron 165 with the standard heatsink and i had to rma the motherboard so i had the heatsink and processor sitting seperately for a couple weeks. I had used them together in the computer for about a week b4 i rmaed it. Do i need to replace the thermal paste or can I just plop the heatsink right back on the processor?

 

[jonesthewine]

I would remove the old paste, clean the surfaces and re-apply new paste.

 

[w00t]

so you left your heatsink and processor inside your case rolling around? It's a good idea to reapply thermal paste never use thermal pads again which come on the stock AMD64 heatsink.

 

[taco1435]

Originally posted by: w00t
so you left your heatsink and processor inside your case rolling around? It's a good idea to reapply thermal paste never use thermal pads again which come on the stock AMD64 heatsink.

haha no i didn't leave them rolling around. So should i just clean it with a tissue and apply the paste? Also how much paste should i apply? I've never done it but i do have some arctic silver.

 

[Alaric360]

disregard w00t's comments for a moment. Using Arctic Silver will void the warranty on your processor. The thermal pad that comes with your P-I-B(Processor in a Box) is ceramic and provides an adequate connection between your Die and the Heatsink. ....You should only apply an aftermarket thermal paste if you're overclocking your processor, in which case the warranty has already been voided.

...The gist of that is: Are you overclocking your processor? If you are, ok, use Arctic Silver

If you are NOT, don't do something stupid and void your warranty by using thermal grease that is intended for higher-end usage. You won't see any improvement with Arctic Silver over the ceramic pad with a CPU at recommended settings

[Edit:] ...The most important point I was wanting to make, but completely excluded is that if you use the ceramic interface that AMD sent with the heatsink and your cpu fries, AMD covers your entire loss under warranty.
[Edit #2:]...To answer your original post, no, you do not need to reapply anything because there is no thermal paste on the heatsink. It's a ceramic pad. ....it SHOULD be fine by simply reseating the heatsink over top of the processor. But, if you have any serious doubts (obviously, you have your heatsink and cpu at hand....you might be able to see something that can't be explained in here) ...I would definitely call AMD's technical support for assistance. ...Probably shoulda called them first anyway (...unless they were closed)

 

[taco1435]

well i alrdy have tried overclocking this processor on another motherboard, and plan to overclock it on this. So my warranty is alrdy void. My question now is how do i clean it/apply the paste?

 

[Alaric360]

...If you're overclocking, you're probably going to want to get an aftermarket heatsink. The PIB heatsink has specific heat-dissipating capabilities and AMD isn't going to send you an awesome heatsink to take care of heat that your processor isn't supposed to be generating anyway. (Important to note...some people assume that if you don't say it, then you don't know it) ....anyway, obviously, the processor being a tooled part, it is manufactured within tolerances. The heatsink that AMD provides is capable of working within those tolerances, so if you're only mildly overclocking, the heatsink *MIGHT* be able to work. But, if you're trying a major overclock, the first thing I would suggest is that you either put that heatsink up on ebay or just scrap it. It's not going to do you any good.

 

[taco1435]

i did some research on this, and the heatsink that comes with the opteron is pretty good, i forgot where the review was, but they tested it against a zalman. This is what convinced me to buy the opteron over the X2.

But how do I clean/ apply the paste ??

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Artic Silver has instructions on thier site.

If you want AMD approved pads, buy Shin-Etsu pads from http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/
Pads are easyer to work with but paste *might* give another 3C drop.


...Galvanized

 

[taco1435]

http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=399 this is the review Alaric

 

[Alaric360]

thanks for the link. ......HOLY SHITE!!!! Had no idea AMD had started packing that kind of a monster with their PIBs. ...Yeah, ignore my previous posts about getting rid of your heatsink lol. ...Just follow the stripping and applying instructions that Arctic Silver has on its website and you should be good to go.

 

[ding5550123]

you need to replace the paste whenever u remove the HSF

 

[Childs]

You can use 99% isopropyl alchohol to clean the surfaces, common in any drug store for $2 or less.